Let’s be honest: the CBD game in Dallas is all fucked up. There are businesses selling people a product they know is low-quality, shitty cannabis and trying to pass it off as an exotic CBD bud. People want top-shelf CBD flower, just like people who purchase high-THC cannabis.
There’s a reason some people shop at a farmers market for their fruits and vegetables instead of at grocery stores: because of the difference in the quality of the food. It starts with agricultural techniques, all the way up until the product is sold and consumed. The same goes for CBD-dominant cannabis or THC-dominant cannabis. People want to be able to source the stuff they put into their bodies and find out where it came from and how it was grown.
Compiling this list of trustworthy CBD flower retailers was difficult. Most of the places we visited couldn’t answer simple questions like: “What state do you get your CBD flower from?” Or “Is it grown free of steroids and pesticides?”
Scientifically speaking, CBD doesn’t get you high. So why are people smoking it? CBD flower only contains trace amounts of THC, so the effect isn’t going to be nearly as powerful as a fresh batch of Girl Scout cookies. But if CBD flower didn’t work, people wouldn’t waste their money on it. CBD flower is great for situations when you can’t be stoned. When people smoke CBD flower, they get a body-high and the munchies, but without the „getting stoned” part. Perfect for people who have to interact with a nosy boss, or those going to class or operating heavy machinery.
Hashtag Hemp Co.
208 S. Madison Ave., Dallas
Nestled in the Bishop Arts District, the Hashtag Hemp Co. is arguably one of the only seed-to-sale hemp companies in Dallas — definitely in Oak Cliff. “I don’t have anything in my store that I haven’t had grown for us,” owner Marcus McCarty says. “We can trace back the day it was grown all the way to the time it gets put here in the shop.”
You should find CBD flower stuffed into those cigarettes and joints that are sold as CBD products in smoke shops, but it’s really just the leftover trim clippings and shake that gets packed into them. In the cannabis industry, it’s considered “C” grade shake and trimmings.
Some CBD companies are distributing a mixture of CBD trim and shake with something they call an “Herbal Blend.” The box doesn’t say what herbs are blended with the CBD, but the stuff looks like it would be better off in a teabag. But don’t trip; the Hashtag Hemp Co. gets its joints from Silky Trees CBD, a manufacturing and distribution hemp company in Medford, Oregon.
“I just had the guy in here yesterday that grows them physically,” McCarty says of his joints. “We are the only company out that is now putting 'A’ grade premium inside of pre-rolls and selling them at the same rate as these other guys that are selling 'C’ grade trim. It’s kind of disgusting honestly.”
The Pharm Haus
525 W. Arapaho Road, Richardson
Finding indoor-grown CBD flower for sale in Dallas is rare. In most cases, you can see and smell the difference of indoor cannabis compared with cannabis grown in a greenhouse or outdoors with natural sunlight. Being able to have complete control of the environment can help a grower produce some of the strongest strains on the market and Kirk Edmondson, the owner of The Pharm Haus, has that exclusive shit.
Edmondson purchases the flower from farms in Oregon and Pennsylvania and turns it from a solid into various Pharm Haus-branded CBD products like tinctures, oils and lotion. A lot of CBD products in the market can’t be sourced, so the fact that there are a few businesses around Dallas keeping things in-house is cool.
Edmondson visited some farms himself this summer to see the type of harvest he would be getting. “We want to be a flower dispensary,” he says. “Anything with my label on it, we manufacture here.” Edmondson takes pride in how The Pharm Haus handles its patients and products. “We want people to come in the door to see that we have quality flower and then boom, ‘Oh, they make their own stuff [and] they manufacture everything here in Texas.’”
The main thing that all these places have in common is their commitment to help and serve the community — a big part of The Pharm Haus’ mission statement. “What we need to do is help people first,” Edmondson says. “When you come in, I’m going to talk to you for about 15-20 minutes and I’m going to learn about what you need [CBD] for.”
Royal Hemps Pipes and Cultural Necessities
2007 W. Davis St., Dallas
The Royal Hemps’ culture shop sits right off Davis Street in South Dallas. The shop, which just celebrated its five-year anniversary, has an inviting ambiance with a Rastafarian and African color palette splashed across the establishment’s facade.
The majority of their flower comes from family farms in Colorado. Judah, owner of Royal Hemps, says that the CBD products he gets from Empire Wellness always do well because of their high-quality flower and extracts. Empire Wellness is a Colorado-based hemp company that wholesales and distributes hemp consumables made from pure natural ingredients and grow practices.
Judah says some of their most popular strains are the „Grape Juice” and „Lemon Drop.” Both those strains from Empire Wellness are harvested by hand and dried naturally before they are processed, trimmed and sorted. That is the right way to care for your herbs — albeit time-consuming — so kudos to Empire Wellness and Royal Hemps for supplying Dallasites with quality product.
The Glass House TX
413 E. Round Grove Road, Lewisville
The Glass House TX has a few locations spread out around Dallas and Denton County. Owner Sean Yuen says he gets CBD flower from California and Oregon and has visited the farms to see the process firsthand. “What ends up happening is the farmers produce multiple different grades of CBD,” Yuen explains. “And whenever their harvest is cropped, they have different qualities that come out, but a lot of the companies we deal with, deal with the higher quality products.”
Yuen himself deals with old-school farmers who live disconnected from the modern world and would rather not have their family farm name mentioned, though growing cannabis in California and Oregon is legal in both cases. It’s just the way of most farmers growing cannabis; they are slaves to the plant, and the product they produce is more important than the name that’s on it.
The Zebra’s Head
113 Fry St., Denton
Of course, the unofficial historical landmark building on the University of North Texas’ campus housing one of The Zebra’s Head shops makes this list.
Store manager Tyson Wright was surprised to hear that the majority of CBD shops in Dallas and Denton County can’t trace or source their products. He was outside, behind the zebra-striped boutique, pruning and thinning bamboo before walking inside the store and pulling out a 1-inch binder stuffed with lab results, side effects and strain recommendations to help patients figure out what they need. Wright lays it out on the table and says customers are welcome to look at the data for themselves.
The majority of the shop’s CBD flower comes from Oregon and Nevada. Yes, Nevada. Nevada legalized recreational use of marijuana before California. They have professionals out there who know what they are doing when it comes to cultivating cannabis.
One last thing you should know
If you’re in the market to purchase CBD flower, ask your favorite store some questions. And if they don’t have the answers you’re looking for, or the CBD isn’t working, find a trustworthy store you can rely on for your herbal medicine.