| I was walking through downtown Gatlinburg, Tenn., with my family last week as we embraced a touristy getaway full of overpriced excursions.
While we also mixed in a few nature hikes in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, we spent most of our time indulging in the entertainment and restaurant hubs of the city, including nearby Pigeon Forge.
But it didn’t take long for a few fan leaves and flowering colas to catch my eyes. Sharing the Gatlinburg parkway with ice cream shops, moonshine distilleries and various eateries was an abundance of hemp dispensaries catering to the foot traffic of out-of-towners.
Specifically, Tennessee Hemp Care drew me in from the street with more than a dozen flowering plants, as seen through a five-pane window. The product offerings were nothing short of complete, including categories with hemp-derived delta-8, -9 and -10 THC, as well as CBD, CBN, HHC and THC-O.
Additional products—from moonrocks to kief flower, live rosin, waxes and delta-8 Gelato distillate syringes—were available up and down the parkway at places like Cafe 420, Smoky Mountain Organics, Best Little Hemp House, The Smoky Grass Station and the like.
It’s not often I visit one of the 13 states that has yet to fully legalize medical and/or adult-use cannabis, but what I found in Tennessee was beyond my expectations. Becoming more evident in this increasingly competitive industry is that product trends are pivotal.
As Portland, Ore.-based LOWD founder Jesce Horton recently told CBT Associate EditorAndriana Ruscitto, industry executives must “have a real ear to the street, boots on the ground, and a target demographic,” to keep up.
So, what’s next?
At Cannabis Conference (Aug. 23-25 | Las Vegas), we’ve got you covered with the educational session, “Product Trends of 2022 and Predictions For What’s to Come.”
Jocelyn Sheltraw, of Headset, and Gary Allen, of New Frontier Data, will provide key insights into today’s consumer demands and how plant-touching businesses can rise to meet them.
That’s for state-licensed cannabis and hemp.
-Tony Lange, Associate Editor | 