Medical Marijuana Inc. Interview at Their HQ offices in San Diego
Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:
Hi, I am Courtney from Leafreport and I am here at the Medical Marijuana Inc. offices in San Diego, and here with me is Dr. Stuart Titus.
Dr. Stuart Titus – Medical Marijuana Inc.:
Hi, I am Stuart Titus, President and Chief Executive Officer at Medical Marijuana Incorporated and Courtney, it is a great pleasure to be with you today.
Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:
Very nice to be with you too Stuart.
Dr. Stuart Titus – Medical Marijuana Inc.:
Well certainly, it is exciting for you all to be at our offices. We look forward to a nice day and hopefully getting some good information to you and your followers.
Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:
And we look forward to it as well. Now, would you like to tell us a little bit about your company’s history and values…
Dr. Stuart Titus – Medical Marijuana Inc.:
Ah certainly Courtney. Our company, was founded back in March of 2009 as America’s first publicly traded, company, in the industrial hemp medical cannabis base. We’ve had a great run ever since. In March of, 2011, a new group that came in and, bought the company from it’s founders and it really had been researching hemp and CBD for four years prior. we brought the first hemp based nutraceutical or nutritional supplement form of CBD to US and World markets, going back to the spring of the year 2012. It’s been a tremendous run ever since. In April of 2014 we legalized our products in the country of Brazil. only available by doctor prescription for the treatment of refractory epilepsy. we also legalized our products in the country of Mexico, in February of 2016, where we had to develop a fully THC free form of CBD.
Dr. Stuart Titus – Medical Marijuana Inc.:
Very shortly thereafter it was very interesting to see the World Anti-Doping Agency, the professional organization that regulates professional sport and Olympic competition, approve CBD’s use for sport, athletes, to be able to use this during competition as long as it doesn’t contain THC. So that’s certainly been, quite exciting. , we’ve had, many other great firsts, World Health Organization, we were able to, present in November of 2017. , I personally presented at the USFDA meeting on cannabis and CBD in May of, last year, 2019 our company’s products are listed in the Physician’s Desk Reference as the only company to list a cannabis based product there. So certainly, we’ve had some great things happen to us over the course of history.
Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:
Yeah, wow! Congratulations on all your progress and successes.
Dr. Stuart Titus – Medical Marijuana Inc.:
Well it’s, it’s been fabulous to see the tremendous international expansion, particularly one of our divisions, Kannaway, has done a great job moving into the European markets and now currently in Asia. Our HempMeds Brazil obviously is a great organization now with six years of history, in the country of Brazil and certainly we are looking forward to expanding, people’s access around the globe to really be able to use CBD. And of course, for some, when they are sick and have, medical need, there is now a, FDA approved version of CBD that’s of course available by doctor prescription. But we really believe and our core values really represent CBD’s use as a dietary supplement. You don’t need to be sick, you don’t need to be a patient, you don’t need to have a doctor’s prescription to take advantage of the health and wellness benefits of hemp and CBD.
Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:
Great, thank you. Now tell us about your charitable outreach.
Dr. Stuart Titus – Medical Marijuana Inc.:
Well we couldn’t be more proud of our Echo Connection, as we call it. E-C-H-O, , Education, Collaboration and Hope, Foundation. And ECHO has been started a few years back and has grown a tremendously. We basically, offer product, to families who have, need for this for their, children but would not normally be able to afford product. They can apply at the echoconnection.org website, for assistance and, we are now servicing, several hundred families, which is, just great because these families wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford CBD at today’s current prices but nonetheless, have seen great benefit by using CBD products and we now have a wonderful program where people can contribute and allow these families to be able to get the benefits of hemp and CBD, without necessarily them having to pay out of pocket for, the cost of the products. So, again, echoconnection.org is the, website and there is a nice application form there for those people so interested.
Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:
Tell us about what makes each brand unique.
Dr. Stuart Titus – Medical Marijuana Inc.:
certainly. Our HempMeds line, was our original, product line which, really launched the first, nutraceutical hemp CBD products in US and World markets. And, HempMeds has a real scientific hemp oil, which, we have, three of our original versions here in oral applicator. these are very highly concentrated forms of CBD. three different forms, your green, which is the raw juice or the extract from the, hemp plant itself, which contains your CBD in an acid form, tetrahydrocannabinol acid. Our blue form, then de carboxylates the green, they are just a light heating process, changes the more acid form over to a more active form and finally our gold product is actually a slight filtered version of our blue and this allows us to concentrate the CBD as high as 24%.
Dr. Stuart Titus – Medical Marijuana Inc.:
HempMeds has a nice, skin care, personal care line, as well as wonderful topical application salve. So these are great for areas of discomfort et cetera. A nice, roll on product as well. HempMeds also has a liquid forms that work, the CBD is then diluted with a MCT oil, like a coconut oil. This is a medi chain triglyceride oil so parent can feed to the child on a spoon. We have tinctures as well as capsules.
