With such a high number of CBD brands, a constant barrage of misinformation , and a general lack of regulation, it can be difficult knowing who to trust when it comes to buying hemp products. Low budget websites, social media scammers, multilevel marketing companies, and obscure celebrity endorsements pollute the airwaves with useless products, deals that are too good to be true, and exaggerated medical claims. Quality-oriented homegrown brands now compete to fend off bandwagon-hopping corporate invaders who see nothing but a sexy bottom line. All this boils down to the biggest question in the national CBD industry: who can consumers trust?

Since their inception, this is the question that Pure CBD Exchange and Aspen Valley Hemp Company exist to answer. These companies have discovered that there’s more to creating trust than just a polished appearance or a fancy marketing campaign. Trust is measured by a company’s genuine concern for what people are putting into their bodies and making sure that it provides as much relief as possible. Trust is knowing your patient and doing right by them. Few people can claim to know cannabis and its consumers as intimately as Pure CBD Exchange founder Dillon Gross.

Courtesy of Pure CBD Exchange

Laying Down Roots

Gross has been in the cannabis industry since the earliest days of Colorado legalization and even operated dispensaries for what became the largest retailer in Colorado. This time spent behind the counter introduced him to tens of thousands of customers ranging from college kids looking for a buzz to elderly people trying to cope with daily pain. These everyday conversations led to a deep understanding of the different goals users were seeking with their cannabis use. Each individual had a different story with cannabis, whether they were brand new to it or fighting years of stigma.

“When you’re dealing face-to-face with locals, whether it’s in an urban dispensary or in a mountain town like Aspen, you’ve got to earn people’s trust,” Gross said. “You can’t look someone in the eye and sell them products you don’t believe in. You have to listen, and you have to deliver quality.”

Courtesy of Pure CBD Exchange

The Path to Quality

Quality can be an elusive concept in cannabis. It took Gross years of experience running stores, developing product lines, wholesaling, and testing products to truly filter through all of the nonsense. A well-intended desire to differentiate yourself as a brand can often lead companies to overcomplicate the definitions of quality. Sometimes creating the highest caliber product means being on the cutting-edge, but when it comes to plant-based medicine, the path to quality is most often found by going back to nature.

For example, some will preach the benefits of hyper-purified CBD isolate, though it loses much of its value when stripped away from other cannabinoids. Some preach the values of nanotechnology and particulate sizes that haven’t been scientifically proven to do anything but intimidate customers into spending extra cash. The further you go in attempting to purify something that was already effective, the more you remove it from its original composition. The goal of curating CBD products should be an end result that resembles a rich profile of terpenes and a full spectrum of diverse cannabinoids.

Courtesy of Pure CBD Exchange

Full spectrum, Full circle

Pure CBD Exchange provides clean organic full spectrum oils while their newest brand, Aspen Valley Hemp Company , provides the flower itself. Aspen Valley enables consumers to use hemp in the way they choose, the way that best fits their lifestyle. Pure CBD creates quality Co2 extracted oils that provide patients with potent products that capture the essence of the plant. Both companies focus on inclusion and practicality by selling products at accessible price points. For some, CBD is only a practical treatment if it can be used daily—something that can’t be accomplished if prices are astronomically high.

A focus on quality and affordability is the patient-first mentality that allowed Pure CBD Exchange to grow from a tiny unfunded start-up, into a leader in CBD e-commerce. Superior trust, experience, and higher standards have put the company in an excellent position to continue to expand throughout the nation as the CBD market booms in the coming years.