By 2025, the U.S. CBD market could be a $16.8 billion business, a massive jump from the projected $4.7 billion earnings in 2020. To meet rising consumer demand, CBD sellers have been diversifying their sales channels, including eCommerce, dropshipping, and retail channels.

Is cannabis safe for pregnant women to use?

Is there a danger to secondhand cannabis smoke?

Does cannabis use clash with other medications?

All of these are fairly straightforward questions which should be straightforward to study, but not in the nascent grey industry that is legal cannabis.

Scientifically speaking, we know more about the effects of cow flatulence on the atmosphere than the effects of cannabis on the human body.

If the cannabis industry is to ever be taken seriously on the international stage, there’s a desperate need for research from respected scientists and doctors and less anecdotal input from Jeff the Budtender.

The executive in charge of Canopy Growth Corp.'s global beverage unit is leaving less than a year after he joined the company, a high-level departure that comes as the pot giant looks to ramp up sales of cannabis-infused drinks to the Canadian recreational market. 

Andrew Rapsey joined Canopy in January and took on the role of global head of beverages in August. He announced in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday he is leaving the company and plans to return to Alphabet Inc.'s Google in 2021. 

"As I gear up for 2021, I have decided to head back to Google Canada for some unfinished business with a marketing team I adore," Rapsey said in the post. 

It’s early on a mid-March Friday morning at the Oregon CBD headquarters, outside Corvallis, Oregon. The company’s co-founder, Eric Crawford, is breaking up a piece of intimidatingly frosty cannabis as I watch with apprehension.

For one, technology is creating more effective CBD products for the CBD market, and better, more efficient products.

Wall Street experts project the CBD industry to swell to more than 22 billion dollars over the next two years. Within a decade that number is projected to exponentially grow towards 75 billion dollars.

As is with any big industry boom, everyone wants a piece of the action. Fortunately, with CBD hemp there is plenty of pie to go around. And technology plays a big role in the CBD industry from seed to shelf and beyond.

According to the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance, Canada’s hemp acreage and export value are both up more than 20% this year.

“The Canadian hemp industry continues to grow in 2020 despite the challenges posed by COVID-19,” CHTA board chairman Keith Jones said in a statement after the group’s annual meeting, held online this year. “Canada seeded some 92,000 hemp acres in 2019, with exports exceeding $110 million Canadian dollars ($85 million).”

Organic standards can be established, whether or not cannabis is legal at the federal level.

Those standards won’t be federally regulated, but they can exist separately from legalization.

Is cannabis safe for pregnant women to use?

Is there a danger to secondhand cannabis smoke?

Does cannabis use clash with other medications?

All of these are fairly straightforward questions which should be straightforward to study, but not in the nascent grey industry that is legal cannabis.

Scientifically speaking, we know more about the effects of cow flatulence on the atmosphere than the effects of cannabis on the human body.

If the cannabis industry is to ever be taken seriously on the international stage, there’s a desperate need for research from respected scientists and doctors and less anecdotal input from Jeff the Budtender.

With the holiday season already upon us, savvy hosts are busy preparing to celebrate with friends and family, whether the event is a planned family gathering or an impromptu party with friends. And while the challenges 2020 has thrown at us will mean things aren’t the way they usually are, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Consider beverages, for example. For millennia, the go-to thirst quencher for festivities in many cultures has been alcohol. And while a good cocktail can be an effective social lubricant and leave you feeling no pain, it can also fuel bitter arguments and tons of bullshit that nobody wants to deal with.