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CBD oil
Heidi Herriges of Panaceacanna (207 S. Curtis Road, West Allis) cites “a little series of events” that inspired her, along with her husband, John, to start a wholesale hemp processing business. Her father expressed excitement about the farm bill that was signed into law February 2014 by President Obama. That bill permitted states to cultivate industrial hemp.
But Herriges was particularly moved by Sally Schaeffer, a Burlington, Wis.-based mom whose effort to get cannabidiol (CBD) legalized as a seizure medication for her daughter, Lydia, led to Wisconsin’s “Lydia’s Law.” Although the law appeared to have legalized CBD, a clause slipped into the bill required medical organizations in Wisconsin to first get Food and Drug Administration approval, an expensive and cumbersome process. Because of that clause, CBD was still out of reach for epilepsy patients in Wisconsin.
“I had always believed in the healing power of plants, and with that story, I was blown away,” Herriges says. “She (Schaeffer) had achieved her goal of legalizing hemp, but she still had to go out of state to treat her daughter because no infrastructure had existed in Wisconsin at that time. I knew I wanted to be part of the solution and do what I could to help bring hemp— CBD in particular— to the state.”
Heidi and John had owned a successful pipe fitting business, JH Mechanical, Inc., since 1997, which allowed them to finance a hemp venture. She says she did intense research on CBD and was impressed by full spectrum CBD’s “entourage effect,” a term used to describe how cannabinoids and terpenoids in cannabis are synergistic. That piqued Herriges’ interest in the extraction side of hemp.
Small-batch Extraction
Herriges’ research led her Comerg, an Arizona-based company that makes the Pure5 extraction machine. According to Comerg’s website, the Pure5 is a low-cost alternative to C02, butane, propane or ethanol extraction. Herriges explains that it uses R134a refrigerant. “The Comerg R134a extractor itself had been used for 20 years in the perfume and pharmaceutical industries. The cannabis industry is turning to Pure5 because more states are legalizing marijuana and looking for new extraction methods.”
Once Herriges had an extraction method in place, she and John looked for space to a launch Panaceacanna. They eventually found warehouse space in West Allis that was small enough for their small-batch needs yet could accommodate a clean room. She praised employees at Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP), along with the city of West Allis, in providing help and guidance during all licensing and inspection processes.
The Herrigues’ built a 1,000 square-foot freestanding cleanroom with materials from Manitowoc, Wis.-based Extrutech Plastics, makers of interlocking wall and ceiling panels. The couple had heavily researched and experimented with the Pure5 machine, and Comerg representatives provided additional training for its use, maintenance and cleaning. They experimented with hemp provided by Springdale Farm, in Plymouth, Wis. “Our oils turned out beautifully. It’s an incredible process because there’s no other extraction. Nothing further is needed—no distillation, and the crude CBD can be used straight into a product.”
Panaceacanna opened in August and focuses on wholesale extraction. They partnered with Premium CBD Labs, in Madison, for third party testing. Like other businesses in the CBD arena whose websites or social media pages were pulled due to inadvertent use of flagged words or images, Herriges says they had gotten kicked off of Google. She is in the process of rebuilding the Panaceacanna website. “They don’t even tell you what you did wrong,” she notes.
Herriges sees a current imbalance of hemp supply versus demand, but overall, she believes the CBD market is off to a good start in Wisconsin. “A lot of people are growing, extracting and creating their own products, like a turnkey industry. I see any success in this industry as a success for all of us.”
