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Humans aren’t the only ones using CBD — a compound found in the cannabis plant — to help relieve pain and other problems.
Dogs and cats are, too.
That’s one thing Wade Timmerson and Mark McCloud learned when they opened Your CBD Store in Harrison.
“Dogs are afraid of lightning, thunder. I was not aware that a lot of dogs struggle with anxiety,” Timmerson said. “You wouldn’t believe the people that come in here and say, ‘Oh, my dog has anxiety; he’s been taking CBD, and he’s a completely different dog.’ ”
Timmerson and McCloud co-own the store with McCloud’s ex-wife, Patti McCloud. It opened last month in the Highlands Mall along Freeport Road.
There are 39 Your CBD Store locations in Pennsylvania. The stores are all franchises that are independently owned.
The Harrison store sells a variety of products that contain CBD, such as pet food for dogs and cats, water solubles, coffees, teas, lotions, bath products, candies and oral drops known as tinctures.
CBD stands for cannabidiol, a product derived from hemp. Like marijuana, hemp is a cannabis plant. But because it doesn’t contain the same THC levels as marijuana, hemp has no psychoactive properties.
The store has CBD products with and without THC. All the products with THC contain only trace amounts — about 0.3%.
“We don’t want people to think that it’s marijuana. We want to think of it as health without the high,” Mark McCloud said.
The store offers a tailored, consultative approach when it comes to sales.
“We really try to figure out what are your issues and how we can target them. There are different ways that CBD can be used to help,” Patti McCloud said. “If you have anxiety, you might use a product that’s a water soluble that’s a quicker hit that doesn’t stay as long in your system. You might use a tincture if you have chronic pain, like fibromyalgia. You would want something that’s longer acting.”
Mark McCloud grew up in the New Kensington area and played basketball at Valley High School. He thought Harrison would be the best place for the business because he’s familiar with the area and knows lots of people.
“There’s a lot of people that are looking for alternative ways to find relief versus being on some type of medication,” he said.
The store employs four part-timers who all are CBD users.
Kaylie Frye is one of them. She uses CBD oils and edibles to treat her anxiety and depression.
“Prescriptions from a psychiatrist, they just don’t work. They give me terrible side effects,” Frye said. “I quit those and I started CBD, and it’s helped.”
Recently, a woman with fibromyalgia and arthritis came to the store. She said she had tried CBD before, but it hadn’t worked. In a conversation with staffers, it emerged that the customer did not have a gallbladder.
“You can’t process the oil tincture without a gallbladder — you get barely any absorption,” Patti McCloud said. “So we said, ‘Why don’t you try the water soluble?’ We totally switched her from what she was doing, and she wrote us a fabulous review on Facebook.”
Madasyn Lee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Madasyn at [email protected], 724-226-4702 or via Twitter.