China Launches First CBD Research Firm

China is to get its first company dedicated to research, development and marketing of medicinal products based on cannabidiol, or CBD.

The firm, dubbed XiBiDi Biotechnology Co, will operate out of Pudong Technology Park, part of the Shanghai Pilot Free-Trade Zone. It will initially offer hemp-derived CBD oil, as well as hemp-based foods and beverages, according to a press release from ChineseInvestors.com, or CIIX. The Chinese character “XiBiDi” is homophonic to “CBD” in English.

XiBiDi Biotechnology will be the operator of CIIX’s recently launched online store, ChineseCBDoil.com, which will focus on marketing “legal, hemp-based CBD nutrient and health products to Chinese-speaking customers worldwide.” CIIX is also preparing to open a retail store based in the predominantly Chinese community of San Gabriel, California.

“CIIX is very excited to be the world’s first U.S. publicly traded company promoting hemp-based CBD health products and hemp foods that will help Chinese people improve their overall health,” said CIIX founder and CEO Warren Wang.

Even if this means competition for U.S.-based cannabusinesses, it is a hopeful sign of growing global acceptance of the medicinal value of cannabinoids.

However, recall that China continues to execute possibly thousands each year (the number is secret) for drug offenses, and actual herbaceous cannabis is almost impossible to come by in the world’s largest country.

This, despite the fact that Chinese industry is actually given a freer hand to experiment with cannabis for development of patented medicines than companies in the United States—a phenomenon we’ve recognized as China’s cannabis contradiction.

Rigid Communist-style social control for the masses, freewheeling capitalism for the elites. Gotta love it.