How do you market products that might be mistakenly associated with getting high to a group that values ​​sobriety? Michael Klein knows that the first step is to equip them with knowledge.

According to separate surveys conducted in 2019, 65 percent of American adults describe themselves as Christian, and 14 percent say they use CBD. Klein, CEO and Founder of The greenery of Godrecognized the overlap and launched his business when he saw that the “underserved public” needed a place to speak and learn about the complex in a way that aligned with a Christian worldview .

“We identified that there was this growing chatter online of Christians using hemp-derived CBD as part of their wellness program,” he says. “The world of CBD is so crowded and so confusing. You have 3,000 different brands that generally think they’re for everyone, but of course if you’re talking to everyone, you’re not talking to anyone.

Originally designed as a community platform, God’s Greenery went live in late 2018 in hopes that there would be some pushback from its target audience. There were none. “It was more like, ‘I love CBD, now I have a place to talk about it,'” he says. “But as we continued to grow, the feedback was, ‘Great, thanks for the education, now what do I buy? “”

A trusted strategic partnership

When Klein didn’t have a good answer for those who didn’t know what to look for, he and his team decided to take the opportunity to “reward the community” by creating their own line of products. After meeting Dr. Jason Mitchell, ND, the co-founder and co-CEO of HempFusion and another man of faith, the two decided to form a strategic partnership to develop hemp-derived CBD products that Christians could trust.

Describing HempFusion as “the most conservative hemp company, period,” Mitchell says it was his team’s regulatory portfolio and commitment to a safe, high-quality product — the company imports its organic hemp from Europe, tests it and even provides batch reports online, which won Klein over. Today, HempFusion provides the raw material for God’s Greenery product line.

“We’re kind of the smarts inside the bottle for them, with their flair and their formulation,” says Mitchell. “We helped ensure it was manufactured correctly, tested appropriately, and stable so that when they offered a product to their consumers, it truly had value.”

So what makes products for Christians?

A quick look at God’s Greenery online store offers a range of two varieties of capsules (one for activity and one for sleep) and a hemp oil suitable for people with anxiety, aptly called title “Oil of Happiness”. Ingredients include hemp oil and other “biblical” plants and herbs such as rosemary, grape seed extract, basil oil, flaxseed oil, lemon balm and chamomile.

That, and a guarantee that the products are non-intoxicating and “will not interfere with daily life” as they contain such low amounts of THC that they are almost undetectable.

CBD for Christians, or just marketing?

A skeptic may look at this brand and come to the conclusion that these are just clever marketing techniques. Corn faith-based marketing is nothing new. Moreover, there is no denying that a certain finesse is required when broaching the subject of cannabis and hemp with doubtful family members and friends who may very well be convinced that the two are, for lack of a better term, devil’s lettuce.

Mitchell, himself a former skeptic of the beneficial properties of cannabis and hemp, says God’s Greenery and the mission to spread the word about CBD is more about expanding the minds of an “audience who deserves to have the truth” than to capitalize on a trend in the health and wellness market.

“I was one of those idiots who said anything related to cannabis should be illegal, that it was a drug, that it was a narcotic, that it was crazy and people just wanted a excuse to get high,” he admits.

When he was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in 2011, he took it upon himself to learn more about the body’s endocannabinoid system. Although he claims that medical cannabis was far from responsible for curing his condition, it opened his mind that the plant’s compounds were “not just a gimmick”.

Mitchell says that despite years of unhealthy conditioning and stigma around cannabis, even the most conservative Americans feel let down by the medical community in the wake of the opioid crisis, and as they search for alternatives, CBD is rising. presented as a safe option.

“When you look at elders within a church and within a Christian community, they maintain a high level of conservatism, and I think for many there’s a very good reason for that,” he says. “Being too liberal in too many areas can lead us down this broad path as opposed to the narrow path.”

For Mitchell, it’s about where the lines of this spiritual path are drawn: “If we’re going to draw the lines on facts, so much the better; if we want to draw the lines of an assumption that was created by man to vilify something, I think we have to revisit that.

Covid-19 and social currency

Klein’s solution to spreading the word about CBD, amid Covid-19 no less, is two-fold: the online platform is still used to share knowledge with curious Christians and potential consumers, while a new system ambassador program allows customers to donate to different charities and earn extra money by sharing their God’s Greenery experience with family and friends.

“I look at everything, especially in the world of CBD, as a social currency. When you discover something you love, you want to share it with people,” Klein explains. “Launching a brand during a pandemic presents many challenges, but at the same time, we have a lot of screen time, and the opportunity to earn extra income right now, in addition to giving back, is very, very appealing to people. .”

While from a business perspective Klein and Mitchell remain focused on CBD, Mitchell also recognizes the medical benefits of THC. (After all, plants and compounds are created by God, right?) Although it may be too soon for cannabis marketers to try to pass on the benefits of THC to Christians of the same way God’s Greenery did with CBD, the science is already there. .

“I think the more controversial we make it, the more people will hide it,” he says. “There is a huge amount of research to show that THC is a very useful cannabinoid. Plus, there are over 100 different cannabinoids, and then you go even further and realize it doesn’t stop there,” says- he.

“For me, I look at it and say, ‘What an incredible opportunity. “”