It all seems like a forgotten era now, but hemp and CBD had a real moment in the late 2010s. There was a time when Colorado owned this booming new trade, thanks to the cannabis laws of the state, with hemp growers and CBD extractors even buying and replacing marijuana brands for a short period of time. Then it hit rock bottom.
The public began moving away from hemp-derived CBD products in 2020, and the industry has not recovered since the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of that was bad luck, but much of the downfall came from within, according to former hemp farmer Floyd Wooderson. A worker in Colorado’s hemp and CBD during its rise and fall, Wooderson documented his experiences with the “dark side” of CBD in his new book, Wolves of Hemp Street.
We caught up with Wooderson to learn more about his account, now available online, of shady actors and snake oil salesmen in Colorado hemp.
Westword: How do you think the public views CBD? Did that influence your motivation to write the book?
Floyd Wooderson: I think the general public sees CBD as a wonderful treatment for a number of ailments. I totally agree as it has helped me a lot. In this sense, this book was written to entertain, but also to educate [people] about the CBD industry and the cutthroat world it was and still is.
Write about a “dark side” of the CBD space in your book. Can you tell us more about what this is or give us some examples?
Ah yes, the “dark side” of CBD. See, many CBD and hemp books just talk about “the wonderful things CBD can treat” or how “hemp can save the world.” Not that I disagree with these statements; I do it a lot. But no one, to my knowledge, has written about the shadow behind the hemp fever of 2018-2021. During my time on the hemp farm, I had to deal with dozens of companies, individuals and business practices shady that they were all in it for the money. They didn’t care if they completely screwed over people like farmers, consumers, and the rest by giving them bad seeds or “snake oil” CBD tinctures, just to name two examples.
Tired of the CBD space?
yes and no I love the plant. I love the product. I loved the excitement behind it. But in the words of South Park’s Randy Marsh, “They don’t have any ‘tegridy.'” Like I mentioned before, there were shady people with no integrity. I didn’t like that. Was I wrong? Sure. Absolutely. But it was out there. encouraging people on purpose? Absolutely not. If there’s one part of the industry that pisses me off, it’s the really bad people. But don’t get me wrong, there are absolutely wonderful people in the space! They keep serving, innovating, and improving the industry
In your experiences, how many people in the CBD industry cared about or believed in CBD?
good question It also relates to the previous question. I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and say that 75 percent of the people who are in it now are in it for the right reasons and really believe in the product. A couple of years ago, during the boom, it might have been closer to fifty-fifty.
When did the “Green Rush” end in Colorado? How does the CBD space look now compared to when you entered in 2018?
I think the Green Rush ended with the start of the pandemic. It started with the lack of infrastructure. There were too many bottlenecks in the industry. For example, there were not enough extractors to extract the overwhelming supply of hemp grown in 2019. This absolutely crashed the market, and COVID was the unwanted cherry.
The space is much smaller today. I don’t know the exact numbers, but at one point I think there were about 500,000 acres of CBD hemp grown in the U.S. Now it’s probably less than 100,000.
What impact did Delta-8 THC and other intoxicating products made with hemp-derived cannabinoids have on CBD?
I left when Delta-8 was starting to become a buzzword, but I think it was just the newest thing. In my opinion, people were always trying to move on to the next best thing: CBC, CBG, CBN, Delta-8, etc. The CBD industry wasn’t quite established when people started going forward. I think we need to go back to it as I see it has even more potential.
Do you see any parallels between CBD and the current mushroom boom that Colorado is going through?
I see some parallels between CBD and the popular new mushroom boom. Although I’m not very knowledgeable about the psychedelic side, I’ve taken reishi and lion’s mane before, and it really does work wonders. But with Denver leading the way with the decriminalization of psilocybin and other states and cities following suit, it makes you wonder if this is going to be another boom and bust or not. As the saying goes, “history may not always repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”
After all your experiences, what do you think about CBD? Where does it fit into our lives and daily use of cannabis supplements or products?
After all my experiences, I still love CBD. I take it almost every day, but I always make sure to check the product or get it from a reliable source that I already know. Because if you have the real stuff, it really works. I’m afraid those who say “never heard anything” probably didn’t have the real thing.
