Hugh Hempel got into the medical marijuana business to help his twin daughters.
The girls, now 12, suffer from Niemann-Pick Disease, a rare and fatal genetic disorder often referred to as childhood Alzheimer’s. Hempel and his wife became health care entrepreneurs in seek of treatments and, later, found that cannabidiol was effective in combating the girls’ daily seizures.
“I was treating my children with CBD oil,” says Hempel, who is working in Nevada to build two medical marijuana dispensaries. “There was no qualified, high-quality supply chain. So I just saw that as an opportunity, and entered the market for those reasons.”
That market soon could change. Nevada residents this November could vote to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.
Hempel, who helped to open The Clinic Nevada and serves as the chief executive of cannabis brand management company Strainz, talks with Cannabist editor-in-chief Ricardo Baca on The Cannabist Show to share how he’s already noticed people jumping in the game.
“When adult use comes, and it will, we’ll embrace that — not so much because of recreation, per se, although I’m completely down with recreation,” he says. “The real reason is that it just opens up access to those who, for whatever reason — privacy reasons and so forth — don’t want to necessarily go get their medical card. So I think that’s a good thing.”
Watch the full episode of The Cannabist Show
