Last updated on August 5th, 2019
Oregon-based Xanthic Beverages has unveiled its flagship product, Xanthic CBD Water, intended to be “disruptive for the entire cannabis industry.” CBD Water is produced by a Pepsi independent bottler, and is being distributed now by a network of Pepsi independent distributors in hundreds of retail locations throughout Washington and Oregon.
CBD Water contains cannabidiol (CBD) derived from natural sources other than cannabis, making it the first commercially available CBD exempt from the federal cannabis laws that hamper most mainstream retail cannabinoid distribution agreements in the U.S., says Xanthic.
“While other cannabinoid companies have been fighting over space on marijuana dispensary shelves, Xanthic Beverages has been rapidly taking over the mainstream marketplace,” the company says.
CBD is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid believed to offer a range of benefits. CBD is so popular among athletes that in 2017 the World Anti-Doping Agency removed it from its list of banned substances.
Oregon has long been a cultural and industrial center for the cannabis industry. Oregon became the first U.S. state to decriminalize marijuana in 1973, and in 1998 the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act was passed. Oregon began allowing recreational marijuana sales in 2015, and now the scale of the industry has caught the attention of Wall Street.
“Some of the largest companies in the world in their respective categories have come to Oregon looking for ways to cash in on the cannabinoid opportunity,” says Ryan Stroud, Xanthic co-founder. “Last fall an exec from one of those companies challenged us to make a cannabinoid product that a publicly traded company like theirs could be involved in legally. So we did.”
Xanthic Beverages was founded in January 2018 by Stroud and Ryan Maxson. In March 2018, they signed a partnership agreement with Xanthic Biopharma Inc., a publicly traded Canadian company.
“Because cannabis is still not federally legal, there is still a lot of mainstreaming and consolidation that hasn’t happened yet,” Maxson says. “I wanted to take part in the opportunity by helping professionalize the industry, so I went looking for a business partner who had the cannabis industry piece, but who also had the professional piece.”
Stroud has been working in the cannabis industry for fifteen years. He’s also a military veteran with a background that includes public policy development and Fortune 50 consulting.
“Times have changed,” Stroud says. “And the cannabinoid industry is no longer just about cannabis. Whether a cannabinoid company focuses on medical efficacy or recreation, there are a number of different ways to produce and deliver cannabinoids. Xanthic CBD Water is part of that evolution.”
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