Stacy Cason on Forbes Radio
The Market for CBD blew up to $4 billion two years ago, and it’s been said that the industry will top $25 billion by 2025.
To listen to the Forbes Radio Podcast
The CBD industry has exploded in the past couple of years thanks to its potential health benefits and therapeutic properties. CBD is the second most prevalent active ingredient in cannabis, and you’ve probably read the stories about how it can be used as a treatment for everything from mild arthritis to anxiety, depression, and even chronic pain. A 2020 SingleCare survey found that one-third of Americans have used CBD. The Market for CBD blew up to $4 billion two years ago, and it’s been said that the industry will top $25 billion by 2025. This week Joe learns about the highs (pardon the pun) and the lows of being a CBD entrepreneur with Stacy Cason, the founder of Planetarie an innovative water-extracted hemp company in Colorado.
About Stacy Cason:
Stacy is a case study in taking the road less traveled. Starting with a 15-year tenure as a medical professional holding roles as an ICU nurse and anesthesiology nurse practitioner (CRNA), Cason had a front-row seat to pain management and the effects of the opioid crisis. But it was her offshoot career as a real estate developer that serendipitously led her into the world of hemp and changed the trajectory of her career, and we believe the world of pain management.
Stacy got into hemp as a grower, as a business strategy to develop land she recently purchased, believing in the medicinal power of hemp and its alignment with her vision to offer non-addictive, natural alternatives for pain management. She discovered there was a processing issue in studying the industry as a whole from a 30,000 ft. view, realizing as a scientist that the efficacy of hemp was being diminished by the current industry standard processing methods — ethanol and CO2 — which degrade the living cannabinoids, rendering them less bioavailable. Cason believed there had to be a healthier way and had the entrepreneurial audacity to engineer a new processing method that would retain the living cannabinoids, delivering the full medicinal benefits of hemp, with none of the harm, through fully stabilized, raw CBDa.
Through tireless research, passion and development, Cason founded Planetarie and created an environmentally friendly water-extraction technology. Knowing she was able to offer the industry a better form of CBD, Cason developed a manufacturing facility with the objective of being an ingredient supplier. But she was quickly disillusioned when she realized the race to the CBD market was cluttered with marketers eager to make CBD claims, many of which did not share Cason’s commitment to efficacy, transparency and integrity. And so she made another career pivot, developing her own pain management product line: Planetarie.
The first and only water-extracted CBDa line, delivering the raw, most bio-available medicinal benefits of hemp to the consumer through a range of topical and ingestible delivery systems. Planetarie differentiates itself from the CBD industry through clean processing, high standards for testing and transparency, and organic certification of the entire production process from plant to consumer. The company has since grown to become the nation’s premier natural pain relief brand, promoting healing without harm nor high.
In addition to her role in helming Planetarie, Cason — a rural north Louisiana native— is a scientist, athlete, and businesswoman who believes in inspirational leadership and integrity. An avid learner, Cason accumulated numerous degrees including a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing, Masters of Science in Anesthesiology, an Executive Masters of Business Administration, and is an alumnus of Harvard University. Cason presently resides with her golden retriever in Colorado, where she also holds titles of Ironman, bodybuilder, investor, speaker and active philanthropist.
