By CHRIS FROST
Eagle Times News Editor
CLAREMONT, NH — A locally owned CBD shop is getting set up and looking forward to being part of the neighborhood at 16 Pleasant Street.
Kush Effect will offer an array of CBD products for people and pets. The store offers products that conform with the 2018 Farm Bill and are hemp-derived. They offer free delivery on purchases over $50 anywhere in Sullivan County.
Owners Bill Thibeault and Crystal Azukes live in Newport, and Thibeault said his family owns many CBD dispensaries in the United States.
“You’re able to do things that you wouldn’t be able to do in a medical state, Vermont or Massachusetts; you can do the same things using hemp,” said Thibeault. “Most of our customers are going to be 55 years old and older. I’ve worked in a lot of my cousin’s dispensaries, and most customers were over 55.”
He said many people come in seeking relief from aches and pains, but he also focuses on people who rely on polypharmacy to deal with anxiety.
“They end up taking five prescriptions for back pain, anxiety, or five prescriptions for depression,” he said. You end up getting so many long-term effects, like cognitive issues and memory loss over a long period of time.”
Thibeault said he took an anxiety pill for about five years, resulting in him suffering from high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
He noted the effects of poly-pharmacy are true, and people often have long-term effects on the brain from continued usage.
“I’ve helped a lot of people who take sleep aids, like Trazodone and Ambien because you can’t sleep because you have things going on and you’re in pain tossing and turning,” he said. “You can use a plant for that.”
Kush Effect offers gummy edibles explicitly made for sleep.
“They have CBD in them and THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) with under 0.3 in them, but they make the gummy big,” he said.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention cautions that “scientists are still learning about how CBD affects the body.” And that “using CBD products is not risk free [and] the FDA has limited data on CBD safety.”
Possible side effects, according to the CDC, “include liver damage, interference with other drugs you are taking, which may lead to injury or serious side effects, drowsiness or sleepiness, diarrhea or changes in appetite, [and] changes in mood, such as irritability.”
The City of Claremont had no issues with Kush Effect moving onto Pleasant Street.
“We went to the police department and the tobacco and liquor commission to let them know what we’re doing because we are selling vapes,” Thibeault said, adding that CBD vapes are safe when compared to those with nicotine. “They put additives in vapes so they don’t clog, and the CBD vapes are all-natural, so they will clog. They have a certain procedure on how they use it, so it won’t clog.”
He’s helped many people break the addiction cycle caused by Xanex, heroin and meth and wants to bring that help to downtown Claremont.
“It takes a little time, but it works,” Thibeault said.
Cornell University researchers caution that “the use of CBD for any health problem is complicated by the fact that it is not FDA regulated or approved. There is a huge variation between products in terms of their quality, as well as potential contamination from THC and synthetic cannabinoid. No standard therapeutic dose has been established at this time, and since many products are made without standards, you can’t always be sure exactly how much of the active ingredient is present in different batches of cannabinoid products.”
Pleasant Street
Azukes said she’d like to see Pleasant Street return to its heyday.
“There are so many empty stores,” she said.
Thibeault is from Claremont, went to Claremont High School and wanted to return.
“I know a lot of people here,” he said. “If I open another store, it will be in Lebanon and Keene because there are a lot of people. I’m pretty sure that everyone in Sullivan County will be coming to this location.”
He says his prices are consumer friendly.
“I can beat any street prices in Massachusetts and Vermont,” Thibeault said. “I didn’t believe in any of this until I worked for my cousin for a while.”
For more information, call Thibeault at 603-287-3135.
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