WILMINGTON — Last weekend Wilmington welcomed its second CBD retail shop to open since the beginning of the year.
The new store opening comes as more and more American consumers are beginning to use CBD (cannabidiol) for a variety of medical reasons, including pain relief, mental health, and chronic conditions like epileptic seizures. One study carried out by the Brightfield Group, a cannabis market research firm, expected the industry to reach $22 billion by 2022.
And last December the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp-based CBD products at the federal level, opening the door for a more stable supply – especially as such products move across state lines – from American hemp farmers.
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Your CBD Store, located in the Long Leaf shopping center at the intersection of College Road and Shipyard Boulevard, is one of 140 franchise locations the company has opened in 27 states. The store’s operator, Cody Neltner, said one of his top priorities going forward will be to educate the public about CBD’s health benefits while addressing a common tendency among potential consumers to associate CBD with its psychoactive cousin, marijuana.
“One of the bigger misconceptions is that it’s tied to marijuana, and so it’s looked down upon by the public,” Neltner said. “I think that’ll be changing in the near future.”
He said the company’s average customer is between 50 and 60 years old and is seeking a holistic remedy to an ailment without getting inebriated.
“People don’t want to walk around stoned all day, they just want something to help with their pain or with their ailments, to be able to be productive,” Neltner said.
Full spectrum CBD
Jacob Morse came from a Your CBD Store in Davenport, Iowa, to help Neltner train and educate new employees. He said he fell from a cliff when he was 12 years old, breaking his back in three places, and now uses a CBD cream to treat the pain. His mother uses the same cream, along with tincture oils, to treat shoulder pain from a past car accident.
Morse said that Your CBD Store is a “full spectrum company”, selling products that have undergone a process where carbon dioxide is used to extract the cannabidiol (CBD) without diluting its chemical properties. Some companies, he said, use butane to extract the CBD with heat, which creates a product known as CBD Isolate.
“When they do it that way, they lose a third of the CBD, so they use fillers like coconut oil and extra virgin olive oil to replace it,” Morse said. “That’s why our products tend to last a little longer and are more effective, because it’s 100 percent CBD.”
He said that full spectrum CBD products are more effective when treating the assortment of physical and mental problems that his past customers have sought to treat, including Parkinson’s disease, Fibromyalgia, Crohn’s disease, dementia, depression, and anxiety.
“And it has no side effects – it’s all natural. Our bodies actually produce CBD oil. We have what’s called an endocannabinoid system in our body,” Morse said.
He was talking about the early-90s scientific discovery of two cannabinoid receptors, now called CB1 and CB2, revealing that human bodies naturally interact with cannabinoids like CBD and THC through the endocannabinoid system (ECS). In 2018, two professors at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Department of Neurosurgery led a study that showed CBD treatment could decrease symptoms associated with PTSD, depression, anxiety disorders, and epileptic seizures, among others.
The study’s conclusion states that cannabinoids like THC and CBD have a “powerful therapeutic potential in a variety of ailments primarily through their interaction with the ECS.”
“CBD is of particular interest due to its wide-ranging capabilities and lack of side effects in a variety of neurological conditions and diseases,” the study concludes.
A “well” state of being
Surf City resident Rick Leahigh was at the check-out counter buying a variety of products for knee and hip pain. He said he began using a 250mg CBD product last December, didn’t notice a big difference, then increased the dosage to 500mg and saw his pain level drop from an “eight to nine down to a pain level of one to two.”
“I’m also in a better mood. I mean I was never really in a bad mood, but physically I feel better,” Leahigh said. “I recommend it to everybody. I think it should be put in the water.”
Behind the counter, Morse said the store is offering a wide variety of CBD products: oils you put under your tongue, gel capsules, water solubles to mix with drinks, gummies, pain relief cream, bath bombs, vapes, lotions, chapsticks, pet tinctures, and even pet treats.
Neltner said that he got into the industry after his dad used CBD cream to decrease pain in his knee that had been inflamed by blood clots. After researching CBD’s supposed medical benefits, he was intrigued by CBD’s potential effects on PTSD, depression, and anxiety.
“And I was grasping that understanding: Why does it help with all this stuff? The CBD receptors in your pre-frontal cortex helps with that ‘well’ state of being,” Neltner said. “Being able to offer these supplements – that’s kind of what it is in a sense, to be able to achieve that state of being.”
Details
- Where: 4412 Shipyard Boulevard (in the Long Leaf shopping center).
- Free Samples: Your CBD Store gives free samples to understand how each product works before making a purchase.
- Products: gummies, lotions, chapstick, bath bombs, vapes, oil tincture, pet tincture, pet treats, pain relief cream, water soluble pills (to mix into drinks), and collagen cream (for wrinkles).
Mark Darrough can be reached at Mark@localvoicemedia.com.
