Tim Leslie of Leafly shares with us his thoughts about how to help consumers navigate the abundance of hemp-derived CBD products and figure out which products are right for them. Leslie also discusses the importance of taking more steps toward a regulated industry in order to provide people with safe, legal products: “If you view legalization as the first step, the next step is, how do we get the illicit market into the legal industry? How do we get more dispensaries, how do we educate people that more dispensaries is a good thing, that it will propagate a safe legal industry?” He believes that education and eradicating misinformation is an important step in avoiding nascent industry hiccups; in particular, unlearning negative stereotypes and reminding the public that cannabis is, above all, a wellness product.
Seth Adler: Tim Leslie joins us, welcome to Cannabis Economy. I'm your host, Seth Adler. Download episodes on CannEconomy.com, that's two Ns, and the word economy, or wherever you currently get your podcasts. First, a word from our supporter, and then Tim Leslie.
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Seth Adler: So Tim, thank you for having me into this ... It's beautiful.
Tim Leslie: Thank you.
Seth Adler: We could be in your office, for all that I know?
Tim Leslie: I wish my office was this nice.
Seth Adler: This is a very nice thing, here.
Tim Leslie: It's a very nice setup.
Seth Adler: It's all decked out in Leafly.
Tim Leslie: It's beautiful.
Seth Adler: Right?
Tim Leslie: Beautiful.
Seth Adler: We're here at MJBiz, we should say that.
Tim Leslie: We are.
Seth Adler: Because it's the end of the year, even though podcast land knows no time. So, it'll actually be the beginning of the year, once folks actually hear this.
Tim Leslie: I see, yeah. Time travel is possible?
Seth Adler: Time travel is possible.
Tim Leslie: We'll talk about that later.
Seth Adler: Exactly, because we've got to get into the whole Amazon thing.
Tim Leslie: Exactly.
Seth Adler: Space travel, and time travel is on the table. It's good to hear that, we've always been wondering.
Tim Leslie: Exactly.
Seth Adler: I mean, you're squarely, firmly now in Leafly land, right?
Tim Leslie: I am in Leafly land.
Seth Adler: I guess, right up top, what do we need to know, from a CEO's perspective about what's happening at the enterprise?
Tim Leslie: Sure. Well, we have really exciting things that we're talking about today, Seth. We yesterday launched Leafly Market. What Leafly Market is, is a curated selection of hemp-derived CBD products. The thing that makes that exciting is Leafly has long been teaching people about all cannabis products. With the legalization, with the farm bill and the legalization of hemp-derived CBD products, there's a proliferation of CBD products out there.
Seth Adler: I've noticed.
Tim Leslie: Customers don't know how to navigate this.
Seth Adler: Agreed.
Tim Leslie: There's some good ones, some okay ones, and some not-so-great ones.
Seth Adler: That's it.
Tim Leslie: What we're doing is we're selecting the best ones, and we are independently testing those, helping customers find them, help them determine whether CBD is right for them. And then, providing them some confidence in buying the right CBD products. So, we'll have the largest selection of independently tested CBD products.
Seth Adler: That's fantastic!
Tim Leslie: It is.
Seth Adler: So you'll be able to call on, hey yeah, these folks actually did test their products, that's why we're even paying attention to them.
Tim Leslie: Exactly.
Seth Adler: We're also testing them. Any products that haven't been tested before, why would we even bother with those, right?
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