By Galen Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
A local hemp producer and manufacturer of CBD topicals officially launched its flagship hemp-stick product on the recreational cannabis market during a special event at Little Leaf Cannabis Co. in Stratford last month.
In honour of this milestone product launch, Wildwood Labs of Lakeside in Oxford County, just a short drive from St. Marys, celebrated at the Stratford pot shop on Dec. 13, 2024. At the event, members of the media and those who visited the store that day were invited by Wildwood Labs representatives to learn more about hemp sticks and the company that makes them.
“A lot of people are under the impression that cannabis can get you high, and of course it can if you’re smoking it or certain edibles can have a psychoactive effect if they have THC in them,” said Shane Wiebe, managing director and co-owner of Wildwood Labs. “But our product is very rich in CBD and in CBC and in CBN and CBG and all these other cannabinoids that specifically target inflammation and pain, restless muscles, these kinds of thing.
“Our product is a full-spectrum hemp product – it’s not made from marijuana; it’s made from hemp. It’s a full-spectrum product, so we do not isolate the different cannabinoids after we’ve extracted this healthy crude oil from the hemp. The benefit is now instead of just having one cannabinoid in there – maybe it’s CBD, maybe it’s CBC or maybe a little bit of both – in this case, we’re actually using the crude oil as part of the product. You could almost use it before we put it into its format as a topical cream. … Instead of having one or two cannabinoids, I always joke we have between nine and nine million in there because there’s only about 20 (cannabinoids) we can test for right now.”
While Wildwood Labs’ four varieties of hemp sticks – lemongrass and lavender, cool menthol, warming cinnamon ginger, and extra strength – have been available on the medical cannabis market for some time, the product launch last month marked the first time customers could purchase a hemp stick without first seeing a doctor and obtaining a prescription, something Wiebe said is a huge step toward making the product more accessible to people who may benefit from it.
“We’ve really wanted to target people who are grandma’s and great grandma’s age because there’s so much that is not known about the cannabis market; they really do think of it as a recreational (drug) … to get high, and that’s not at all what our ethos is about. For us, why it’s a big deal is because now we can just talk to people (about it),” Wiebe said.
“Let’s say we had a conversation about it with someone at Walmart. … Now we can educate people around us and say, ‘No, this is not going to get you high, but it will help you get moving.’ We can say, ‘Hey, order it on the (Ontario Cannabis Store) online or order it here at Little Leaf.”
Wildwood Labs is a homegrown business started by a group of local farmers and families who planted 60 acres of hemp in Lakeside in 2020. The company not only grows the hemp it uses in its products, it also extracts the hemp oil and processes it into the hemp sticks. For Leanne McPhie, CEO of Little Leaf Cannabis Co., being able to support a local business that is innovating in the cannabis industry is an important partnership for the Stratford pot shop.
“Like us, they are a family-run business, they’re local, they truly believe and are passionate about what they are doing, and the product they have put out is an all-natural product; it’s just incredible,” McPhie said. “I’ve been using it for a while now and it works so well. I find it more effective than anything else I’ve tried. Because they are local, family owned, we need to support each other.”
According to McPhie, about 30 per cent of Little Leaf’s customer base come into the store looking for wellness products.
“It’s always important for us to be looking for products that are going to be effective for our customers that are as natural as possible,” McPhie said. … Wildwood Labs came to us about a year ago and said, ‘This is a product we are looking to put on the market,’ and I thought it would be great for our customers.”
Currently, only the warming cinnamon ginger hemp stick is available at Little Leaf and through the Ontario Cannabis Store, however Wiebe said Wildwood Labs is hopeful the other three varieties of hemp stick will be available on the recreational market soon.
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