Curaleaf, the biggest cannabis retailer, just snapped up Cura. The new CMO revealed how he plans to move the company forward after a string of controversies.

• Curaleaf, America's biggest cannabis company, just completed its acquisition of Cura Partners for an estimated $390 million.
• Cura had just agreed to pay a record fine for mislabeling the ingredients in its cannabis oil pens.
• Curaleaf's new CMO Jason White said his top priority is to re-establish people's trust in the company.
• White said he thought widespread layoffs and cratering stock prices that have dented the industry would ultimately be good for consumers by exposing bad actors.
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Curaleaf Holdings, America's largest cannabis retailer, continued its growth streak by completing the acquisition of Cura Partners Inc. this week in all all-stock transaction valued at about $390 million.

Curaleaf plans to use its distribution network to boost sales of Cura's Select cannabis oil products, Curaleaf's new CMO Jason White told Business Insider. The acquisition closed days after Select paid a record $110,000 fine to the Oregon state government for mislabeling the ingredients in its vape pens, and White said his top goal is to help the company earn consumers' trust and stand out in a crowded, confusing market.

White, who formerly led marketing at Apple's Beats Electronics and oversaw the Nike account at ad agency Wieden and Kennedy, told Business Insider that the cannabis industry is poised to move into a new, more mature phase.

Curaleaf's new CMO predicted the cannabis industry would recover from its downturn

The past year has seen top cannabis companies devalued amid hundreds of layoffs and the departures of executives like Med Men CEO Adam Bierman.

Similar economic uncertainties reduced the short-term value of Curaleaf's all-stock acquisition by more than 50%.

But White said he thought the downturn would ultimately be good for consumers.

"The folks that weren't able to deliver based on promises they made to investors, I think you're starting to see all those folks be exposed," White told Business Insider.

He said he thought Curaleaf could overcome its legal issues. Cura recently paid a fine to settle allegations that it mislabeled nearly 200,000 of its Select oil pens as 100% cannabis when they contained other additives. A couple also filed a class-action lawsuit against Cura over the labeling issue.

White said the settlement resulted from a communication failure that happened because Cura was focused on things like the pending acquisition and a crisis over lung diseases tied to vaping THC.

"That's not going to happen again," he said.

The company's main goal is to scale quickly

White's biggest challenges may be scaling Curaleaf and re-establishing trust in the business after the settlement. He said he planned to use his creative services team and digital marketing and PR agencies to promote the company's "Cannabis with confidence" positioning.

Cura's recent marketing has emphasized social justice. In August, the company launched "The Possible Plan," an effort to expunge the records of people arrested for low-level marijuana offenses, through a collaboration with The New York Times Magazine's slavery feature The 1619 Project.

White argued that cannabis companies that don't take strong stances on such issues will fall behind.

"If you haven't thought through your position in this space, it's too late now," he said.