Cannabis company Harvest Health & Recreation Inc. (Harvest) announced a multi-million-dollar partnership, which will roll out to the Asian American Trade Associations Council (AATAC) retailer network, bringing CBD product lines to more than 10,000 retail stores, including convenience stores and gas stations across the country. Tempe, Ariz.-based Harvest is a multi-state cannabis operator (MSO) and vertically-integrated cannabis company. Since…
Legal Cannabis Set to Disrupt Consumer Goods
Cannabis is poised to disrupt virtually every consumer industry. Euromonitor International’s report, “Here Comes Cannabis: How Legalisation Will Disrupt Global Industries” predicts that some form of cannabis will be a part of consumers’ daily routines within the next decade, either as a functional ingredient in foods, beverages and beauty or as a wellness mood enhancer…
Lighters Lead the Pack
When it comes to tobacco accessories, what’s the first thing that clicks in your head? If you said lighters, you’re not alone. Colorful lighters at a value price point are notorious for enticing customers to make last-second impulse purchases at the front counter. Lighters still compose the bulk of accessories sales at most c-stores, but…
FDA Holds CBD Hearing
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held its first hearing on CBD products May 31. No decisions are expected yet, but the hearing is seen as an important step toward clarifying regulations surrounding CBD products. Hemp-derived CBD is said to help with anxiety and insomnia, among other issues. Unlike marijuana, it doesn’t doesn’t contain…
Ben & Jerry’s Plans to Sell CBD Ice Cream
Ben & Jerry’s said it will sell CBD-infused ice cream “as soon as it’s legalized at the federal level.” Currently, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) prohibits adding CBD to food and beverages. Ben & Jerry’s said it submitted a comment to the FDA in support of legalization — and encouraged others to submit during the FDA’s…
Vape in FDA Crosshairs
It’s been three months since outgoing U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced draft guidance for flavored tobacco products, noting, “We expect that some flavored e-cigarette products will no longer be sold at all. We expect that other flavored e-cigarette products that continue to be sold will be sold only in a…
Smokeless Sees Opportunity
While smokeless tobacco like moist snuff and spitless snus are but a tiny fraction of tobacco sales, a number of health, regulatory and market forces could be lining up to give smokeless a boost. According to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Smokeless Tobacco Report for 2016, the five major U.S. smokeless tobacco manufacturers spent $759.3…
Super-Premium Cigarettes
The consumer products division of U.S. Tobacco Cooperative Inc. (USTC), Premier Manufacturing is introducing a new entry in the super-premium cigarette category with the launch of Manitou. Manitou is a super-premium cigarette that only contains water and tobacco. 100% of the tobacco is flue-cured tobacco grown in the southeastern U.S. from grower/owners of USTC. To make…
Is Menthol FDA’s Next Target?
In April, Scott Gottlieb resigned as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), causing some observers to speculate that the agency would back off on the pressures his two-year tenure put on the tobacco industry. But when Ned Sharpless, former director of the National Cancer Institute, was named acting FDA head, he quickly…
Considering CBD
The CBD market is expected to skyrocket over the coming years, driven by strong demand from consumers for wellness products, favorable regulatory momentum spurred by the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill and mounting investment by major corporate players. CBD, short for cannabidiol, comes from the cannabis plant, but contains no THC, so it doesn’t…