CBD dispensary opens in Charlotte despite stigma, setbacks

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - A first-of-its-kind shop in Charlotte is booming with business - but you might not even understand what it is or how it works.

It’s a CBD dispensary, selling things including oils and edibles, all from a strain of the marijuana plant - but none of it can get you high.

“It will not get you high, but it will make you feel better,” shop co-owner Mike Sims tells customers.

Everything sold at Charlotte CBD is legal. It’s third-party tested, and most of the products are even processed locally in North Carolina.

“All we need is an ID of 18 years and older,” Sims says.

The first shop of its kind in Charlotte city limits, you’ll find Charlotte CBD along Central Avenue in Plaza Midwood.

“We can sell it in vape, joint form, and everything else,” Sims says.

Everything else – including drinks, gummies, even treats for four-legged friends.

“I didn’t want the pain killers,” customer MC Thielemann says. “I didn’t want the medicine or the surgeries.”

Shop owners don’t call people like Thielemann their customers. Instead, they call them their patients.

Their products are meant for people with pain issues. All products in the store are high in CBD, the calming part of a marijuana plant, but very low in THC, the stuff in marijuana that makes you high.

“We’re under the threshold of 0.03 THC,” Sims says, adding this is what makes the products fall into a “grey area.”

But there’s no denying, there is a stigma. So much so, that these owners have yet to find a bank or a credit card processor to work with them.

In fact, it took months to find a place to let them rent.

“They have every right to be skeptical,” Sims says. “We’ve been lied to and there’s been a lot of confusion over the years about what cannabis and hemp is in general.”

Owners say they work closely with both law enforcement and attorneys to stay inside the law, and every person who buys anything gets paperwork before they leave, saying what they have is legal.

Charlotte CBD just opened this week, and already, days into operation, it’s packed. Owners say there have been more than 200 customers per day.

“Every background of people walking through these doors, and they all have the same stories,” Sims says.

Copyright 2018 WBTV. All rights reserved.