EDITOR’S NOTE: On March 10, NJ Cannabis Insider hosts its first semi-annual, daylong industry conference, featuring leaders in the medical marijuana, hemp and legal cannabis industries. Tickets are now on sale.
You’ve seen it at yoga studios, holistic stores and even gas stations. So what’s next for the burgeoning CBD market in 2020?
Industry insiders will talk the latest in CBD, hemp, legal and medical marijuana at the NJ Cannabis Insider all-day event March 10 at the New Jersey Conference and Expo Center in Edison.
The event, which starts at 10:30 a.m. and features a full day of programming, panel discussions, networking and lunch, also includes panels focused on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and a lunch and learn focused on insurance in the cannabis industry.
When derived from industrial hemp legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill, CBD is legal. Unlike marijuana, hemp’s cannabis cousin, it will not make a user feel high.
While the sudden legalization of hemp and CBD ushered in a market expansion forecast to reach $20 billion by 2024, it also left operators with more questions than answers. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has green lit only one prescription drug made with the compound to treat severe epilepsy.
The agency has also cracked down on companies making unfounded health claims by advertising CBD as a cure for cancer and other ailments, as well as a few that have sold CBD in food and drink items. While federal officials say they do not know how safe CBD is, they have yet to build the regulatory structure needed to oversee the industry.
From business owners to attorneys, many say the rules are welcomed.
“Everyone is looking forward to that because the industry needs that clarity,” said Dan McKillop, an attorney for Scarinci Hollenbeck who will speak at NJ Cannabis Insider’s event. “It’s a bit like the Wild West.”
In the interim, there’s still opportunities to get in on the CBD business.
“I would say there is no absolute safe path, only because we are operating in an unregulated industry. But there are some things that you can do,” McKillop told NJ Cannabis Insider.
That includes knowing where CBD in a product comes from, and sifting through the glut of providers to buy from the safest, most trust-worthy operators who are following existing regulations.
“It’s really a due diligence exercise on the front end,” he said. „And then on the back end, you want to make sure that you aren’t crossing that line of making unfounded claims.”
Ken VandeVrede, of Hillview Med and Amanda Terpstra of CBD company BestBüds, will speak alongside McKillop at the March 10 event.
The NJ Cannabis Insider Live Event: Road to Legalization is brought to you by Curaleaf, Supreme Security Systems, Ansell, Grimm & Aaron, Archer Law, Genova Burns, Capehart Scatchard, 1906, John Morgan McLachlan Agency, Hardenbergh Insurance Group, Panacea Payroll and Vicente Sederberg.
Tickets to the March 10 event are available here.
NJ Cannabis Insider is a weekly subscriber-based newsletter produced by NJ Advance Media, which also publishes NJ.com, The Star-Ledger and other affiliated papers.