Cannabis is going upscale, mainstream
Smoking accessories and hemp-based products coming to a mall near you
Cannabis is not just going mainstream. It’s going upscale.
The plant, whose species include hemp and marijuana, is showing up in luxe beauty products, sparking an array of glamorous accessories and becoming the focus of Wall Street investors.
Luxury retailer Barneys New York will unveil a shop selling cannabisrelated accoutrements – including blown-glass pipes and 24-karat-gold rolling papers – at its Beverly Hills flagship next month.
More than 100 shops selling lotions, balms and other personal care products infused with the cannabis extract CBD will be opening this year in premium centers owned by the nation’s largest mall owner, Simon.
And the clamor to invest in medical marijuana has led the publicly traded Alternative Harvest fund to reach more than $1 billion in assets in just 13 months.
“It just felt like this was a cultural shift that needed to be addressed,” said Matthew Mazzucca, creative director of Barneys New York, whose cannabis accessories shop will be fittingly dubbed “The High End.”
Cannabis got a major boost in December when President Donald Trump signed off on an $867 billion farm bill that gave a green light for hemp to be cultivated on a large scale.
Unlike marijuana, another cannabis species, hemp has almost none of the psychoactive compounds that cause a user to get high. And now that it’s no longer labeled a controlled substance, more businesses have the opportunity to create hemp-based products, from tinctures to lotions.
Cannabis coming to a mall near you
The 1-year-old Green Growth Brands is betting that its high-quality, low-priced CBD-infused personal care and wellness products will catch on.
“It’s going to become mainstream,” says Green Growth CEO Peter Horvath, adding that the company’s stores look like “part of Neiman Marcus or Nordstrom ... different from the CBD kiosks I’ve seen” previously.
Two of its Seventh Sense Botanical Therapy branded shops are opening this month in Lexington, Kentucky, and Chattanooga, Tennessee. And Green Growth expects to open a store at Castleton Square Mall in Indianapolis in March, the first of 108 shops it’s launching in properties owned by the top-tier shopping center owner Simon.