Cannabis 2.0: A Bright New Era for the Cannabis Industry

It’s been over 10 years since Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize the recreational sale of cannabis products. Right now, recreational Cannabis is legal in 18 states and Washington DC. With this legalization, a whole new wave of consumers have been turning to cannabis to address a widening variety of wellness and lifestyle needs.

As one of the first cannabis companies to operate in Washington state, Green Revolution has seen the cannabis industry evolve through many phases. We’re here to tell you that more than any other industry, the cannabis industry has changed dramatically and quickly. New consumers have emerged, and new brands have surfaced to serve them. Other brands have fallen away, unable to meet the changing tastes and preferences of the new wave of cannabis consumers.

Yet for Green Revolution, the seeds of its success with this new wave of consumers were planted long ago. In fact, from its origins and early days, Green Revolution has had a keen sense of this new generation of consumers, and has developed its product portfolio to serve them effectively, long before the new age of cannabis dawned.

Cannabis 1.0, when over 50 percent of cannabis purchases came from flower, has given way to Cannabis 2.0, when edibles, beverages, and vapes that better integrate into peoples’ everyday lives are stealing the spotlight. Cannabis 1.0 can be thought of as the era of recreational cannabis when regulators and brands were just starting to find their feet. Flower dominated sales during this time because that’s what most people were used to consuming.

However, the start of legal, recreational consumption got brands to start thinking about what cannabis products might look like from product to packaging when every adult 21 or over has the ability to consume. What brands started realizing is many shoppers entering the recreational market were not hugely experienced in their prior cannabis use. These types of users gravitate to familiar and discreet products–namely edibles, beverages, and vapes.

We predated many of these Cannabis 2.0 companies, because Green Revolution was built on the premise that consumers should always have access to the types of cannabis products that are functional, precise, easy to understand, and utterly transparent when it comes to ingredients and production processes. Oftentimes, these products are not cannabis flower.

Something else to consider with the partial decline of flower is flower doesn’t allow for precise dosing. Unless you use a scale prior to loading your flower into a smoking device, you don’t know how much you’re smoking. Additionally, the THC % listed for your flower is a poor indicator for its potency, since terpenes and other actors in the entourage effect need to be considered. However, terpene information is rarely shown on flower products.

The beauty and limitation of flower is that it’s very much like fresh produce. Flower constantly changes from seed to shelf in terms of its potency, cannabinoid ratio, and terpene preservation with exposure to light and air. Due to this variability, flower experiences aren’t entirely predictable (which is part of the fun for some people).

However, people who want predictable, repeatable experiences will have better luck with beverages, edibles, and vapes. Oil-infused products like these hold their cannabinoid potency more consistently across time than flower and can be dosed accurately down to less than a milligram. This means the user who wants to have complete control over their experiences can find more satisfaction in products like Doozies and Wildside MAX.

In the early days of recreational cannabis legalization, many brands were aimless, since they didn’t know what consumers wanted. Brands nowadays like Green Revolution are conversely obsessed with giving you exactly what you want. People want to be able to customize their experiences through products that can be easily integrated into their daily lives. Through formulations with major and minor cannabinoids in discrete forms like edibles and beverages, Green Revolution is enabling people to consume what they want when they want.

Green Revolution is founded on principles of transparency and sustainability. We believe more brands should work to evolve the cannabis industry not just in innovation, but also ethics. For example, many companies who grow cannabis flower are not forthright about the use of pesticides. That’s why we refrain from using material sourced from pesticide-grown flower. Other companies in cannabis who manufacture edibles are not clear about the use of gelatin, made from the body parts of animals. We use pectin and other vegan ingredients to ensure people from all backgrounds can consume our products without fear.

Cannabis 2.0 is all about expanding accessibility, customizability, and consumer knowledge. Green Revolution leads the charge in these areas by creating customizable cannabis product experiences that can be incorporated easily into peoples’ daily lives. Moreover, through initiatives like our blog, we want to educate consumers at large about the cannabis plant and the industry around it that’s rapidly evolving.