Colorado cannabis specialist branching out into CBD-only products
Boulder-based Wana Brands has been producing what the brand says has been ranked by data tracking firm BDS Analytics as the best-selling line of cannabis edibles nationally. The company focuses on gummy and vape delivery modes.
Experience in gummies
In the gummy line the company offers specific THC to CBD ratios to serve different consumer segments. While that has been successful, with the brand now selling in nine states, it saw that with the rapidly developing regulatory framework, the time had come to divorce the two molecules with a new line of products.
“We are in the process of manufacturing our first CBD only line,” said marketing director Julia Bright.
“We have a new facility in Longmont (not far from Boulder) that is completely separate from our facility in Boulder,” she said.
Bright said Wana’s experience with the gummy delivery format will stand it in good stead as it pursues the new opportunity.
“Making gummies is our speciality on the THC side, and we think that will translate well to the CBD-only side,” she said.
Bright said the new line will be branded as Wana Wellness and will debut in mid September.
The new products will be billed as containing a full spectrum hemp extract, which the company says will deliver 20 mg of CBD per serving. This dosage level seems to be one that the industry is coalescing around as an upper dosage for a CBD products marketed as a dietary supplements.
Shakeout based on quality
Bright said that while the CBD space is becoming increasingly crowded, her company believes there will be a shakeout. As consumers become more familiar with the products and as they start to share stories among themselves, lower quality players will tend naturally to fall by the wayside.
“There are a lot of fly by night operators out there who see a financial opportunity and they jump into this without knowing anything about the plant. Some of these products that have been tested have absolutely no CBD in them. Or they could be buying hemp plants from China where they have been spraying pesticides on them,” she said.
“Wana Brands started in 2010 and we have been testing for contaminants like pesticides since day one. We know all the best growers of these plants, and we know how to evaluate the quality of those plants,” Bright added.
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