It’s much easier to claim a product is consistent than to produce a product that is consistent, especially when you’re talking about plant-derived compounds like CBD. The story of cannabis today is the evolution from never knowing what you’re going to get to the expectation of having the same experience every time. It’s what distinguishes a logo from a brand. JS: Professionally, my passion is consistency. Thanks to her, shelter-in-place has been surprisingly delicious. I think in a year or two we’ll be ready to attempt my mom’s brisket, but for now we shy away from the more complicated recipes. Fortunately, we work with a lot of great cooks who are happy to share recipes and advice. Since my wife and I had our son and moved into a house, we’ve been learning how to cook. My mom is a great cook, but it never really took for me. Our Ripple Relief QuickStick is mint chocolate flavored, and every time I try it, I’m transported back to her couch. WB: What is your favorite food memory from your youth? Do you cook? Have you ever cooked a grandparent’s recipe? If yes, what was it? JS: My grandmother worked at Hudson’s when I was growing up, and she used to shower me with the Frango mint chocolates she sold there. We’ve done it before though, and I’m confident we can do it again. It’s difficult to find extracts that meet our quality standards in nascent markets, so we need to do some work to figure that out. The obstacles are mostly bureaucratic, but supply chains are also a consideration. On the Stillwater Brands side, we’d like to open a second state this year - most likely Massachusetts, Illinois, or Michigan. CBD needs more science and less charlatanism, but that won’t change until there is regulation. CBD doesn’t cure cancer, and when ingested won’t absorb into your bloodstream any faster than water. We’d also like to see the market emerge from today’s “anything goes” dynamic where people claim all sorts of crazy things about their products. Major retailers aren’t comfortable investing in a product that the FDA could decide to pull at any time. Our twelve-month goal is to get our CBD products onto mass-market retail shelves beyond natural grocers, which depends on federal regulation. Institutional momentum is a hell of a drug, but we’re optimistic it can be beaten. Not least of all, it will generate much-needed tax revenue for local governments. It ensures a level playing field for all market participants and protects consumers. It helps the entire process chain from farmers, manufacturers, retailers, to consumers. CBD regulation is the rare issue that is wholly bipartisan, not to mention good for consumers and manufacturers alike. Therefore, we’re working hard at the state and federal levels to put regulation in place, and we hope to see a lot of movement in the next six months. They have a statutory duty to ensure the public health, and yet their approach to CBD so far has been to bury their head in the sand. Hemp prohibition is over, and it’s long past time for the FDA to get onboard with that. Today, almost 20 million Americans consume CBD products daily, and not one of those products is made with oversight for food safety, quality control, or claims substantiation. It’s been almost seventeen months since the 2018 Farm Bill legalized the production of hemp-derived CBD. Regulatory uncertainty has been a cancer on CBD from the start. JS: Our six-month goal is to get federal regulation and oversight for non-drug CBD products. WB: What are your six and twelve-month goals? What markets do you want to open? What obstacles stand in your way? How do you anticipate removing them? Until the FDA accepts responsibility for regulating CBD products as foods or supplements and holds manufacturers liable for following GMPs and substantiating claims, consumers will remain at risk. Our facility is registered with the FDA, but consumers shouldn’t take that as proof of anything meaningful. We’ve invested heavily in food safety, quality control, and label accuracy from the start, despite the FDA’s refusal to exercise oversight of the space, and we continue to spend significantly on clinical research with public universities to substantiate our pharmacokinetic claims (e.g., absorption rate). Our company is staffed with food scientists and manufacturing experts culled from some of the nation’s leading CPG brands, companies like M&M/Mars, Danone, WhiteWave, Church & Dwight. Uniquely in this sector, we're a food company first, and a cannabis company second. We believe cannabinoids represent a new category of functional ingredients, and that has informed our approach from the beginning. As a company, we distinguish ourselves through our perspective.
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