The Evolution of Cannabis in Global Supply Chains

Every time you search online or visit a store, you find new ways to relate to cannabis-derived products. This industry extends beyond supplements and pharmaceuticals. It’s involved in our daily activities in a way that we couldn’t think of. Nowadays, you can find that hemp or industrial cannabis is everywhere, from clothing to bioplastics used in technological products, and even inside a car.

This modern availability of cannabis-derived products is a direct result of a significant societal change that began decades ago. Still, the real impact of these changes couldn’t be perceived until a decade ago, when activists, patients, and parents fought a relentless war against the status quo to show the real impact of non-psychoactive cannabinoids on their loved ones' lives, making it possible to engage with regulators and government to generate new laws that opened the door to the availability of safe and efficient cannabis-derived products in most countries, while helping people with medical conditions to find ease and comfort despite their illnesses and improve their lives.

This is the living proof that cannabis is an industry that keeps transforming, starting from the early inhabitants of the planet who learned that these plants could be a nourishment source, without understanding how the stems of these plants provided fiber to their diets. Their seeds would become a massive source of protein. At the same time, they also provided a new way to connect with their beliefs. However, the evolution of humankind led to the discovery of how to utilize these plants as tools and textiles, some of which have persisted to this day, now used in hemp clothing or as fibers for automotive inner linings.

The cannabis industry evolved and turned into an underrated tool to conquer the world, as its fibers were used for ropes and sails, by both conquerors and pirates, and if we go on another couple of hundred years we can see how societal transformation led to the widespread conception of cannabis for recreational purposes in the decades of 1960 and 1970. But the fundamental changes, the ones that allowed us to engage with cannabis more profoundly in our daily activities, started just a decade ago, when humankind took all the scientific evidence to show the world how one compound of these plants could be turned into the cornerstone to boost the societal change that led to the regularization of cannabis-derived products, which became the starting point that allowed CBD to be everywhere.

In recent times, there has been growth in the offerings of cannabis-derived products, where almost everywhere we can access a CBD product. However, there is still a lot of misinformation about the benefits of this compound in our daily lives. CBD has become the compound that people incorporate into their daily routines, even while drinking their morning coffee, and this is where the new transformation of the industry is taking place.

The future of the hemp industry is promising, but it relies on its own ability to face a dual strategy of consumer education and integration into global supply chains. The volatility of the cannabinoid market has made it clear that growers cannot survive by relying solely on CBD. There is an increasing need for growers to connect with further supply chains, not only relying on cannabinoid extraction, but also becoming an inherent part of the textiles, automotive, and technology industries, where the whole plant constitutes valuable assets.

The consumer education strategy targets the same goal, making companies and consumers understand that these plants contain hundreds of compounds or cannabinoids. Therefore, introducing non-psychoactive cannabinoids like cannabigerol and cannabinol is the most profound evolution that the industry will face. For decades, the industry has battled to present how the entourage effect between CBD and THC improves the benefits of cannabis. This was also the strategy used to recognize psychoactive compounds and open the door for those cannabinoids to enter the legal space, although the effort initially fell short due to the taboos that surround the recreational uses of cannabis. Still, it remains the most vital tool for providing education about the scientific evidence on several isolated cannabinoids and then using this same strategy to introduce other non-psychoactive cannabinoids to the market, while increasing societal openness and improving market performance.

A quick example of this is that, although the CBG market is in its early stages and is often overlooked by companies and consumers, it has experienced vibrant growth, which will likely turn this cannabinoid into the next generation compound that the industry should follow, with its astounding 105% CAGR.

Our main goal is to continue building upon the foundations of the industry, acknowledging that this is one of the most vibrant and evolving industries in the world. Our fundamentals have always included the openness to collaborate with government officials, scientists, and society to build foundational points for education and a larger scale supply chain for other industries. But now, we need to step beyond that and understand that the industry needs to become a more holistic and educated market, and that requires the use of new isolated cannabinoids, such as cannabigerol and cannabinol. This is needed as proof that the industry will continue growing and evolving. It is also our unwavering commitment to provide a world where people can make informed decisions about taking advantage of isolated cannabinoids or products that provide several cannabinoids all at once, making sure that entourage effect is understood and not used as a tool to leverage recreational products into the market.