Beyoncé has already spent the last 20 years building a legacy for herself as a music artist and pop culture icon, and now it’s looking like she will add cannabidiol (CBD) and hemp to the long list of accomplishments she is known for, according to a recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar.
“I discovered CBD on my last tour, and I’ve experienced its benefits for soreness and inflammation. It helped with my restless nights and the agitation that comes from not being able to fall asleep,” she said.
Beyoncé said she has found relief not only from CBD, but also the healing properties in honey, which she found benefits her and her children. After observing the benefits of both over time, she said she plans to build a hemp and honey farm.
“I’m building hemp and a honey farm. I’ve even got hives on my roof!” she added.
Those who have followed Beyoncé over the years might know this isn’t her first experience interacting with the cannabis industry. Last year, Beyoncé’s foundation BeyGood partnered with NAACP to give the Maryland cannabis company The Gift a grant for $10,000, going toward the support of Black-owned businesses affected by COVID-19.
She has also spent a large chunk of her career married to Jay-Z, who boasts an abundance of experience in the cannabis industry, now arguably acting as a larger player in the biz with his high-end cannabis brand, Monogram, which launched its first products in California in late 2020.
According to the website, “Monogram marks a new chapter in cannabis defined by dignity, care and consistency. It is a collective effort to bring you the best, and a humble pursuit to discover what the best truly means.”
Monogram boasts a 100,000-square-foot facility in San Jose, CA, where, according to a report from GQ, 11,000 pounds of cannabis are produced each year.
The factory is owned by a publicly traded company, The Parent Company, which consolidates the California cannabis behemoth Caliva with 17 other weed brands, including a few other celebrity names like Carlos Santana’s Mirayo and Bob Marley’s Marley Natural. The Parent Company is vertically integrated, meaning that from start to finish, they control the means of production.
And the power couple are surely not the only celebrities getting in on the booming cannabis industry. Just this week, Method Man announced that he is launching his cannabis brand, TICAL (Taking into Consideration All Lives, named after his first solo album), with the intent of tackling racial injustice and offering job opportunities to residents in communities that have been disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.
Overall, it seems as though the celebrity involvement in cannabis is also a positive for the industry, and a helpful push in shifting the public opinion of cannabis toward the better.
A 2017 study published in the British Journal of Marketing shows that celebrity endorsements are effective and that their credibility points to a certain expertise and trustworthiness in regard to how consumers approach new products. They are seen as people the public knows and trusts, even though other factors, like similarity, familiarity, and likeability also come into play when examining the habits of consumer buying behavior.
If consumers are fans, they perceive a higher value on products receiving a celebrity endorsement.
With that information in mind, and knowing the superpower influence Beyoncé has garnered over her time in the spotlight, her direct involvement in a hemp farm could surely open up the minds of a plethora of fans who may have, until now, been hesitant to explores the nonpsychoactive cannabinoid as a medicinal remedy.
CBD is known for increasing relaxation, decreasing anxiety, and promoting anti-inflammatory properties, though regulations are still catching up. The FDA has recognized the benefits of CBD, though they have warned companies marking products with CBD and other cannabis compounds that they may be violating the Federal Good, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. With that, CBD is still federally illegal when contained in food or labeled as a diet supplement.
If CBD is approved as a legal additive, it has the potential to drastically boost the CBD market, and with celebrity endorsements like Beyoncé’s, there may be a greater push surrounding the benefits of cannabis and the need to do more research so CBD becomes FDA approved.
