The medical marijuana industry is being heralded as the new frontier in the life sciences, thanks to the potential of cannabis-derived products in treating ailments that range from chemotherapy-induced nausea to epilepsy and neuropathic pain. If you’re a startup in the industry, what does this mean for you? In a nutshell, it means opportunities abound, but regulatory uncertainty remains.

For the medical marijuana industry to earn public trust, it must find a clear regulatory path. The industry’s journey toward that path resembles what the nutraceutical and tobacco industries faced in the past.

Nutraceuticals and cigarettes are popular among consumers throughout the world, but their manufacturers suffered the stigma of being unregulated for a long time. Without the stamp of regulatory approval, many people considered dietary supplements dubious. Likewise, cigarette companies were deemed unethical.

It wasn’t until 1994 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began to regulate the nutraceutical industry under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act.¹ The FDA’s regulation of tobacco products came in 2009, prompted by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.²

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