Ten years ago, it was easy to be blissfully unfamiliar with CBD. Yet, Gary Smith and Justin Roberts foresaw the value the commodity would hold with CBD stores popping up nationwide, in Los Angeles, Oklahoma City, Austin, New York City, and decided to open shop downtown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Celestial Wellness located on Trade Street has flourished into a business that partners with local farms and businesses to create organic products that include cannabinoids such as CBD, CBG, CBN as well as Delta 8, edibles, and topicals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Currently, there are no FDA-approved products that contain CBD. Yet, there are companies and firms that market CBD products as a medical benefit even though it is an unregulated industry. That being said, it\u2019s difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when CBD, the voguish cannabis derivative, became a household name, with its proponents claiming<\/em> amelioration for ailments as diverse as pain, acne, inflammation, schizophrenia, depression, post-traumatic stress and even cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cannabidiol, better known as CBD, is a chemical compound ultimately found in the cannabis sativa plant. CBD is a key component of medical marijuana. It comes directly from the hemp plant, a cousin of marijuana, or it is manufactured in a laboratory. According to Harvard Medical School, CBD is non-hallucinatory and does not produce a \u201chigh,\u201d unlike marijuana. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cannabis, including CBD, one of the fastest growing industries in the United States, is expected to expand 20-30% per year to the price of 50 billion by 2026, according to research conducted by Cowen and Company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Roberts and Smith said that their customers tell them that their doctors have urged them to try CBD products. \u201cI struggle with a regulated sleep cycle as well as anxiety, so I started taking CBN, a nighttime tincture, that has comprehensively altered the state of my being,\u201d said Madison Rosenthal, a frequent customer at Celestial Wellness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Often, the general public finds the distinction between hemp and marijuana to be ambiguous. Jeff Finkle, the Chief Executive Officer of The Arcview Group, an integrated financial service and asset management firm that serves the cannabis, industrial hemp, and psychedelic sectors, said that the difference comes down to the psychedelic ingredient: tetrahydrocannabinol, more widely known as THC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey are both varieties of cannabis but with extremely different legal statuses, uses, and benefits. The quantity of delta-9 THC is the key distinction,\u201d said Finkle. Hemp has less than 0.3% THC per federal regulations. Hence, hemp is a legalized product. If a product carries more than 0.3% THC, it\u2019s classified as marijuana, which is federally illegal. Although marijuana is illegal on a federal level, there are 18 states including Arizona and California that have fully legalized marijuana. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Co-owners Smith and Roberts recounted a precarious period in 2016 when they \u201cgrew 200 plants which didn\u2019t go well given our limited horticultural knowledge\u201d and sold smokable hemp flowers out of their homes. In 2015, North Carolina began a pilot program to encourage 1,500 farmers to grow hemp, which prompted Smith and Roberts to turn their home hobby into a business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until 2018, when the Farm Bill was passed that the business really took off. By then, we needed a store front because we were selling so much of our products to stores in that area,\u201d said Roberts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Farm Bill streamlined the landscape of cannabis trade by removing hemp from the definition of marijuana which made it an ordinary agricultural commodity. The bill gave farmers and ranchers a greater degree of support and stability that concerned granting more subsidies, enhancing trade opportunities, and introducing programs involving crop insurance and access to water rights that hemp farmers were historically excluded from. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When the business initially opened in Winston-Salem in September 2018, it was the only location that sold Gary and Robert\u2019s CBD products. Now, their goods are sold through dispensaries in five states all over the southeast including South Carolina and West Virginia with a wide and diverse customer base \u201cranging from their early 20s to early 80s\u201d said Smith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With over 100 cannabinoids identified, Smith and Roberts believe that CBD truly does have numerous applications. \u201cCBD is a cancer fighter, but we can\u2019t put it into our literature given that it is unlawful to make health claims. That\u2019s just what our customers are discovering,\u201d said Roberts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Roberts and Smith believe that the future of the cannabis industry is fluid. \u201cThe Farm Bill of 2023 will most likely clarify and institute a number of regulations that will function as a clear indication of where things are headed,\u201d said Roberts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Celestial Wellness owners support the regulatory nature of the CBD industry as well as the eventual legalization of marijuana. \u201cWe must push for companies who are strict and rule-abiding to be weeded out. It would be ideal for a consolidation in business to transpire,\u201d Smith said. \u201cCelestial Hemp has grown to become a regional knowledge center for the hemp industry, and will continue to evolve as the cannabis industry approaches full legalization one state at a time.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ten years ago, it was easy to be blissfully unfamiliar with CBD. 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