Let’s Talk Hemp recently sat down with Brian Dickerson of Star Manufacturing Hemp, a vertical aligned hemp company, which owns the rights to HempFlavin and uses its own seeds to cultivate, harvest, extract and package its own products all on its property in Labelle, Florida.
How did your career lead you to hemp?
As a lawyer, representing pharmaceutical companies, I ended up representing a couple of my business contacts who left Big Pharma and then formed their own nutraceutical and dietary supplement companies. Those companies evolved into cannabis and hemp. I then started representing several hemp businesses, including laboratories, contract manufacturers, extraction companies, and even farmers. After being involved with several of my clients selling their businesses to private equity and with the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill one of my bio-pharmaceutical clients and I decided to start a business model that would not only grow the hemp and botanicals, but also extract the botanicals, and then manufacture products directly from those botanical extracts. A vertical integration that would ensure the control of the botanicals, including hemp, and exclude the use of pesticides and heavy metals, so that the end product would be a pure dietary supplement or cosmetic. Since 2020 we have created several of our own lines, including Equine Hemp Solutions, Doctors Hemp Solutions, and Canine Hemp Solutions. We also contract manufacture for dietary supplement companies, healthcare companies, and physicians.
Tell us about your Equine Hemp Products, what is unique about them?
Our Equine Hemp Solutions products are unique in that they are products derived directly from the plants that we grow. There are no chemicals, pharmaceutical byproducts, or elements that are dangerous for the horse. We utilize the flavonoids from hemp and other botanicals that have been demonstrated to be 30 times stronger as an anti-inflammatory and pain reliever, than any NSAID. These flavonoids are also water soluble, so they have great bioavailability, and if your body, or the horse body, does not need a specific flavonoid, the body will urinate any excess, whereas with NSAIDs and cannabinoids, which are lipid-based, any unused portions, will then be stored in the body.
Our products are THC and drug-free, and our substances can be used in all equine disciplines. It gives the horse natural relief and provides a natural supplement which a horse’s body can use without any side effects. So often in the equine industry we have to be cautious of the side effects and overuse of NSAIDs.
Our wound care products are the best in the industry, I am confident to say, from seeing the results. The use of the botanical flavonoids with natural charcoal and botanical roots provides for a cleansing of the wound, deterrent to flies and insects, and provides an ability for the wound to heal itself.
Our derm spray is used on horses and dogs and assists with clearing up skin issues caused by the environment and from injuries.
Tell us about your new partnerships in the performance horse industry?
We have been working with some of the best people in the equine Industry and having these horse owners use our products has been greatly beneficial. This has led to the top associations in the equine industry recognizing the quality of our products and creating strong partnerships.
We are currently the only hemp supplement company in this space and are partners to the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association, Women’s Professional Rodeo Association, The World Series of Team Roping, and the Cinch Ranch and Sorting National Championship.
Our partnership with the PRCA allows our products to be promoted in some of the biggest rodeo events of the year and concludes with the National Finals Rodeo, which is for ten days in Las Vegas in December.
Have you run into any legal or regulatory issues with your hemp products?
As a lawyer, we have always tried to be ahead of any legal changes. One of the decisions we made early on, is not to be just a CBD company. With the flavonoids, we do not have to deal with all of the cannabinoid or THC restrictions. Our HempFlavin line based on the flavonoids allows for an easier legal climate. We still have some products which are from our high CBDa plant, but we decided not to delve into the THC side, as there are plenty of those companies in the industry. We focus on the flavonoids from the hemp and other botanical plants.
What other plans and/or initiatives do you have for 2023 and going forward?
We are working with other equine and canine association leaders to educate them on how our product differentiates from THC and CBD products and how we are a safe alternative to supplements and pharmaceuticals, which have direct or indirect side effects.
One exciting finding and report from this past February showed our HempFlavin eliminated 1800 parasitic eggs per gram in deer to 0 eggs per gram in 4 weeks of using our product. This exciting news has caused many others to study the impact of our HempFlavin on parasites. We are now working with some Universities who are studying the impact of the flavonoids on animals and parasites as well as our hemp-based bedding and the quality of equine stalls using hemp versus other products. We will also continue our research and clinical studies with physicians and veterinarians.
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