CBD: Wisconsin’s New Plant-Powered Health and Wellness Industry

Natural light seeps through the large, plant-filled display windows of Canni (pronounced “Can-I”) Hemp Co., a new CBD-based health and wellness boutique in Walker’s Point. Inside the boutique, the sunlight reflects off neutral-colored walls adorned with more plants and bright, chic furniture giving the front room a warm glow.

A large white table stands as the store’s front centerpiece, displaying products such as CBD-infused bath bombs and gift sets. On one side of the front room, a wood-paneled wall is aligned with black shelves stocked with CBD oil tinctures displays. On the opposite wall, a chalkboard sign displays “Beauty and Wellness” products in a large, wooden display framed with white string lights.

Throughout the remainder of the store, baskets full of various edibles, shelves lined with pet tinctures and treats, and product testers are all on display, and all infused with CBD. Canni Hemp Co. is just one of the many businesses that have began to pop up throughout the state after CBD was legalized in 2018.

The CBD industry is a new wave in alternative medicine. Although it’s an up-and-coming industry in Wisconsin, the CBD powers from the cannabis plant have been long used, as early as the 19^th century. Combining the new-age scientific extraction process of CBD oil and the age-old practice of farming, a new era of CBD oil has re-emerged, and it’s booming.

“There’s so much to learn, so much to do. And everywhere we go it’s so important that people we talk to understand it and know it really really well, because a wave is coming, and this wave is huge,” said Brian Clark, co-founder of Apex Hemp Oil, a USDA certified organic hemp extractor.

Will Allen, an organic hemp farmer is the creator of “Will Allen’s Beyond Organic” CBD products, and the founder of Growing Power, a non-profit based in Milwaukee. He is one of many farmers to take part in the Industrial Hemp Pilot Program, which is overseen by the Wisconsin
Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.

According to the department website, Wisconsin’s Industrial Hemp Research Pilot Program requires growers and processers to obtain one-time licenses and register each year that they intend to plant or process industrial hemp. According to the Wisconsin State Legislature, the legal concentration of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, contained in industrial hemp must be no more than 0.3 percent.

A release from the DATCP shows the dramatic increase of applicants in the program. Nearly 2,100 individuals or businesses applied to the pilot program in 2019, a spike from the 347 licenses issued in 2018.

 “It’s a growing industry,” said Allen.

News of CBD is travelling fast. According to CBD market research done by cannabis industry analysts, Brightfield Group, CBD is growing faster than the cannabis market in the United States. Its research predicts that the CBD market is predicted to escalate to a 22-billion-dollar industry by 2022.

Allen recently hosted the discussion panel, “All About CBD,” at Lakefront Brewery, which discussed the CBD plant, it’s properties and it’s potential.

CBD, or cannibidiol, is just one of many cannabinoids, which are chemical compounds, that occur naturally in the human body and in cannabis plants. The most commonly known cannabinoid is THC, or tetrahydrocannabidiol, for its psychoactive qualities. THC is more commonly known as its street name, “pot” or marijuana. JT Taylor, retired MMA fighter and co-founder of Apex Hemp Oil and one of the panel’s experts, says we’re far from figuring this plant out and that it’s not even close to releasing its secrets to us.

“There’s a bunch of cannabinoids in the plant, so it’s not just CBD and it’s not just THC. There’s 114 that are listed, and they’re finding new cannabinoids every single day,” said Taylor. “We have a special connection with this plant that I don’t think even we understand.”

CBD as a Natural Healer 

CBD oil treatment is beginning to be introduced into medical practices and health facilities. Dr. James Watson, one of the panel’s experts is a well-known psychiatrist and the founder of Milwaukee’s American Behavioral Clinic. Watson has been practicing psychiatry for 33 years and has recently begun to implement CBD-based treatments with his patients.

Some of the disorders that Watson uses CBD oil as a form of treatment include: anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, chronic pain, fibromyalgia, and Lyme disease.

“People with Lyme disease with CNS [central nervous system] problems where they couldn’t get their thoughts together. The Lyme disease improved a great deal when the patient uses the CBD oil,” said Watson.

Jennifer Reeves, a certified nurse practitioner, was also present at the panel. Reeves works with Watson and began to introduce patients to CBD last summer.

“We had a patient that was on a cocktail of different medications and her anxiety prevented her from getting out of her house, and she tried all these other medications and nothing was working for her,” said Reeves. “Then, she tried CBD and within a week she was able to leave her house. She was able to go see her son’s wrestling meet and go out and function.”

The secret connection humans have with CBD seems to lie within our endocannabinoid system, which was discovered in the early 90’s. The healing power of CBD reacts with our endocannabinoid system to trigger various physiological reactions.

“All mammals have a natural endocannabinoid system, and we actually have receptors in our brain and our spinal cord and our periphery that bind to CBD,” said Reeves. “So I use it a lot with chronic pain patients, it works phenomenal for that.”

“The mechanism is not clearly known yet, but we’re seeing a lot of great advancements and great improvements with these disorders,” said Watson.

A Google Scholar search of “CBD” shows that Watson is not alone in his experimentation of CBD-based treatments. The search results display over 3,700 articles that have been published in 2019 with emerging research data around the science of CBD and its healing capabilities.

