A half mile north of Kemin Industries’ $40 million global headquarters in Des Moines is the manufacturing facility for Bud & Mary’s, a small cannabis company aiming to apply the same scientific rigor to medical marijana as Kemin does to its specialty ingredients.

 Kemin was started in 1964 by R.W. “Bud” Nelson and his wife, Mary Nelson. The company began as an animal feed business that incorporated mold inhibitors to help keep livestock healthy. Over time, they were able to isolate specific enzymes that could be used to improve products. The Nelson family built what is now a $1 billion company that uses plant science to produce 500 specialty ingredients found in a range of products, from pet food to clothing. 

Chris Nelson, son of R.W. and Mary, is now president and CEO of Kemin. He began looking several years ago at the business viability of cannabis. In 2014, Iowa legalized the medical use of a small amount of cannabidiol oil for a small set of epilepsy patients. Then in 2017, the legislature opened cannabis use to include several medical conditions, including chronic pain, cancer, Parkinson’s disease and more. The expanded law was signed in May 2017 and the Nelson family had its cannabis company MedPharm, now Bud & Mary’s, up and running by December. 

“We were already extracting lots of botanicals here and providing the molecules to people,” Chris Nelson said. “This one was very logical for us to get into, because we know how to specially grow plants in a very controlled way. We know how to isolate the active molecules from it, characterize them, and then produce pharmaceutical-grade-type products. It was very logical for us to get into it. Obviously we’re in medical cannabis here in the state of Iowa, but we’re also in cannabis in Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, Illinois and soon, Minnesota.”

More than 100 chemical components can be found in cannabis, including CBD and THC. 

Cannabidiol, or CBD, is an extract from the cannabis plant that produces little, if any, intoxicating properties. Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the chemical that produces the marijuana high.

Lucas Nelson, Chris Nelson’s nephew, an attorney and cannabis advocate, was asked to run the new company. Lucas Nelson started in May 2017 and serves as group president of Bud & Mary’s. 

“We had Lucas Nelson, who was really interested in the area and was passionate about it. And if you’ve got somebody like that, and it strategically aligns with the company, it’s easy to make the decision,” Chris Nelson said. 

Cannabis legislation was expanded or passed in 2017 in several states, increasing the number of states with medical marijuana laws to 29 and recreational marijuana laws to eight. To many, the passage of these laws was a surprise. 

“It was somewhat surprising,” Lucas Nelson said. “I’m not sure that every single person who was working on the issue in Iowa back in 2017 thought it was going to get done. At the very last second it was passed at least through the legislature, at 3 in the morning, the last thing before the gavel fell. At that point, we realized this is going to be right in our backyard. We were really, really excited to apply and to be a part of it. Obviously, we wanted to shape it in the correct way, right off the ground, make sure that it was viewed correctly, make sure that it was an option for people for the long term, that we didn’t have any bad actors in the space that would ruin it.”

He applied for the company’s dispensary license to operate in Iowa. The company now employs 135 people. 

How Bud & Mary’s operates

Standardization of cannabis is one of the goals of the Bud & Mary’s process. At its manufacturing facility southeast of the State Capitol, cannabis goes through cultivation, extraction, formulation and quality control before it’s packaged and delivered to one of the state’s five dispensaries in Windsor Heights, Council Bluffs, Iowa City, Sioux City and Waterloo. 

The company’s greenhouses are carefully controlled. Plants are propagated from the mother plant and then tagged and tracked. Several biosecurity measures are in place, from the Tyvek protective suits worn by workers, to the beneficial insects used to keep plants healthy. No pesticides or chemicals are used in the process because the plants are bioaccumulators, meaning anything applied is absorbed by the plant. Lighting, temperature and humidity are all closely monitored. 

To qualify to obtain medical marijuana at an Iowa dispensary, patients must be Iowa residents with a qualifying condition and be certified by a physician to receive a digital card, which is valid for a year. Dispensary staff work with patients, discuss medical conditions and match them with the appropriate products and dosages. 

Scientific research is another important facet of the company’s work. Bud & Mary’s operates with a Schedule 1 research license, which allows for cannabis to be shipped across state lines for research purposes. Because of its success treating epilepsy, the company wants to research the effect cannabis has on neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. 

The company has expanded its facility over the past seven years to accommodate more patients seeking medical marijuana. The facility is also outfitted with cameras and other security features. 

“Emblematic of my grandparents’ whole ethos was trying to improve the world around them and that’s very important to what we’re trying to do here and why we push so hard to improve the program,” Lucas Nelson said. 

More to do

Listening to the stories of the 18,000 medical marijuana users in the state and how it has improved their lives is one of the best ways to combat the stigma surrounding cannabis, Lucas Nelson said. 

He said he would like to see more dispensaries allowed to provide better access to medical marijuana, and some tweaks to Iowa’s law to improve accessibility. 

Opponents of legalized medical marijuana often say more research is needed, and Nelson agrees. Because cannabis is labeled a Schedule 1 drug, funds are not allocated to research it. 

Others argue that there is the potential for cannabis to be abused. 

“We hear consistently that, ‘This has the potential to be abused.’ Yes, it does, 100% just like everything else,” he said. “I think we get frustrated by some of the things, alcohol, that is ubiquitous across our state and everywhere else. Gambling and some of these other types of things that can provide a benefit or a purpose to the state or to citizens, but yes, they also have risks.”

Nelson said he plans to continue to work with lawmakers to bring awareness to  the law’s shortcomings and misconceptions. 

“It is hard to get knowledge about this out there to everyone. Our program also started in 2018 with wildly different rules in it than it has today. We got a law passed in 2020 that changed some of that, but there’s still a ton of people walking around, [who incorrectly think] that vape isn’t allowed here. Some of the stuff that was present at the program at the very beginning, unfortunately, still lives on for a lot of people. Their first interaction with it was, ‘This is so restrictive, it’s not going to help me any.’”

Moreover, he said there should be comprehensive cannabis policies, not piecemeal rules and bans.

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Nelson comments on federal ban of hemp-derived products

A federal ban on hemp-derived products was recently signed into law, and will go into effect in November 2026. Cultivating hemp became legal as part of the 2018 Farm Bill, and some say an unintended loophole of that bill opened the door for beverages and snacks made with hemp-derived products. A new industry of vape oil, gummy candies, chips, cookies, sodas and other products was born. The new ban seeks to close that loophole, although many expect changes to the ban’s language before next November. 

Lucas Nelson, group president of Bud & Mary’s, said he doesn’t know how the federal ban will affect the company long term. 

“It remains to be seen, given that the ban is not effective for a year. But the Iowa medical cannabis program and the consumable hemp program have proven that Iowans care about safe, affordable access to THC and the rest of the molecules the plant produces,” he said in an email. 

There will be no changes to the Bud & Mary’s product lineup for now, he said. The company sells tinctures, tablets, creams and vapes. 

“Most importantly, we’ll continue our fight to make medical cannabis more affordable for Iowa patients, which means working with lawmakers to allow vaporized flower as an approved form in our program,” Nelson said.

Instead of placing bans on cannabis, steps should be taken to increase availability to those who need it, he added. 

“Iowa’s medical cannabis program still does not provide adequate solutions to all Iowans who may benefit from these products,” he said. “Affordability and accessibility are incredibly important. We believe it is time for the business community to come together to work alongside Bud & Mary’s, the legislature and other stakeholders to ensure we can meet patients’ needs. Thousands of Iowans have already been positively impacted by the program. We must ensure all Iowans have fair access.”