Photo courtesy of M Six Labs
Silver Lake tinctures are made by M Six Labs
Washington state has a long history of medicinal and recreational cannabis, so it was easy for Olympia, Wash. native Mark Hubbard chief science officer of M Six Labs (725 N. Progress Drive, Saukville), to immerse himself in the history and knowledge of the cannabis plant. His family ties to Wisconsin eventually led him to the Badger State, where he melded his formal business education with the hemp knowledge he gained on the West Coast to develop M Six Labs.
M Six Labs is a vertically integrated hemp processing laboratory, offering brand development, product manufacturing, clone sales and more. Their Silver Lake line of cannabidiol (CBD) products include tinctures, lotion and prerolls. Through a cousin, Hubbard met people influential in Wisconsin’s hemp industry, such as Larry Konopacki, general counsel for the Wisconsin Hemp Alliance. Hubbard began consulting in all aspects of the industry, including regulations, liability and how farmers can monitor tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
During the first full year of Wisconsin’s hemp pilot program, Hubbard grew 36 acres of hemp in Monroe, Wis. He later acquired greenhouses left by Shopko after the corporation went out of business in 2019. In those greenhouses, Hubbard and his team grew clones and sold more than 200,000 of the young plants.
His association with M Six Labs came about when the family that used to own the Mad Max chain of convenience stores wanted to diversify into CBD and hemp. One of the sons, social media influencer Terry Maxwell, had an interest in hemp and brought Hubbard on board to consult. They eventually offered Hubbard part ownership of M Six Labs.
M Six Labs is a processor that extracts hemp into final products such as distillate or isolate. They have relationships with Amish farmers and dairy farmers all over Wisconsin. Hubbard notes that various farmers produce hemp for different needs. Amish farmers, who have moral stipulations about their plants going into smokable product, grows hemp for lotions or tinctures. Hemp that goes into smokable products like prerolls come from other farmers that grow hemp to different standards.
Hubbard says that stems and plant materials left over are void of any cannabinoids of value and would typically go into paper and clothes product. “However, Canada has a 20-year head start on us in that, and it’s difficult to infiltrate a market when they own 85%. That’s a substantial monopoly, and it’s going to be very difficult for us to compete with Canadian fiber and seed.”
Different Extraction for Different Products
M Six Labs uses multiple extraction techniques, depending on the desired outcome and use. Those include alcohol extraction; ethanol, made with Wisconsin grown corn; butane or propane, and supercritical high-pressure CO2, common in the botanical and essential oil industry. Hubbard indicates that there are limitations on the latter technology as far as volume production.
Extraction is just the first step. The second step involves remediation. “You’ve got the original extraction from the plant material into crude, and then you’ve got the refinement of that crude into a final usable extract,” he says. “At the end of the day, whether I use CO2, alcohol, butane or propane, that’s only the initial stage of extracting the plant material. After that, it’s all cleanup or refinement. Hubbard says he’s worked with organic chemists who have educated him in the chemistry aspects vital to his businesses.
In addition to M Six Labs’ Silver Lake brand tincture, there’s a wide variety of products for which they white-label. They manufacture, print labels and package all products in-house, and they provide storage and drop shipment for those companies. “We offer full manufacturing and product development for individual products,” Hubbard says. They’ll also work with a business to develop a special flavor or a scent while still achieving accurate consistency and dosage.
Hemp products ultimately begin with the farmers, and Hubbard credits the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection in their handling of legislation to make it a farmer friendly. He observes that Wisconsin has a superior growing environment.
For more information, visit m6labs.com.
