Elemental Wellness, a vertically integrated cannabis dispensary in San Jose, Calif., celebrated its 10-year anniversary in May, and while many things have changed over the past decade and priorities have shifted, the company has always placed an emphasis on medical cannabis research and scientific knowledge.
“Elemental has tried throughout the years to always be based on science and the scientific knowledge of what cannabis represents,” former Chief Science Officer Dr. Benson Hausman tells Cannabis Dispensary. “That has kept Elemental as a really reputable and reliable dispensary for thousands of people.”
Elemental Wellness is grounded in a strong brand with brand recognition across Northern California, according to CEO Joe LoMonaco. The company has been involved in the state’s legislative process to advance cannabis policy reform, and successfully transitioned from the medical to adult-use market when recreational sales launched Jan. 1, 2018.
As the cannabis industry matured and businesses began to consolidate, many companies were interested in acquiring Elemental Wellness.
“A lot of people knew what would happen if they could get their foothold in Northern California, especially with an operation like Elemental, so we had a lot of suitors,” LoMonaco says. “We … turned them all down. We didn’t feel comfortable with any of the deals.”
Instead, the company continued to grow, expanding to a $20-million-a-year, vertically integrated operation.
“Elemental has just been tried and true, steady, and we move cautiously,” LoMonaco says. “We want to make sure that as a company, we do this right.”
Seeking Science
In 2012, Elemental Wellness founder Derik Howard asked Hausman, his uncle and a medical doctor who was living in Texas at the time, to join the team to help advance the dispensary’s scientific knowledge surrounding medical cannabis.
“They wanted to make sure that they were doing things responsibly and professionally for the patients who were coming to us,” Hausman says.
After moving to California, Hausman began studying cannabis and its medical effects to help the dispensary better serve its patients. The dispensary set up a private consultation room where patients could discuss their medical issues with staff, and the staff was trained to provide advice that aligned with the science at the time. Elemental Wellness also invested in laboratory testing of its products.
“We were … really trying to assist patients … to find a strain or a certain cannabis extract … that was going to help them, and have that process shortened,” Hausman says. “When I first arrived, it would take approximately two months for somebody to figure out what was good for them. It was very difficult to determine what was good for them because of the wide selection that we see in dispensaries. There were so many things on the shelf. We were starting to do research into the strains and the types of cannabis that would help with certain ailments.”
Elemental Wellness ultimately developed educational content for doctors, patients and dispensaries to have on hand, and the published materials are available on the dispensary’s sales floor, as well as on its website.
With the onset of California’s adult-use cannabis market, however, much of this research became untenable for the dispensary due to the financial burdens placed on many of the state’s licensed businesses.
“Because of the financial considerations, it’s no longer really viable to carry out research in the environment that we have now with commercialization and recreational use,” Hausman says. “Any medical work that’s now going on in terms of cannabis is really occurring outside of the dispensaries, while it used to be that dispensaries were really the venue to do research. … It’s not been, in my view, a positive development, but it’s understandable given the financial burden that’s being placed on the dispensaries at the moment. They’re highly taxed—regulations are very expensive to maintain.”
Still, Hausman’s research lives on, and Elemental Wellness is working to both preserve his work and find ways to advance it in the future.
“I think there’s a balance to everything,” LoMonaco says. “Benson was such a pioneer back when he was doing this. There are charts and posters that he created that are used now by online organizations, as well as studies that are done at colleges and universities that are doing cannabis programs. … We also have created an entire library. … We still have it and we still utilize it. … We’re not doctors, so we can’t prescribe anything, but we can consult and we have a good understanding of what the THC and CBD does to a person and the effect the different strains have on people, and that was all brought to life by Benson and his studies.”
Hausman now serves as a board member of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians in California, which is dedicated to educating healthcare professionals about medical cannabis.
“Elemental was quite exceptional in that it was very much involved in trying to educate and to establish that medical cannabis was a legitimate and important part of the medical assistance that could be given to patients,” Hausman says. “What I’ve learned at Elemental and helped develop at Elemental was … of interest for [other] physicians … in the community. Elemental remains at the cutting edge or ahead of its time, and the intellect from that experience continues through me, even outside of the organization.”
“We’re always trying to stay ahead of the trends because there are a lot of people who are suffering out there, and they really want to use this medicine,” LoMonaco adds.
Looking ahead, Elemental Wellness is exploring opportunities to expand to additional states through licensing agreements, as well as M&A opportunities both in California and elsewhere to expand the brand.
“We’re excited about what’s happening, and I think the future for us really looks very bright,” LoMonaco says. “Elemental has a lot happening, and we look forward to amazing growth over the next few years."
