I'm a lifelong market researcher.  I've done hundreds of surveys, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews over a 25-year career.  This has exposed me to many industries.  I've worked as a market research supplier, and a client-side consumer.  Right now, I'm a consultant.  As a "hired gun," my role is to learn about new marketplaces quickly, to gather information that will help inform business decisions.

I've been educating myself about all things related to cannabis, hemp, and the cannabinoids for several years.  This includes reading trade publications, attending conferences, testing products, visiting grow farms and dispensaries, and conducting qualitative and quantitative research.  (I've visited over 100 dispensaries in 10 states, interviewed dozens of doctors/pharmacists/investors/growers/dispensary owners etc, and conducted surveys among the US general population on the subject.)

My latest consulting project involved a company trying to break into the CBD-infused health & beauty market.

All that said, I can tell you this, as someone who is used to studying markets (esp. new markets)....favor the market.  Favor the little player as much as the big player.  We are talking about a weed here.  This is not rocket science.  What is needed is a fair playingfield and good oversight.  

There are good and honorable players in the CBD space, and the hemp space more broadly.  But there are those taking advantage of a "hot market."  The public needs to trust sources.  I think that the market for CBD (and hemp more generally), if left to be truly a "free market with reasonable regulation", will bend to the will of consumers.  It is going that way now, albeit with fits and starts.  There is great competition.  Products will have to be efficacious, and tested.  (Those products that don't test well will fall away, unless artifices in the market aid them.)

Thank you.

Chris Hlavatovic
Mission Viejo CA