Cannabis Advocate to Address UN about CBD

Cannabidiol (CBD) has long been celebrated within the cannabis community as a wonderful form of medicine, but for the rest of the world, it’s still a very new concept. Raúl Elizalde, president of HempMeds®, a subsidiary of Medical Marijuana, Inc., is striving alongside the rest of his team. His admirable goal is to make CBD available and accepted everywhere, as he prepares to address the scheduling of CBD at the U.N. & World Health Organization Convention on Drug Scheduling next month.

Unlike many of the major players in the pharmaceuticals game, love, family and compassion are the reasons Elizalde entered into the field of medicine. He first started advocating for cannabis and learning about CBD, because he was using it as a medicine to treat his daughter.

“Only months after my daughter Grace was born she was diagnosed with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy,” Elizalde explained to CULTURE. “We immediately started trying many different treatments, surgeries and medications to control her seizures. Nothing the doctors tried worked, so I began looking for alternatives and ended up learning about the benefits of cannabis. When I learned that non-psychoactive, hemp-based CBD was helping other seizure patients, I did everything I could to get her some and almost immediately after beginning to take CBD, my daughter Grace started getting better.”

This ignited a lifelong passion in Elizalde to advocate for the medicine, and he started the Por Grace Foundation to do charity work and fight the good fight. He also works with CBD advocacy for a living, and the work he is doing with HempMeds® is changing the way the plant is looked at.

“HempMeds® created the first ‘CBD pipeline,’ a way to make CBD and other cannabinoids available legally throughout the United States and much of the world by deriving them from hemp,” he said. “We were also the first company to mainstream retail CBD products across the world with the creation of its Dixie Botanicals® and Real Scientific Hemp Oil™ brands.”

HempMeds® also made history by becoming the first company to receive the COFEPRIS federal government import permit for the cannabis product RSHO-X™ in Mexico. This means that they will be working directly with the Mexican government to provide CBD access.

Perhaps most exciting of all, Elizalde will be having a global impact this November when he addresses the United Nations about CBD.

“On November 6, 2017, I’m going to speak at the U.N. & World Health Organization Convention on Drug Scheduling in Geneva, Switzerland,” he explained. “There I will urge WHO leaders to recognize that hemp-based CBD is a non-psychoactive supplement that, contrary to what many politicians espouse, should not be scheduled as a drug. Besides its many health and wellness benefits that have been proven by studies conducted globally, CBD is safe to give to people of all ages and has no side-effects. After the meeting, the World Health Organization will give its recommendation on the scheduling of CBD to the United Nations, who in turn will decide on its own recommendation and may help many countries shape their substance policies.”

HempMeds® and Medical Marijuana, Inc.are clearly working hard and cornering the market on CBD products. Between their ventures, activism and partnerships, they are poised for greatness, and continue to lead the industry, and the world, with a strong sense of ethics and advocacy.

“In 10 years, Medical Marijuana, Inc. and subsidiary HempMeds® will have taken over the market for CBD hemp oil across the world and have played a significant role in the legalization of CBD in many countries across the world,” Elizalde said. “We will have a library of studies and testimonials that serve as reassurance that CBD is a supplement that, like Vitamin C, should have a recommended daily dosage for anyone, but especially for those with medical conditions that it may benefit.”

Looking to get involved? Raul is accepting cannabis stories that he will take to the World Health Org on Nov 6. You can follow his journey and share your own CBD story at www.raulwho.co