True Grit, True Terpenes: Chris Campagna’s Journey from Patient to Industry Innovator
True Terpenes has been a cannabis industry staple at every conference and event you’ve been to across the country… and you “know” what a terpene is. But how did they get there and what exactly do they do? It’s a story as layered as the industry itself and it started in an unlikely way. Meet Chris Campagna, founder and chief innovation officer.
Chris’ path wasn't a straight shot through business school and boardrooms. It was personal. "I had been diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease where I went from normal and healthy to almost completely paralyzed within a 3-week period." Campagna remembers vividly. "One day I could hardly stand up on my own, and then I had to have people help me."
Against the odds, cannabis became a miracle. "Essentially I tried cannabis against the doctor's wishes and it was a miracle drug for me. It helped with my pain, sleep and appetite."
"Fast forward, I was able to get off of every pharmaceutical medication," Campagna says. But back then, the stigma was brutal. "Crazy stigma, no licensed dispensaries anywhere, really early Prop 215 days in Cali."
His first dispensary visit was "deep in the middle of nowhere where you showed your medical card, made a donation to somebody that was guarding a door, and then they gave you a green or a yellow card to go into another room with two jars of cannabis to pick from."
Determined to make the experience better for others, Campagna "built an online patient resource center to help people get access to cannabis. Oregon was one of the more complicated and challenging states to get a card." It evolved into a medical practice dedicated to real compassion. "I built out a clinic that would actually treat people with care and compassion."
But that wasn't enough. "Once somebody would get their card, they'd say, 'my gosh, thank you so much. I can't wait to try this. I have hope. But what do I do next?'"
The market had a massive gap. "If you’re dealing with serious conditions, potent extracts like full spectrum RSO products will likely be more effective." Patients were not addressed very well in the traditional medical market.
Campagna got obsessive about the science. "At some point I found Dr. Ethan Russo's paper taming THC and everything clicked for me." Smelling a bottle of isolated terpinolene was a revelation: "I smelled the terpinolene and I was like, 'Oh my god.'"
Back then, "nobody was really talking about terpenes yet." But he saw the future. "For the first two plus years, it was all just education." In Chris’ own words, "The industry has used terpene as a blanket term for any flavor and aroma compound." But of course it gets much more sciency from there.
When asked about the botanical vs. cannabis-derived debate, Campagna is blunt: "I love cannabis derived terpenes. I love all that makes the plant special. I love rosin. It comes with challenges from where we are as an industry without federal legalization." The problem is economics, creating all cannabis derived terpenes is basically financially impossible under the current laws.
Basic chemistry doesn't lie. "If you have the same stereoisomer that's in cannabis, regardless of what the source is, it's either the exact same molecule or not."
The market, though, is changing. "A lot of people want it to taste like blueberry lemonade," he says, chuckling. "They want to get the effects of cannabis, but they're not in love [with the smoke]."
Flavors are winning. "There's flavored vodkas, there's flavored whiskey. Everything, if you're drinking a White Claw, the flavor matters."
"If you wanted a sour diesel to be the same in all 18 markets and everyone's getting crushed on margins and they want standardization and scalability and to customize that flavor there's really no better solution than going the botanical route." Scale and economics dictate the world of purchasable terpenes. But in recent years, True Terpenes has been busy expanding their cannabis derived offerings for the purists.
Inside True Terpenes, innovation goes deeper than basic extraction. "We're getting the best starting raw materials there in an extract form and then we distill the terpenes.. We remove any kind of contaminants, solvents, any flavor off-notes to get a higher purity and a more consistent product." This is a step above the competition that is sourcing the ingredients and simply selling them on as a middle-man with no value add.
True Terpenes doesn't rely solely on the lab either. "We do sensory analysis and then we do extraction refinement in-house. Once you get the pure isolate, the formulation and blending team will mix things together and make the formulation."
True Terpenes prides itself on human expertise. "We have 16 formally trained sensory scientists."
"We've got a sensory isolation room which was just designed for this with its own HVAC to clear out the room and just do sensory science in."
Their talent is extraordinary. "It would blow your mind what some of the sensory scientists can do when you smell something and then break it down in layman terms like a fresh leather bag with a new pair of shoes."
Even after all the innovation, the goal remains humble and patient-focused. "We're actively working to try and get as close to commercial cannabis as we can. I believe it's the same plant whether it's high THC or low THC. It's all cannabis sativa."
Campagna sees flavors and terpene innovation as the future. "I believe flavors are here to stay, and with extraction methods and scalability, they’ll continue to evolve."
Cannabis beverages are the next frontier. "I’m super excited about the hemp beverage market and all the work that's going into it, helping to make a whole new demographic of people comfortable with cannabis."
He's passionate about normalizing cannabis socially. "I'm really hoping beverages will help break the stigma more than anything. I haven't seen a category that's as good as that."
Chris Campagna, who once couldn't walk, now leads a future where cannabis, terpenes, and innovation could be as normal as a cup of coffee.
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