Cannabis Wealth speaks to David Molloy, founder of DNACBD™, about his start in the industry and his unique dosage table that helps customers find their perfect purchase.
David’s introduction to cannabis is an unusual story. Following an injury where he broke his heel before an international exchange trip to Canada, he became part of a wheelchair basketball team.
“I had crutches for nine months, and while I was over there, I was going shopping using a motorised cart when a lady on a Zimmer frame with hip impingements approached me. She was the manager of the Canadian wheelchair basketball team, and she looked after a regional squad called the speed spinners. She asked if I would be interested in playing with them.”
He added: “I had been playing basketball for about 15 years, so that sounded like a dream to me. During the international exchange, I trained with the under 21 development squad for the Canadian wheelchair basketball team whilst playing the regional circuit. I ended up going to the national Paralympics games, competing and winning a bronze medal. The entire experience was life-changing.”
David realised that a lot of the players on the team had a range of different conditions they were trying to manage. Some of the players had cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis or epilepsy along with autism or ADHD. One person had a bacterial disease that was degrading his bone and muscles. David began to notice that a lot of the players were taking medical cannabis. He had been searching for an alternative to pain medication that wouldn’t be too disruptive for his body, in particular his stomach.
He had been working in disability prior to joining the Canadian team for around ten years. David was surprised at the quality of life improvements he saw the players experience. Prior to this, he had been aware of the stigma of cannabis use in sports. He wanted to know more about the plant and what it could offer.
Starting in CBD
Originally from Australia, David decided to move from Canada to the UK. He was interested in starting a business within the CBD space but wanted to learn more first. He joined a CBD brand operated by MPX International Corporation to work in their flagship store in Soho and went on to be their senior educator. As the store sold lots of different brands, formulas and products, he began to notice how confusing the labelling could be for consumers.
“At the time, everyone was calling all whole plant oils full spectrum. I don’t think a lot of brands knew what to label things and people, as well as staff, had to learn the difference between broad or full spectrum. The labelling has improved dramatically since then in line with increasing education.”
He added: “I would have customers ask about having drug tests and THC in their system. I would contact a brand to say, you have called your product, full-spectrum, can you tell me how much THC is in this? They would say none whatsoever and be proud of that fact. So there was a real confusion between what things were labelled versus what things actually contained.
While David does note that things have improved with education and time, there are still areas for improvement in the industry. This has led to the development of his brand, DNACBD™. The brand offers a range of high-quality CBD oils with clear, concise labelling and a focus on education. The packaging is designed so that a customer can pick it up and read everything they need to know instantly on the back of the product.
DNACBD education
David designed an easy to use table that can help with confusion around percentages, strengths or CBD amounts. It makes it easier for customers to see the percentage of CBD in a bottle at one glance rather than having to do complicated math. Perhaps more importantly it works to mitigate any dosing errors when selecting CBD oils.
David explained: “I’ve spoken to a lot of doctors, nutritionists, physiotherapists and medical professionals that were interested in CBD. However, they felt they couldn’t get into it with confidence because of the lack of transparency or clarity. When they tried to figure it out, it presented numerous challenges, time-consuming and sometimes too onerous.” It was clear this needed resolving as soon as possible.
He added: “I would spend half an hour with them explaining it thoroughly. If individuals don’t have the knowledge then they can get misled or tripped up easily because you buy the same strength in a bigger bottle size without understanding that the concentration of CBD is worked out over the volume of the bottle. Causing you to have purchased a CBD oil far more diluted in strength than you had before.”
David highlighted that this is something the industry needs to focus on. As well as educating customers that came into the shop, he spent time with his staff teaching them how to work out what the best value for money was for each customer.
“Ultimately, staff are going to be selling CBD on the high streets and they want to know exactly what they are selling. If they get asked a question about strength and bottle sizes that they don’t know, then it doesn’t look good and the customer loses confidence in CBD because they aren’t getting clear answers,” he said.
David realised that people may not understand the percentage in bottles and mistakenly buy bigger bottles with the same milligram of CBD they are used to as they believe it may be better value for money.
“If I show them the table like the difference between various sizes then you can follow my finger down to see the percentage. So you get an understanding that milligramme is not the measure of strength. Eight out of ten people who walk into the store think that milligramme is the measure of strength and that is going to immediately trip them up.”
David highlighted that this has made training for his staff, and those at other CBD and wellness brands that he works with, much easier. It has given the staff a feeling of confidence when speaking with customers about CBD.
“It’s given them confidence in selling CBD because they have been able to show a customer so they understand more. It’s a way of being a bit more transparent around the space. Everyone has a unique lifestyle or biological factors along with a unique endocannabinoid system or they reside somewhere between acute and chronic disease within the body. If they want to get into a state of homeostasis, then they can show, on the table, where they started, where they experimented and where they ended up.”
He added: “They can confidently know what they are looking for and experiment if they need to. When it comes to people’s health, it’s a pretty important purchase and I wanted to have a way to resolve it.”
Another area that David has worked on to ensure the best possible option for customers is by introducing a graduated dropper for oils.
“Professor Mike Barnes said that for dosing, it was critical to have a graduated dropper to take the guesswork out of the equation. That to me was a call to action to make sure my products had a graduated dropper for precise dosing. I found that customers didn’t want to fill their entire mouths with oil so I designed mine to be higher strength so you can consciously feel it been absorbed.”
David also highlighted that the ink on the droppers can also be a problem.
“The plant is bioaccumulative where it can draw in toxins and heavy metals. I was a bit concerned that the graduated droppers are printed on with lead which is a heavy metal. I don’t want those cannabinoids to be sitting in an environment where they are in contact with that for a long time. Sometimes they can leach or break down and no heavy metal in the human body is a good amount to have,” he said.
He concluded: “From a best practise standpoint, the graduated droppers that I have got use a natural dye. So there is nothing that, if it leached, could be a concern for a customer.”
Accessibility
David also used his background of working within disability groups for inspiration on how to make the DNACBD website more accessible.
“When I was building the website and looking at the type, I realised a lot of the guys I played wheelchair basketball with are visually impaired. A lot of the packaging in the CBD industry had small writing or fine print which can be hard to read. There is a lot of information which is difficult to break down.”
David spoke to the manager of the wheelchair basketball team and she provided some different ways to test websites or text for visual impairment. He selected an award-winning font that was easy to read even with eyesight difficulties. The result is the visually appealing website and DNACBD™ product design.
David is keen to work more with dedicated natural athletes given his background. The table can be used by physiotherapists, elite performance coaches, nutritionists, or those working with athletes to determine what dosage or strength they need and respond to best.
“The table is one of those things that I wanted to provide for anyone. It’s called the DNA CBD Universal Lookup Table. It is meant for the industry, for staff, health care practitioners and ultimately for consumers. It can be downloaded directly from the website.”
DNACBD™ is due to launch soon.
