Debbie Brooks says she started taking CBD years ago to relieve the pain in her feet from neuropathy, following chemotherapy treatments for her cancer.
Long before CBD, or cannabidiol, became more mainstream, Brooks, who is 61 years old and lives in Webster, FL, had to search smoke shops for CBD relief, which seemed to vary from shop to shop.
“It was never the same every time,” she says. “Sometimes, I swear I thought it was just olive oil.”
Brooks eventually discovered Lisa Feigel, who owned a Your CBD Store franchise in Englewood, FL, located two hours away, but who offered online ordering. The CBD products she received from Feigel were better, never failed and provided consistent relief.
So, when Feigel opened her second location in Wesley Chapel, which has been open since August of 2019 in the Freedom Plaza on S.R. 54 — despite an hour drive — Brooks became one of her first, and most regular customers.
“Lisa is great,” Cook says. “She has so much knowledge, it’s almost like she’s a scientist. And they have so many great products that always help.”
Cook’s story is a familiar one to Feigel, who says that many of her customers come to her looking for reliable relief for a number of symptoms, ranging from pain and muscle aches to anxiety and insomnia.
“They don’t want to become reliant on opioids,” Lisa says.
Your CBD Store is a boutique, and doesn’t stock hundreds of items that promise to do a million different things. It focuses on what CBD does best by providing relief, relaxation and, sometimes, a much-needed respite from your daily grind.
As CBD has become more accepted and popular, Lisa says she doesn’t have to educate customers who correlate it with marijuana as much as she did in the past. CBD is derived from hemp, which is a variety of cannabis (as is marijuana), but with less than 0.3% of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the ingredient that gets you “high.” However, CBD still retains all of the health benefits of cannabis.
CBD products are offered as full spectrum, which are generally stronger and contain no more than the legal limit of 0.3% THC, and broad spectrum, which have no THC at all.
In the last year, Feigel has added a number of new, popular items to her inventory, such as CBG- and CBN-infused gummies (above), tinctures and water solubles.
CBG, or cannabigerol, and CBN, or cannabinol, are relatively new to the CBD product world and are currently undergoing intensive scientific study. CBN is THC-free and helps cause a drowsy effect that can aid with sleeping, while CBG is touted more for its potential therapeutic and anti-inflammatory effects. Feigel calls it the “super momma of cannabinoids.”
“Anxiety and insomnia are the biggest two concerns when people come into the store,” Feigel says, adding that those two things can lead to depression and other maladies. “It’s like a domino effect.”
CBD, Lisa says, helps bring your mental state and body back into balance.
“We all have about 150 different cannabinoids in our system already,” Lisa says, but sometimes, outside forces — injury, stress from work, illness, etc. — can disrupt the production of them. CBD will bind with the CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors in our brains to help bring the body back into balance, or homeostasis.
“It’s just a natural supplement we’re putting back into our system,” she says. This can be done via tinctures (like an eyedropper, placed right under the tongue), water soluble (which dissolve in water) products, edible gummies and even vapes.
CBD has many uses and benefits. Your CBD store offers pet products in any form, including peanut butter- and bacon-flavored treats and biscuits, for dogs who get freaked out by the sound of thunder and fireworks or have separation or other anxiety. Feigel says she gives CBD to her 103-pound yellow Labrador retriever for car trips to the groomer, as well as to help reduce her rescue shih-tzu’s seizures. And, for the first time, the store even now has CBD cat treats.
There also are award-winning skincare products and topical creams for aches and pains (Neighborhood News publisher Gary Nager is a fan), and even a new Maxine & Morgan line for women’s wellness, such as for menstrual cramps. There’s also a CBD coffee creamer available.
One of the newest products is a Raw Hemp CBG Flower, which contains high-levels of CBG. It offers flexibility in that can be smoked or even used in cooking and for making smoothies and tea, to name a few.
“It’s all due to the Your CBD Store franchise, which is always striving for more and better products,” Lisa says. “And, there’s still so many things coming out on the horizon.”
Lisa says she was drawn to the power of CBD due to her own fibromyalgia, and has used it for other things as well.
Her daughter Ashley, who manages the Wesley Chapel location, uses CBD for joint pain and anxiety. Even Lisa’s mom, who didn’t know anything about CBD when Lisa became a franchise owner and joked that her daughter was now a “drug dealer,” is now an avid user of the topical creams, which help with her arthritis.
SunMed CBD is the exclusive supplier to Your CBD Stores. The company has its own farms in Denver, CO, where they grow hemp, and the processing of those plants takes place in Florida.
Lisa and her staff hope that customers will choose CBD products over opioids and other addictive and sometimes dangerous drugs prescribed by doctors. They will help you find the right doses and forms of CBD for you, and best way to maximize its effects.
Those effects are wide-ranging, says Debbie Brooks. She had stopped taking any CBD for a few weeks because of the long drive and busy schedule taking care of her elderly parents. But once off it, she realized that it did more than just reduce her pain, it had been helping her handle all the stress in her life. So, she says, it was back to Wesley Chapel for more relief.
“It helped in more aspects of my life than I even realized,” Cook says. “It’s well worth the travel, just for the great staff and the expertise Lisa has. She is just amazing.”
Your CBD Store Wesley Chapel is located at 30044 S.R. 54. It is open Monday.-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday. It is closed on Sunday. For more information, call (813) 536-0119, visit CBDrx4u.com/find-us/Florida/Wesley-Chapel or search “YourCBDStoreWesleyChapel” on Facebook.
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