Chattanoogan Kelly Brock recalls that she started a business in 2017 with her sister-in-law, Betsy Scanlan, and David Nicholson with between $ 1 and $ 2 million in start-up money.
Brock says the business, The Good Patch, grew 100 percent a year from 2019 to 2021 and also finished its “A” round of investment last year. He says Good Patch products (topical patches infused with plant-based ingredients and CBD (cannabidiol)) can now be found in Ulta, Target and, since last month, more than 4,000 CVS stores nationwide.
“We started shipping products from my little basement,” Scanlan says. “We now have a team in California, a department store in Jasper, Georgia, and between 25 and 30 employees.
“The other day we were all three talking and we said, ‘Can you believe that?’ It’s a dream, “he said.
A dream for the company’s founders, perhaps, but not a surprise to Dr. Frank Butler, a professor of management at the Frank W. McDonald / UC Foundation at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga.
“In 2014, CBD product sales nationwide were $ 108 million,” Butler says, citing figures published in the Hemp Business Journal. “In 2021, sales of CBD products were $ 1.6 billion.
“This is growth in the technology sector,” he adds. “Incredible and amazing growth.”
This growth was largely stimulated by the Federal Agricultural Law Act, signed in December 2018 by then-President Donald Trump. The bill transferred the government of the hemp industry and the CBD to the Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Before the Farm Bill became law, the CBD was under the Federal Controlled Substances and Drug Enforcement Agency Act.
A Google search for CBD retailers in the Chattanooga area found more than 30 locations. Grass Roots Health, which opened in 2017, is believed to be the first CBD retailer in Chattanooga.
According to WebMD.com, CBD and THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) are found in both marijuana and hemp. Marijuana contains a much higher concentration of THC, which gives users of this drug a “high.” In contrast, hemp contains much more CBD. Although the FDA has so far only approved one CBD-containing drug, Epidiolex, for epilepsy, proponents say CBD effectively treats a wide range of conditions.
Holly Hackler is one of those advocates. A trained paramedic, she now owns and directs Scenic City Hemp Co. in Copperhill, Tennessee, and Ocoee Botanicals, near Cleveland, Tennessee. Both stores store CBD products, among other offerings.
“A lot of the problems we have with our bodies start with inflammation and CBD is a natural anti-inflammatory,” he says. “I struggled for a long time with back problems and my sleep schedule. I ate so much of Advil and it hurt my stomach.
Picture of Sunny Montgomery / Holly Hackler works at Ocoee Botanicals near Cleveland, Tennessee.
“I’ve always been a supporter of cannabis, so when the Farm Bill [became law]I gave [CBD] it’s a whirlwind. It was a game changer for me, “he added.
Hackler says his business is just as healthy. Scenic City Hemp grew 40 percent from year one to year two, despite the global pandemic.
“Those first six months, we went out and traded in advanced rafting sites and we were pretty busy from the start,” he says. “Then the pandemic passed; I thought, ‘What have I done?’ but we picked it up in the parking lot and got over it.
“Most companies lose money in the first five years, but we’re paying our bills and we’re on track to grow again this year. So far, so good,” Hackler says.
Apparently, the same is true of the entire CBD-related industry, as the Business News Daily projected in April that sales in this sector are expected to reach $ 20 billion by 2024. then it fades away, but “that doesn’t look like it.”
“That looks like it’s going to be long-term,” he says. “People see value in it, there are a lot of different beliefs about what [CBD] it can do, and right now it’s just a growing industry, not much [regulatory] controls and counterweights “.
Butler believes that as more research is done on CBD-related products, the result will be more state and federal regulation. John Kerns, co-founder and CEO of Chattanooga-based New Bloom Labs, says the future of the industry in this context “comes down to sensible public policy.”
“We can’t rule out the role, the importance of federal leadership here,” says Kerns, whose company provides chemical analysis of cannabis and cannabis products for quality control and legal compliance purposes.
Kerns adds that, in a broader sense, the potential of the hemp industry is far from being realized.
“We are beginning to see some stability in cannabinoid prices [such as CBD]”This specific part of the hemp market is beginning to be properly sized, but the general promise of what a national hemp program could look like? We haven’t even begun to realize how that could be.
“Whether it’s the demand for textile applications or building materials applications, all of this is still in the creative phase,” says Kerns. “We have just started R&D across the industry [research and development] process “.
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* Root: Hemp farmers say the business is growing again after a rocky patch