The Brightfield Group blog described CBD as the next healthcare phenomenon. The post writes that “it is effective for so many conditions, is natural, non-psychoactive, and has no known serious side effects.”

CBD from the Source

“It’s all about the soil. When you’re growing stuff, it’s all about the soil,” said Allen. Allen uses worms and compost to grow his own soil here in Milwaukee, which is completely organic.

Because the CBD industry is still new and largely unregulated, Allen stresses the importance of knowing the source of your product. He uses the example of a phytoremediation plant.

“Whatever it takes up, where it’s grown, if you’ve got potential chemicals it’s going to be put in the plant. And if you take that plant and turn it into oil and ingest it, that’s what you’re ingesting,” said Allen.

In the new, scientific process of hemp oil extraction, it all goes back to the farm-based source. Taylor also pointed to the importance of soil.

“If you start with toxins in your soil, you’re going to end up with toxins inside your body. That’s why it’s really important to know your farmer and know your food,” said Taylor.

Apex Hemp Oil was founded in 2018 by partners Taylor, Brian Clark, and 1996 Olympic Gold Medalist gymnast, Andreas Wecker. Apex is one of the very few organic extractors in the nation that is 100 percent UDSA certified organic. Using their patented cold press, their website states that they developed and produced the world’s first 100 percent cold-pressed CBD oil, free of heat, solvents, or carbon dioxide.

Taylor said Apex also displays all its lab reports and certifications from third-party testing results to ensure the customers consumer confidence.

“This is so you know where your food [product] is coming from, you know what’s on your plate,” said Taylor.

During Allen’s expert panel, Clark said what makes Apex different from other CBD companies, is their vision.

“Our vision is food. It’s food ingredients, it’s nutrients. It’s healing. Our food is our healing product,” said Clark. “What we do different is we put seeds in our press. Which gives us our protein, our omegas, all the trace amounts of things people forget about in CBD.” 

Companies like Apex look to join forces with other companies they view as visionary, such as Allen’s Growing Power to create a completely natural healing product.

Wisconsin Hemp Scientific, a Wisconsin-based facility located in Sussex, is another facility that creates organic hemp oil extract. WI Hemp uses the cold press to extract their own CBD oil using their custom ethanol extracting process. This process extracts all of the cannabinoids and terpenes from the plant. Terpenes are organic hydrocarbons found in the essential oil of the plant that give the plant its aroma.

“We do all of our extraction in-house, which is unique to Wisconsin as far as I know,” said Dennis Mistrioty, one of WI Hemp’s three co-founders. “We source the flower from Wisconsin farms, do the extraction here, pull all the cannabinoids out, and then formulate, bottle, label, and ship out of this facility.”

In addition to extraction, the facility has a testing unit, where they use their HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) testing machine to test the cannabinoid potency of oils, flowers, or any other products. This service is mostly utilized by farmers who send in hemp flower samples, especially during the grow season to test their CBD, THC, and other cannabinoid levels.

“They’ll send in a sample every couple of weeks and CBD matures in plant before THC, so what happens is we’ll be plotting their CBD levels as their plant continues to rise,” said Mistrioty. “As soon as we see those THC levels start to rise a little bit too, they’ll know to call the Department of Agriculture.”

Once the farmer’s plant is certified as “fit for commerce” by the DATCP, the hemp is harvested. It’s important that the plant is harvested before the THC levels cross the legal limit of 0.3 percent.

“If you let your plant keep growing without harvesting it at a certain time,” said Mistrioty, “it runs the risk of what they call “going hot,” which means legally turning into marijuana.

WI Hemp also sends their products to be third party lab tested, like at Apex Hemp Oil, to ensure a safe, effective product before beginning the formulation process. WI Hemp Scientific products include: CBD tinctures, pet oil, topical roll-on, body balm, and lotion. Once the packaging is finished, the CBD products are officially ready to be shipped to CBD retailers.

CBD for Consumers

The Wisconsin State Legislature passing the legalization of industrial hemp has not only influenced the start up of hemp farms and CBD processing facilities, but also led to the opening of a number of CBD retailers throughout the state.

Canni Hemp Co. is among these new businesses, specializing in hemp and CBD-related products including: bath bombs, oils, lotions, edibles, lip balms, and much more.

Canni’s website states that each CBD product is naturally effective, and hand-selected because they represent the best in the industry at affordable prices, or are chosen through tried-and-true experiences.

“Everything we have in this store here is completely natural,” said Laura Morro, the boutique’s manager. “But you will have unethical companies that will possibly add synthetic ingredients and it’s not regulated.”

For a first-time CBD consumer, Morro discusses the importance of doing research before consuming CBD products.

“Knowing what you’re taking, how to take it, and the quality of what you’re taking is the most important thing,” said Morro. “Do your research and make sure you’re getting this stuff from a reputable source.”

As the industry is still emerging and research discoveries are still being made, misconceptions are often made about the effects of CBD.

“People are still under the misconception that this [CBD] can get you high or that it’s drugs and that’s really not the case,” said Morro. “We really try to focus on partnering with others in the community that are like-minded about alternative medicine and holistic health. It’s an exciting thing to be able to introduce to people.”

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