Dr. Stuart Titus – Medical Marijuana Inc.:
Dixie Botanicals, is a, nice line that we have, some interesting products. A nice, tube product, we have some tinctures and a wonderful sunscreen. This is made from CBD, but I believe it has a 35 SPF, I use it, everyday myself, particularly when I go out playing golf. I don’t like to wear a hat and of course, I tend to get a burned nose so, the sunscreen works, fabulously well.
Dr. Stuart Titus – Medical Marijuana Inc.:
Our, pet care line is a new one that for us and certainly we are quite excited about, the fact that pets also, like us hans, have an internal endogenous cannabinoid system and that needs supplementing and, these products work extremely well for, many pet owners and, we are quite excited abut the emerging pet market in the CBD industry as well.
Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:
Great, thank you. Can you tell us about your manufacturing process?
Dr. Stuart Titus – Medical Marijuana Inc.:
we, are unique in that we grow our hemp, not here in the US, but actually over in Europe. And here, they really grow true hemp, which, you know again, has a nice concentration of CBD, but very, very low concentration of THC. Thus, our initial extraction, only requires the one process to be able to provide a product to US and World markets. Unlike, here in the US, where there are many, people who are progressive marijuana growers are now growing maybe a 50/50 mix of THC and CBD. they will do their extraction, but then they have to do several additional steps to remove the THC to get it down underneath, the federal limit. Or they just use isolated forms of CBD and certainly here you are going to get, a certain effect but we really believe when you have all the full spectr botanicals, with all your entourage botanicals, your terpenes, flavonoids and all, the way we are able to do it over in Europe, certainly we get a more, magnified effect, what we call a better entourage effect if you will. And, some of our clinical study and research shows even better results than some of the pharmaceutically developed versions of CBD, interestingly enough.
Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:
Yeah, very interesting, thank you. How do you extract the CBD?
Dr. Stuart Titus – Medical Marijuana Inc.:
So our raw, product that we, harvest over in Europe is then dried and then taken to the extraction facility. We use a standard CO2 extraction. we believe this provides great benefit in terms of, remote removing and, allowing us to utilize cannabinoids that are extracted with, minimal residual toxicity to, the, consing public.
Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:
Okay, great. How do you ensure the product’s quality, purity and cleanliness?
Dr. Stuart Titus – Medical Marijuana Inc.:
We were really the first ones to establish this in the industry, we call triple lab testing. so, once our, crop is harvested, we will test for cannabinoid content. Of course we, test for residual toxicity which may have occurred during the farming or agricultural process, your pesticides, herbicides and the rest. we then test for any heavy metal, potential contamination and , any residual solvents that may have occurred. once we pass that level, then our, extractor, a CBD rich hemp oil is brought from Europe, here to the US, where again, we follow the same laboratory testing procedure. So testing for cannabinoid content and then any residual toxicity, your pesticides, herbicides et cetera, again heavy metal testing, and the rest and then once we pass that then we will make our final products and formulations and we will test the final product again for any, residual toxins that may have occurred during the manufacturing process. And once that is considered, to be at our standards, then we release the product to then be sold to the general consing public. So, we do step, we do test at three stages of the process.
Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:
What is your transparency policy?
Dr. Stuart Titus – Medical Marijuana Inc.:
we believe to be a very transparent, obviously all of our certificates of analysis are listed up on our website and people can look it up, get their batch nber or scan their QR code and that will take you right to our, testing, and, so people can look at the cannabinoid content, they can see how much CBD, how much THC and all the other residual, toxins test, including those for heavy metals.
Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:
Okay, that’s great. What are your recommendations for the new beginner user? someone who has heard about CBD and is wondering where to start, is worried about legalities, ethicacy and safety issues?
Dr. Stuart Titus – Medical Marijuana Inc.:
Well certainly that is, a great, new emerging, trend here in the US. CBD and particularly and now we have a non psychoactive form of cannabis to be able to utilize, for health and wellness purposes, have been a great nber of people wanting to try our products. , obviously we want, the new users to have a very good experience, so we generally recommend that they start slow. For example, we recommend, just as a dietary supplement, about 50mg of CBD daily for a normal, healthy adult. , of course, many people are challenged with health issues and just like when you have a cold or a flu, many people take vitamin C proactively or just on a daily basis to support health and wellness and when you’ve got a cold or a flu they double or triple up on their, vitamin C use to try to, knock the cold out and certainly here with the CBD we find many people taking more than just the 50mg. They’ll take 100 or maybe as much as 200mg of CBD daily. And certainly, this is something you can, gradually work your way up to but generally if you start with, 50mg of CBD, this is, perfectly fine.
Leafreport – Courtney Quinn:
Great, well thank you so much for showing us around and educating us on your brands and products Dr. Titus.
Dr. Stuart Titus – Medical Marijuana Inc.:
Well, it’s been a great pleasure to be with you today. Thank you so very much for the opportunity.
