Most people who walked through the doors of Danes Experimental Clinic expected to find a hemp store. Instead, they found conversations.

The shelves hold CBD formulations, herbal medicines, mushroom extracts, natural perfumes and wellness products, but nothing about the space felt like a retail outlet. Patients weren't hurried into purchases. They were invited to ask questions. Doctors listened before they prescribed. The products were almost secondary.

That is exactly how the founder had imagined it.

Long before Danes existed, Karan.A was a biomedical engineering student. He had seen friends struggle with concentration, met people living with chronic pain, and felt that healthcare could solve some problems while leaving others behind. Those questions stayed with him long after graduation.

Around 2010, while reading research from abroad, he noticed something unusual. In the United States, medical hemp and recreational hemp were beginning to be treated as two different conversations. The medicine was being separated from stigma.

In India, however, it is different.

Most people believed the entire hemp plant was illegal. But when he studied the regulations more closely, he realised the law was far more nuanced. Under the NDPS Act, the flowering tops of the plant were classified as narcotic drugs, while hemp leaves continued to exist within approved Ayurvedic formulations under specific regulations.

The problem wasn't only legality. It was awareness.

By 2016, anyone trying to understand medical hemp in India was likely to leave the internet more confused than informed. One website exaggerated its benefits, another dismissed it entirely. Patients, families and even doctors struggled to separate facts from myths.

The idea of Danes began to take shape — not as a business, but as a solution to that confusion.

Education

Accessibility

Trust

March 2020. Karan returned from the UAE just days before the COVID-19 lockdown. As hospitals across Karnataka scrambled for supplies, he spent time back home sourcing medical supplies and equipment to hospitals, universities and the general public. It was a period that changed the way he viewed Indian healthcare.

He realised he no longer wanted to simply work in the industry. He wanted to build something that could genuinely improve people's lives in India.

When Danes opened its doors on 20 April 2021, the mission was simple: create a place where people could understand hemp without fear, confusion or judgement. A place built on three principles — education, accessibility and trust.

The journey wasn't easy. Early on, Danes partnered with a handful of brands, including Bombay Hemp Company (Boheco). While the partnership helped introduce products to patients, it was also revealed as a limitation based on customer feedback. No single manufacturer could meet every patient's needs. If Danes wanted to remain unbiased, it had to become a curator rather than a brand showroom — helping customers make an informed decision.

Today, the clinic works with multiple manufacturers, carefully selecting products based on quality instead of exclusivity.

That philosophy extends beyond hemp. The shelves now include mushroom extracts, herbal teas, biohacking supplements, natural perfumes and other wellness products. Every product is chosen only after understanding who manufactures it, how it's made and whether it genuinely deserves a place in the clinic.

In a market where online reviews are often unreliable and products can be misleadingly presented, Danes believe trust is something that has to be earned, not advertised.

Perhaps that's why the clinic has never chased an aggressive online presence. Over the past five years, awareness around medical hemp has grown significantly. Patients now arrive from all walks of life: older adults looking for long-term support, professionals searching for healthier ways to manage stress, people living with chronic pain and families seeking guidance for loved ones.

Every story is different, but every consultation begins the same way — with listening.