CBD Oil Startup UK: Seed To Bottle

[SolMJ]

Greetings,

I’ve been growing cannabis for years & its become part of my life. I love it, I’m sure many of you feel the same.

I see that demand for CBD oil is on the rise in the UK & this makes me wonder if I should start my own CBD oil business. The stuff I grow is pretty awesome & it’s not fair that these opportunities should be taken up only by business types with no history in cannabis. I know that I can grow several hundred plants indoors efficiently & therefore the raw material is not a problem. My biggest question mark is how to retail the bottled products. I wonder if there will be room for smaller players when I see big pharma companies entering the market. Not to mention social media closing down cannabis related sites.

I assume that most CBD products in the UK are imported & so it would be nice to have another company who grows, extracts & bottles all in-house with proper labelling etc. A kind of ‘seed to bottle’ approach. I have heard though that big pharma is building large greenhouses for an industrial grow site. How will this affect the market?

I would appreciate any thoughts on this...I know there are many clever cannabis people here. Is this worth pursuing?

Peace out.

 

[quinny]

Greetings,

I’ve been growing cannabis for years & its become part of my life. I love it, I’m sure many of you feel the same.

I see that demand for CBD oil is on the rise in the UK & this makes me wonder if I should start my own CBD oil business. The stuff I grow is pretty awesome & it’s not fair that these opportunities should be taken up only by business types with no history in cannabis. I know that I can grow several hundred plants indoors efficiently & therefore the raw material is not a problem. My biggest question mark is how to retail the bottled products. I wonder if there will be room for smaller players when I see big pharma companies entering the market. Not to mention social media closing down cannabis related sites.

I assume that most CBD products in the UK are imported & so it would be nice to have another company who grows, extracts & bottles all in-house with proper labelling etc. A kind of ‘seed to bottle’ approach. I have heard though that big pharma is building large greenhouses for an industrial grow site. How will this affect the market?

I would appreciate any thoughts on this...I know there are many clever cannabis people here. Is this worth pursuing?

Peace out.

Well I say happy for u bro and hope u do ur idea . But for sum of us were not aloud to grow atall (ireland ) . But sounds like a great plan tbh and away to expand ur hard work . So good luck bro wish u the best bro.

 

[SolMJ]

Thanks Quinny,

In the UK we can grow hemp with <0.2% thc. It's a start at least. Even medical cannabis can be grown/handled with an expensive license but only a handful of patients have this. They need approval by specialists first I think.

You might find if you dig deeper that it's similar in Ireland, at least as far as hemp is concerned...I don't know.

Cheers.

 

[quinny]

Thanks Quinny,

I would love to send you some but I don't think its the kind of cannabis you want, in the UK we can grow hemp with <0.2% thc. It's a start at least. Even medical cannabis can be grown/handled with an expensive license but only a handful of patients have this. They need approval by specialists first I think.

You might find if you dig deeper that it's similar in Ireland, at least as far as hemp is concerned...I don't know.

Cheers.

Ah sure il be bk at growin soon bro so thanks

 

[Dwight Monk]

Have to research out your Govt's rules on it (local and Federal if applicable) , and then decide if it doable or even worth it money wise, and always the problem of they could change the rules on you in the middle of it. In example the FDA in the US doesn't "currently" regulate Vitamins/Minerals/Health Supplements type stuff, but you can't make any "medical claims" on the packaging, and I'm not sure if there is any testing requirements or if you just buy things from folks that do test things for purity and content. But next week they could decide to change the rules and regulate it in one way or another. Not saying it's impossible, but usually the Govt. tends to make it hard for the little guys to make a go of things, as if it's regulated a lot it takes "deep pockets" to get things up and running.

 

[SolMJ]

Thanks Dwight much appreciated.

CBD Oil in the UK can be sold if no medical claims are made & if they contain <0.2% THC. No medical claims sounds similar to vitamins/supplements in the US. I read the government’s guidelines on this, they published 2 PDF docs but very short on detail. Only 13 pages in total. It’s all about licensing, premises, record keeping etc. My sense is that CBD Oil will be easy to navigate if for example;

1. grow location is out of public site.
2. lab tested product.
3. proper labelling with no medical claims.

My concern is how to market the final product. I like to think that if we produce something good then people might find us through online research & that we might get through social media if careful.

Furthermore, medical cannabis is also semi-legal in the UK but very tough for small players. For example;

1. license is far more expensive for suppliers & patients.
2. to apply for a license as a patient you need the approval of a medical specialist.

I believe that there is only a limited number of people with this license which makes me wonder why is big pharma building more industrial grow sites if the market isn’t even there. I know that Sativex is available & very expensive. Its nothing more than medical cannabis oil packaged as ‘standard medicine’ & goes under the radar. Please correct me if I’m wrong here.

Its all rather murky with no clarity. As you say the rules & guidelines can shift. In any case for now I'm only interested in CBD Oil & the rules are pretty simple on that...perhaps worryingly so LOL!

Cheers.