Combining Hemp and Homeopathy with Easy-To-Use Patches

What if we told you there was a Band-Aid for everyday ailments that don’t cut the skin? When it comes to hangovers, sleepless nights, menstruation and anxiety, that’s exactly what you get with The Good Patch’s line of all-natural, CBD-infused patches.

We caught up with The Good Patch CEO and co-founder Betsy Scanlan to learn more about the company’s roots in the fight for cannabis law reform in the deep south; balancing CBD-infused and hemp-free product lines; and pushing cannabis further into the mainstream wellness industry.

Cannabis Now: How did you get into the wellness industry, and how did The Good Patch come about?

Betsy Scanlan: My business partners, Kelly Brock and David Nicholson, owned award-winning day spas for 20 years and had many clients coming in with specific complaints about being hungover, exhausted or highly anxious. We started talking about how we could create a product that gives people relief. We loved the delivery capabilities of patches, and when we began in 2017, not many people were working with patches. A shift was happening in the market, and we were on the early side of using hemp in the wellness space instead of selling in dispensaries. From there, The Good Patch was born.

What inspired you to start working with hemp?

I had been interested in both cannabis and hemp long before they went mainstream. I had a couple of family members who had cancer, so I was looking at products that might help mitigate the side effects of chemo and radiation. Living in Tennessee, I was trying to help lobby the state legislature to pass a medical marijuana law, but that was not happening and has still not happened to this day. But I had seen CBD work, and the anecdotal evidence was so strong that I was incredibly excited to move into that space with Kelly and David.

What kind of extract do you use to make the patches, and where does The Good Patch source its CBD?

We source all of our hemp from Colorado and use its CBD isolate in the infused patches. When we started, before the Farm Bill legalized hemp at the federal level, there was so much fear about CBD, THC and the plant’s legal status that the isolate allowed us to produce and sell the patches with confidence that they were 100% THC-free. We’ve teamed up with a supplier in Colorado that tests every crop multiple times for potency and safety. While we can’t technically call our hemp organic due to federal regulations, all of the hemp we use is grown under those same organic conditions.

Outside of hemp-infused patches, what kind of ingredients go into the patches?

At the outset, we designed The Good Patch as a total wellness company that also includes CBD products. We have two distinct lines of product, one with hemp and one without. For the patches without CBD, we use tried-and-true remedies like melatonin, menthol, hops, valerian root, black cohosh and other all-natural ingredients.

With so many unique products aimed at hyper-focused issues like sleep, period pain and hangovers, how do you go about formulating and testing each ailment-specific patch recipe?

We work with chemists and give them specific ailments to focus on, and they help us blend all-natural ingredients to get to those final products. It’s a lot of trial and error, and through that whole process, Kelly, David, myself, and all of our families test the patches personally to make sure they really work. We are our own guinea pigs.

The Good Patch is now selling in big brand stores like Target and Urban Outfitters, do you think that you’ve helped with hemp-derived CBD’s expansion in mainstream wellness culture?

When we started, the mom and pop stores were much more accepting of CBD than the big retailers. So we started selling the CBD patches at the smaller stores, and the non-hemp patches at bigger stores. When the Farm Bill passed, the bigger companies felt more comfortable selling the CBD products, but we still had to go through so many levels of bureaucracy to get them approved. Target is currently selling only our non-hemp based patches, but we’re excited to have a presence there if and when they decide they’re ready to carry a select few trusted CBD products.

As CBD moves further into mainstream culture, the federal government is still moving slowly to regulate hemp-infused products. What’s it like to navigate through such uncertainty? 

It’s really frustrating. A lot of people are self-regulating right now, and most companies set a different bar when it comes to standards. The key thing is not to make any claims and to use the best ingredients possible. The goal is that, hopefully, when regulations do come down, we are already compliant.

The Good Patch also makes products for kids. How did that side of the business emerge, and what makes those products different than the adult versions?

The team had been talking about making a kids line since last year. All of us at the company have kids, and we didn’t see anything on the market like our Dream or Nite Nite patches that were all-natural and effective for children. Instead of melatonin and hemp, we use tart cherry and combine it with chamomile and skullcap [natural herbs]. That’s it – only three safe and natural ingredients.  We tried them on our children first and were immediately amazed. We were in the process of getting the kids’ patches to market when the pandemic hit, and we saw how children’s sleep habits were getting messed up just like adults. That was leading to more anxiety and irritability, so we decided to push out the patches for kids to help them and their parents, and it’s been a huge success.

You’ve been teasing a new line of non-patch products on social media lately – can you give us a peek into what’s next for The Good Patch brand?

We just launched a new line of effervescent tablets called Rise. It has a huge amount of vitamin C, antioxidants, minerals and ginger. We’re looking at what customers are asking for, and that’s been shuffled around by the pandemic, but sleep, energy and wellness are our three pillars, and Rise falls perfectly under that wellness umbrella. We have a whole roster of CBD products that we are going to bring to market, but with so many regulation questions up in the air with the hemp market, we’re going to put those on pause for the moment and go with what we know is helping people.   

TELL US, are you interested in hemp-based CBD products?