Today we’d like to introduce you to Monte Tyson.
Hi Monte, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
CBD East Main opened on March 29, 2019, in historic downtown Lincolnton, North Carolina. To fully understand the significance of this event, I have to tell you how it all happened. My name is Monte Tyson, and together with my partner Rachel Brigham, we built CBD East Main out of the ashes of personal tragedy.
In October 2017, Rachel’s husband, Darryl, was in a major motorcycle accident where he lost his right arm and spent four months in ICU. His recovery was arduous and extremely painful as he refused pain medication. Rachel left her career in the medical marijuana field in Colorado and returned to North Carolina to be Darryl’s full-time caregiver. Over the next few months, Darryl made a miraculous physical recovery but understandably dealt with severe depression, and in August 2018, he took his own life. My wife Joy lost her four-year battle with stomach cancer a week later. We both had lost our life partners and struggled to find suitable treatments for them without legal access to cannabis; we found ourselves alone and lost in a town we didn’t feel at home. We met while at the lowest point of our lives and found in each other the friend we needed. While building a friendship and sharing our story, we realized together we had the opportunity to make sure the community of Lincolnton wouldn’t have the same struggle we had in finding high-quality, reliable, and safe access to CBD and hemp products.
CBD East Main was born and founded on solid guiding principles refined in the crucible of illness and loss, an unwavering commitment to quality, an empathetic approach to alternative health, and an enduring advocacy for safe access to cannabis for everyone. CBD East Main recently celebrated its fourth anniversary, and we opened a second location last fall. We remain dedicated to bringing cannabis education to every customer interaction and advocate daily for the end of prohibition. Educate, Advocate; Celebrate is our motto.
You wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been fairly smooth?
Smooth? Haha, No. We had been open for less than two months when our credit card processing company canceled our account. Our processing account has been canceled twice since then simply due to discrimination against our industry. Merchant services companies and banks continue to classify our business as “high risk” even though we have never had a single charge back in our four-year history.
We reside in North Carolina, the heart of the Bible Belt, which has unique challenges, some of which have affected our business. Our landlord isn’t exactly supportive of cannabis, and we don’t enjoy a perfect relationship with her, unfortunately. Our ability to advertise is limited; some companies refuse to do business with us because of our industry. After about a year in business, we built a good social media following, including Facebook, with 4000+ fans. Facebook froze our account and didn’t offer any explanation as to why. For some reason, it took 14 months for them to review their decision. This failure happened right during the pandemic when social media was driving most of the marketing. In late 2022, they finally unlocked access to our Facebook account. All our fans were gone; our page had been deleted; our ability to boost posts or advertise on their platform remained frozen. But we are still here despite others’ efforts to censor and segregate our industry.
Oh yeah, then there was the COVID-19 pandemic. Before we celebrated our first anniversary, the governor of North Carolina issued an executive order shutting down non-essential businesses. We read the order, determined we qualified as essential, and decided to stay open and serve our customers. We masked up, bought a lot of alcohol wipes for disinfecting, and didn’t close once. Luckily, we’d just launched our new website and delivery service the month prior and were able to bring our products directly to our customers in town.
We’ve been impressed with CBD East Main, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart?
The hemp side of the cannabis industry is largely unregulated. This means there is no federal government agency ensuring that everyone plays fair. This lack of clear regulatory guidance results in a fluid and rapidly evolving marketplace often subverted by nefarious manufacturers solely focused on profit. CBD and other hemp products are sold in gas stations, convenience stores, supermarkets, vape shops, and everywhere you look online. In most cases, the products are marketed without quality control, sales training, or consumer education by the retailers. Through our testing, we have found some products may not contain any active cannabinoids, and some use harmful ingredients.
CBD East Main has established itself as a firewall between our customers and the industry. If we sell a product, our customers can rest assured it is safe, tested, vetted, and priced as low as possible. We believe cannabis is a medicine that can help with various conditions and illnesses. To ensure our products are thoroughly tested for contaminants like herbicides or pesticides and do not contain harmful ingredients, we require a final product Certificate of Analysis with full panel testing for every product and every batch. This testing also ensures the cannabinoid content of the product matches the label to make dosing as accurate as possible.
We believe the well-educated consumer is our best customer; the more our customers know about cannabis, the more they will love what we do. With high confidence in our products, the staff at CBD East Main is trained to counsel customers through whatever they may be experiencing. Coached to listen, empathize, and ask questions, we guide our customers through the options and make product recommendations where cannabis may be an effective treatment.
In addition, our showrooms are designed with a boutique vibe that is tranquil and uplifting. Free of visual distraction and with a focus solely on cannabis products, we provide a safe environment where our customers know they can openly discuss cannabis without fear. All are made to feel welcome, and we work tirelessly to maintain the showroom environment down to the smallest details.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
In 2018, I tried smoking cannabis for the very first time in my life. I was 43 years old. I smoked it with my wife in the end stages of her cancer treatments. Before that, I was completely against cannabis and had never considered it a treatment option for her. I now know that legal access to cannabis early on could have altered the course of her disease. I am also convinced cannabis would at least have provided a better quality of life throughout her treatments and during her last days.
The struggle I had in 2018 was finding legal and safe access to cannabis. To access cannabis as a treatment for my dying wife, I had the choice of buying something of questionable quality on the street or smuggling legal, medical marijuana across state lines. It’s the same struggle millions of people in the Carolinas still endure today, while 39 states and counting have legalized some form of medical marijuana.
I am reminded of this every time I counsel customers recently diagnosed with cancer or who may be undergoing difficult treatment regimens. Rachel and I feel CBD East Main was founded on a blood sacrifice. Both Darryl and Joy died under challenging circumstances that we are convinced would have been greatly improved with safe and legal access to cannabis. There is hope in cannabis, and we will continue to advocate for the end of prohibition until the last barrier falls and everyone has equal access.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cbdeastmain.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cbdeastmain
- Facebook: https://www.facebookcom/cbdeastmain
- Other: https://www.twigRX.com
Image Credits
Monte Tyson
