NBA Hall of Famer and sports legend-turned-cannabis entrepreneur Isiah Thomas knows how to make his dreams come to life.
The ex-Detroit Piston is CEO and chairman of One World Products Inc. (OTC: OWPC), the largest Black-controlled, licensed hemp and cannabis producer in Colombia. His current mission is to produce hemp cars.
"I envision a future where the Fords, the GMs, the Stellantis' of the world take plastics out of their automobiles and infuse them with industrial hemp to replace those plastics, thus reducing their carbon footprint," Thomas told Benzinga's Javier Hasse in a recent interview.
According to an agreement with Stellantis, one of the largest automakers worldwide and owner of Chrysler, Citroën, Dodge, Fiat, Jeep, Peugeot and other portfolio brands, OWP will develop and supply hemp-based bioplastic components for cars' interiors and exteriors.
"Think of us as the raw material supplier of hemp and cannabis to the industry," said Thomas, a returning guest of Benizinga's Cannabis Capital Conferences over the past several years. "We cultivate and we grow in Colombia because of the equatorial advantages that it gives us, we work with the indigenous farmers, and we work with the soil and the sun. Not only in the CBD space but also in the hemp space."
Hemp-Based Solutions To Replace Plastic
It all started in 2020 when OWP partnered with a subsidiary of Isiah International Inc. – Thomas' eponymous firm he founded in the 1990s – to develop and commercialize renewable hemp-based alternatives to plastics.
Some two years later, Isiah International and OWP, which …