Walgreens is set to sell CBD patches, sprays, creams and other products in at least 1,500 of its store locations in select states. The company revealed this information to CNBC recently.
The well-known drugstore chain will carry cannabis-based products in Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana. The company has declined to comment on which brand of CBD products it will sell.
Breaking News: Walgreens Jumps into the CBD Business
In an interview to CNBC, the spokesperson of Walgreens, Brian Faith revealed that the CBD products carried by Walgreens will reflect their efforts to provide a wide range of accessible health and wellbeing products and various services in order to meet the demands and preferences of their current customers.
Walgreens is following in the footsteps of its rival CVS, a drugstore chain that recently started selling CBD infused products including creams, salves, and more in at least eight states under 800 locations in early March after partnering up with marijuana based company Curaleaf.
Since then, many retailers have started carefully evaluating the market after CBD, which is a non-psychoactive cannabis compound, became one of the most sought out ingredients in consumer products.
Customers are increasingly becoming curious about CBD which has shown proof to help with problems like chronic pain, anxiety, anti-aging, and more. Even though there is still a lot of evidence missing to back up the claims, it is still something everyone wants to try out these days.
The Farm Bill the Congress passed last year has allowed many manufacturers to extract CBD from the hemp plant and use it as an ingredient in health and wellness products. But the FDA has clearly said that CBD can’t be added to food or sold as a dietary supplement, so manufacturers are now adding it in topicals, creams, salves, oils, vape juices, and other products.
The regulatory authority’s comment about CBD has left many companies confused and the only safe way to market and sell it is through infusing it with beauty and skin care products. This is not only less risky for companies but is the obvious first step for them to make the ingredient come under mass appeal.
With big-name retailers jumping in on the CBD bandwagon, it is only a matter of time when these products will become so common that they will be available nearly everywhere in the United States.
