Safe, effective and legal hemp-derived cannabinoid products are widely available today in Texas, but the range of products on the market can be confusing to consumers. Lukas Gilkey, CEO of Hometown Hero, discusses the differences, advantages and uniqueness of Hometown Hero and the THC, CBD and HHC products they offer.

What makes your products legal to sell in Texas?

Gilkey: Hemp and marijuana are actually the same plant. In nature, they’re both Cannabis sativa L. Hemp is less than 0.3%t Delta-9 THC by dry weight basis. And marijuana is anything greater than 0.3% Delta-9 THC on a dry weight basis. All of our products fall within the hemp category. They’re extracted from hemp. They’re grown from hemp. So, everything is fully legal, but the products we sell in a lot of cases are just as strong as what you would get if you were to buy a marijuana product in Oklahoma or Colorado.

The market in this state is only a few years old. People are now just starting to realize these products are available. In 2019, Texas passed House Bill 1325, which legalized hemp production in the state. The federal government mandated that interstate commerce for hemp is fully legal. So, we sell and ship to customers in 46 different states.

Can customers order your products online as well as in stores?

Gilkey: Yes, they can go on our website to buy our products with a credit card, and we ship it to their house. We don’t have a brick and mortar store, but you can find our products in about 6,000 stores nationwide. Our website lists the locations. And I always recommend that people go into a store to get introduced to the products and the benefits of what cannabis can do for them. And we have a customer service team people can reach by phone during regular business hours if they have any questions.

What are your most popular products and what makes them unique?

Gilkey: The gummies are our most popular products by far. We specialize in high-quality cannabis edibles. That’s what we’re known for. We have them in several different flavors and strengths. All of our products are manufactured by us in Texas, and we’re based in Austin. We spend a lot of time refining our products, really focusing on having the highest quality products possible. We had gourmet chefs involved in the creation of our edibles, like the Rice Krispy-style treats, and we’ve gotten so many compliments about them. Our gummies and Cacao Squares just won awards in the High Times Hemp Cup People’s Choice 2023 Edition.

Hometown Hero was founded with the mission to help military veterans. Will you talk about that?

Gilkey: We pride ourselves on working with veterans and making sure they have access to these products. Last year we gave $100,000 to veterans charities. I know a lot of veterans may not even know about a lot of these products, so it’s really been our mission to educate them—and even in a lot of cases just give these products away. It’s really important to help them and make their lives better.

Want to learn more about Hometown Hero? Visit the website hometownherocbd.com to discover more.

The above story was produced by Community Impact's Storytelling Multi-Platform Journalist Victoria Schaefer with information solely provided by the local business as part of their "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team. Our integrity promise to our readers is to clearly identify all CI Storytelling posts so they are separate from the content decided upon, researched and written by our journalism department.