For years, cannabis innovation has been driven by a simple race toward higher THC. But as the market matures, consumer behaviour is starting to point in a different direction. According to OCS insights, 58 percent of consumers are actively seeking light cannabis products.
Go Brands has built its entire business around that untapped opportunity. Through brands including Lite Label, Feather Weight, and Sun Kissed and Lite Bites by Lite Label, the company is positioning light cannabis as a distinct category built around functionality and everyday use occasions.
ADCANN spoke with Wendy Milne, President of Go Brands, about why the industry has overlooked this category for so long, what retailers are seeing at shelf, and why she believes light cannabis is one of the most important growth drivers over the next several years.
High THC has dominated cannabis conversations for years. Why do you think the market is finally opening up to lighter experiences?
The industry has spent years prioritizing high THC products, which naturally shaped how people evaluated quality and value. What we are seeing now is a more mature consumer mindset. People still want quality inputs, but they also want control. A lot of consumers are looking for cannabis that fits into their lives the same way light beer, lower sugar products, non-fat options or decaf coffee fit into other categories. The demand has been there for a while, but the industry has not built enough products intentionally around it, and Go Brands is here to change that.
You often say “light by design” when speaking about your products. What does that mean in practice?
For us, it means these products are not “accidentally” light or secondary outlets for flower that missed potency targets. The entire portfolio is built around lighter experiences with different price points and format options, depending on the type of consumer purchasing.
A big part of building this category is changing how light cannabis gets framed at retail. Too often, lighter products are positioned as “weak” or lower quality, which immediately limits how consumers perceive them. The stores seeing the strongest performance are the ones framing these high-quality products around relatable use cases and predictability, making it easier for people to integrate cannabis into activities that don’t revolve around getting high.
A lot of brands still position lighter cannabis primarily toward beginners. Do you think that framing limits the category?
Completely. New consumers are extremely important, but the idea that lighter cannabis only exists for first-timers is one of the biggest misconceptions in the industry. Some of our most loyal customers are experienced cannabis users who simply want more flexibility in how they consume. Data from our retail partners show that more than half of purchases are coming from existing customers, which tells us that these products are becoming part of established shopping behaviour.
We are constantly hearing stories from our retailers about people pairing lighter products alongside higher potency products. One retailer shared a story about a customer who buys a Lite Label 20-pack every week alongside 3 infused pre-rolls and tells the Budtender, “One of them gets me high, one keeps me high.” That really captures the shift happening in consumer behaviour.
Do responsibility conversations play a role in consumer demand and product innovation?
Social responsibility has always been an important part of the industry mandate, and I think that is one of the reasons government boards and retail partners have been so supportive of lighter cannabis categories. At the same time, consumers are becoming much more educated about cannabinoids, dosage and the type of experience they want.
Moderation is becoming normalized across a lot of consumer packaged goods sectors, especially in beverage alcohol, where the mindful drinking movement emerged around a decade ago, with Gen Z being one of its biggest advocates. Cannabis is not isolated from that broader behavioural shift.
I also think consumers are moving away from the idea that cannabis always needs to be an all-or-nothing experience. A lot of people want products they can use while staying engaged in everyday life. That is where light cannabis fits naturally.
Retailers are under pressure to justify every SKU they bring in. What is the commercial argument for light cannabis?
The biggest one is incrementality. Retailers are constantly trying to figure out whether a new product will actually grow the basket or just replace another SKU. When most of the assortment serves the same purpose, the decision typically defaults to price. When a product introduces a new use case, it becomes easier to justify adding the product without replacing something else.
Our partner data shows that baskets including light cannabis products increase average transaction value by $6.44 while also lifting gross margin performance. In a saturated market, that is the kind of contribution that justifies shelf space.
What misconceptions about light cannabis still exist inside the industry?
One misconception is that lighter cannabis automatically belongs in wellness. Some consumers absolutely approach it that way, but many are simply looking for social or functional products that fit more naturally into everyday routines. We are trying to build products for real-life occasions, not just niche wellness positioning.
Go Brands has built multiple brands inside the light category. Why was that important strategically?
Because the category is much broader than people think. The portfolio offers different price points, formats, pack sizes, strains, all designed around different use occasions and levels of familiarity with cannabis. Lite Label consumers value products that are easy to understand and easy to trust, while Feather Weight consumers value premium inputs and defined strain characteristics.
If the long-term goal is building a real category, you need a portfolio strategy that reflects the range of occasions and consumer needs within it. We are not trying to create one hero SKU. We are trying to establish light cannabis as a permanent shelf category that both retailers and consumers understand.
Do you think the broader industry is underestimating how large this category could become?
Yes. If you only look at the industry through a potency lens, you miss a massive portion of consumers who want predictability and social usability. You also miss people who left cannabis because of an experience with a high THC product.
The opportunity here is not just attracting new consumers. It is retaining existing consumers by giving them more variety across different moments and stages of life. That is why we believe light cannabis will become one of, if not the most, important long-term growth segments in the industry.
What does success look like for Go Brands over the next few years?
We want light cannabis to become a recognized and permanent category inside Canadian retail assortments. We want retailers to think about it strategically instead of treating it like an afterthought.
Over the past two years, Go Brands has expanded nationally across recreational and medical channels, including tougher markets to crack like Quebec and British Columbia. From a business perspective, we are continuing to expand distribution and build products around more usage occasions. But the bigger ambition is cultural. We want consumers to feel confident choosing lighter cannabis without feeling like they are compromising quality or experience.
As the cannabis market matures, the next phase of growth may not come from pushing THC higher. It may come from building products that more consumers can use more often, with greater confidence. Companies like Go Brands are betting that the future of cannabis looks less like escalation and more like fit-for-purpose consumption. Based on current consumer trends, that bet may arrive sooner than many in the industry expect. For more information on Go Brands, visit gobrandsco.com.
Last Updated on May 19, 2026 by ADCANN
