Melissa Gibson, a fifty-plus USA Snowboarding champion, credits cannabidiol (CBD), one of the most prevalent compounds in cannabis, with helping her survive several autoimmune diseases. She has made it her mission to spread the word about its benefits.
“I have several autoimmune disorders — celiac disease, Graves disease and Lyme disease,” she said, “and then I went through menopause. This plant helps me deal with all of that and helped me avoid surgery on my thyroid. CBD supports your immune system and is a neuroprotectant, so everyone can benefit from it. This plant has so much potential to help people, and I love that.
She said CBD gives her relief and allows her to live an active and healthy lifestyle that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.
“So with my personal experience with the plant, and the background that I have in business development, branding and grassroots marketing, it just seemed like a natural fit to create a company around something that I knew was going to be the future,” said Gibson. She founded Hemp & Humanity in 2016.
“At the time, there wasn’t a lot of education around the plant,” she continued. “The Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 made hemp federally legal. That Act defined hemp as cannabis that contains 0.3 percent or less of THC, the substance that gets you high.” To be sold legally, cannabidiol must be derived from hemp and contain less than 0.3 percent Delta 9 THC.
Gibson had several hurdles to overcome, including her inability to get a bank account. Her payment processing accounts were frequently canceled.
“It was difficult work, but it was worth it to me to keep persisting,” she said. “I was among the first to do farmers’ markets, I created educational events, I went to other people’s events as a speaker — fitness industry events, health events, and just really basically taught people about the plant and about CBD, which at the time was the only the cannabinoid that we were even talking about.”
Melissa explains that CBD has medicinal and health benefits without getting a person high.
More than 30 brands
Times have changed. Now, there is an acceptance of CBD in the mainstream marketplace and research has identified over 140 different cannabinoids in the plant, which also contains terpenes, and flavonoids.
Gibson now carries more than 30 brands. Three-quarters of them are from New York State, and the majority are women-owned brands.
Opening a brick-and-mortar store wasn’t originally part of Gibson’s plan, but with the pandemic, changes sort of fell into place. In September 2020, Fruition Chocolates wanted to pull out of Woodstock and focus on expanding their Route 28 location. The space next to Jarita’s Florists across from the Village Green became available.
“It became obvious to me that my strength was in communicating directly with the public and having a place where people could come see me became very important to me,” Gibson said.
“We have basically served as a community center for cannabis education. It’s happening customer by customer. We have people come in all the time asking us, yes, about CBD products, but they also want to know about marijuana legalization. And I have people from other states come in that want someone to explain it to them. So I’m in the position very often of being the person to provide that type of education to the public in terms of where the industry is going, what’s happening.”
Gibson said that she has established an expansive network. She is a phone call away from growers, doctors, researchers, lawyers and product formulators. She can get questions answered.
This stuff isn’t inexpensive
“There are a lot of CBD sites, online sites, and people are throwing CBD into their stores, but they don’t necessarily provide the value associated with knowing those products and matching people up with what will work for them,” she said. “This stuff isn’t inexpensive. So part of what I like to do is make sure that I’m giving someone their best chance of success with a product.”
Gibson became one of the first Licensed Hemp Cannabinoid Retailers in New York. She stressed that license was very important.
“In order to sell CBD in New York, you are required to have a hemp cannabinoid retail license,” she said. “So you’re not really supposed to sell it anywhere, unless you have this license.”
Gibson said she and other reputable retailers want to make sure the products they sell are free of toxins and contain the amount of CBD specified on the label.
“Hemp & Humanity takes a whole-plant approach,” she continued. “So you’ll notice around my store that we have hemp fiber products like backpacks and embroidered handbags, we have hemp plastic products, hemp wood products. You might come in for CBD, but you’re going to learn a little bit more about how this plant can really change the world. It’s so sustainable, and the industrial uses of this plant are infinite,” said Gibson. Her weekly segment on Radio Woodstock WDST-FM, covers various aspects of the hemp plant and hemp industries.
Know what you have
While it can’t legally sell marijuana yet, Hemp & Humanity is one of the first retailers in the U.S. to carry kits to test the THC potency of the plants.
“You can receive it as gifts and you can have it on your person,” Gibson said. “You just can’t buy it at an Adult Use dispensary yet in New York. But if you’re growing it or someone gives it to you and you want to know what percent THC is in there or even what percent CBD, there’s a way now for you to test it and be a little safer and more accurate with your recipes. One of the biggest things that we have been doing for all these years is de-stigmatizing the plant.”
Gibson on marijuana sales
The Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, or MRTA, which became law in March 2021, created an Office of Cannabis Management, which drafted a framework for the cultivation, distribution and sale of marijuana. But the application process hasn’t started. With that uncertainty, Gibson hasn’t finalized her plans for the future.
Recently, a venture called Illuminated Leaf announced its intentions to file an application to become a dispensary located on Rock City Road. Its founders are in a holding pattern until the application process is complete. In the meantime, Illuminated Leaf is hosting seminars and operating pop-up art shops as a means to generate some revenue before being given the green light to apply.
“I have many opportunities across the board with sales, delivery, manufacturing, consumption sites,” said Gibson, who is taking a wait-and-see approach. I’ve spent five years at the intersection of the plant and the public, with education and sales. I understand the power of this plant”, said Gibson, who is taking a wait-and-see approach. “So I will want to leverage that, but, I think it’s a little too soon to tell.”
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