“Transforming the CBD Market”

Blake Schroeder is the CEO for both Medical Marijuana, Inc. and the company's subsidiary Kannaway. During his time at the company, Schroeder's key contributions include international market development in Europe, Brazil, Mexico, and Japan; financial performance management; product development, rebranding efforts; and the company's operational development as a whole. Since Schroeder became CEO of Kannaway®, the company's revenue has grown from $5 million in annual sales to nearly $80 million in annual sales in 2019.

Medical Marijuana, Inc. was founded in 2009 and is the first publicly traded cannabis company in the U.S. The company was also the first to receive historic import permits for CBD products from the governments of Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Paraguay and is a leader in the development of international cannabis markets. When Medical Marijuana, Inc., a Company of Firsts, was first established, it was created as a services company for the cannabis industry, but it quickly decided to go in a different direction and lead the CBD boom. The company wanted to, and did, establish the safety and quality measures for the entire industry and create a global pipeline for CBD products. Everything on the market about CBD and other minor cannabinoids today started with Medical Marijuana, Inc. The company offers the world’s finest CBD products and is the only CBD company that still offers its original CBD formulations. As marijuana laws continue to change and evolve worldwide, Medical Marijuana, Inc. will aggressively pursue further opportunities in the cannabis sector.

"Medical Marijuana, Inc. was founded in 2009 and is the first publicly traded cannabis company in the U.S. The company was also the first to receive historic import permits for CBD products from the governments of Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Paraguay and is a leader in the development of international cannabis markets."

Schroeder says, “When Medical Marijuana, Inc. launched, you could only buy CBD from our family of companies. Since then, the 2018 Farm Bill passed and opened up the market for many other platers to get involved. Many of these new players are selling low-grade CBD that you can buy in places like gas stations and convenience stores – our CBD is lightyears ahead, in terms of safety, consistency, testing measures, and study. We only use the highest quality of hemp in our full-spectrum, broad-spectrum and isolate products. We create the industry leading products and opportunities for people that want to be involved in our purpose. In the overwhelming majority of the world, cannabis is still fully scheduled, making even non psychoactive cannabis-based products illegal, which is really a scheme. We will continue to fight for free access all over the globe, and along the way create opportunity.”

According to Schroeder, when they first began operations in San Diego, they would have hordes of people coming into the office to meet the team and purchasing massive amounts of free CBD products. “We wanted to help people gain awareness for CBD and also get the help they needed. We’ve worked with medical cannabis patients and families around the world to get them CBD that has helped them survive and be able to live active, healthy lives.”

One of the non-profit organizations that they support aggressively is the Por Grace Foundation. Started by the CEO of their HempMeds sales division, Raul Elizalde, Por Grace was established because his daughter was diagnosed with a rare and severe form of childhood epilepsy called Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome (LGS). Grace was the first patient to be granted special permission in 2015 to import CBD into Mexico legally. Por Grace is a Mexican non-profit organization that lobbies the Mexican government to change laws regarding access to medical cannabis and helps patients get legal access to CBD products in Mexico.

“We’ve also partnered with hospitals and researchers in Mexico and Brazil to conduct several clinical studies on the safety and efficacy of CBD. One completed study using the company’s Real Scientific Hemp Oil-X™ CBD oil’s relation to drug-resistant epilepsy has been completed and published in the EC Neurology (ECNE), an internationally peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles related to worldwide research in neuroscience. The company also completed a two-year stability study on the same product that showed that the product had a strong, stable shelf life in many different environmental conditions and temperatures and did not have any significant (no more than 5%) change in the product’s CBD content,” adds Schroeder.IE