I have just returned home after two intense days in the Netherlands. I have met several people who, for varying lengths of time, in one way or another, have been working with Cannabis. What strikes me again and again is that there are two completely different personality types who love this plant. The absolute largest group is "Jamaica/Ganja/Hippies" who use Cannabis as a pure intoxicant. Often by smoking, vaping or taking THC (the psychoactive substance in the Cannabis plant) orally.

The second group are the people who have understood the greatness of the Cannabis plant's over 400 different components and how these, over the past 5,000 years, have worked as medicine for a variety of diseases and ailments. This group is (unlike the first) not hippies, but often doctors, researchers or "alternative specialists" in various health fields.

The dilemma is, in my opinion, that the first-mentioned group is so large that very few take Cannabis (especially CBD and CBG) seriously.

What has also struck me over the past few months is how few skin care manufacturers talk about the skin's endocannabinoid system (ECS) and the incredible effect of applying cannabis to the skin. There are a large number of CBD skin care brands but very few use more than one part of the plant (also called CBD Isolate). In addition, this is used in far too small an amount to have any direct effect on the skin's ECS.

How can this happen? My conclusion is that there are three possible reasons:

1. Skincare manufacturers are unaware of the skin's ECS and its necessary function for optimal skin health.
2. Skincare manufacturers have heard that there is something called ECS but do not know how to do or what to add to a skin care product to bring this system into balance.
3. The big skin care manufacturers know ECS, how to balance it but dare, because the stigma surrounding the Cannabis plant, not developing products that actually make a difference to the skin's receptors. In addition, these products would be significantly more expensive to manufacture than their existing product range.
   

For me personally, however, this is almost madness. Today, 86% of American teenagers have some form of acne and 12% of all adults have some form of atopic dermatitis (eczema). We have a naturally growing plant that could largely alleviate (and in many cases solve) these skin conditions... But the plant is not used as the stigma around it (since the early 30s) has been too great.

My goal for the past 10 years has been to be able to give as many people as possible the best self-confidence possible. The cannabis plant has opened up a whole new world of how we can create skin care products that deliver results the world has never seen before. We will never be perfect but we will never stop evolving.