Photography by Jessica P. Turner.
A well-lit, open suite with honey-colored chandeliers. Products labeled and arranged neatly and displayed along the walls. A sitting area with a luxe green couch and cozy area rug.
This is not a gift shop or a fashion boutique. This is a CBD store.
CBD House of Healing is located on Plano Road between the L Streets and Highland Meadows neighborhoods. Owner Summer Hanson, a career nurse, says she is trying to change the narrative on CBD use in our neighborhood and Texas.
“I had used cannabis previously to manage stress and anxiety,” Hanson says. “But I didn’t really have a grasp on CBD.”
Hanson credits her time as a registered nurse leading to a deeper understanding of the product.
“It took me acknowledging that I had used cannabis therapeutically to realize I can bring this to other people,” she says. “In my head, I thought I was just using it for fun, not knowing that it was really medicine.”
In 2019, Texas’ governor signed House Bill 1325, making the sale of hemp products legal statewide. Texans took advantage overnight, many opening their own distribution shops.
Hemp legalization in Texas isn’t quite as enabling as places like California or Colorado, which have full marijuana legalization. Hemp and marijuana plants are types of the same species of cannabis plant. The difference lies in the plant’s percentage of THC, the element that induces a “high” in its user.
A hemp plant contains 0.3% or less THC, an amount deemed suitable for Texans under current legislation. Marijuana plants contain 0.3% or more THC, which remains illegal to possess in Texas.
CBD is a popular medicinal element of the hemp plant that can be extracted and put into oils, gummies or pills.
On the heels of the new legislation, Texans became accustomed to a wide variety of options in the CBD market. Still, the industry remains taboo with poor reputation to some who have yet to adjust to a changing medicinal and recreational landscape.
Summer Hanson, a career nurse, is trying to change the narrative on CBD.
Photography by Jessica P. Turner.
Hanson’s friend and business partner, Brittany Lane, created the House of Healing brand two years prior in Abilene, Texas. After Hanson’s own revelation with the product, she jumped on the opportunity to open a second location in her neck of the woods.
“Brittany wanted to change the aesthetic of her shop to differentiate herself from other places where you can buy CBD,” Hanson says. “Neither one of our shops look like a typical hemp shop.”
Inside the shop, there’s a colorful display of their products, offering medicinal, recreational and cosmetic benefits.
The store’s top wellness products usually come as a liquid tincture extract that can be added to drinks or gummies.
Shelves are stocked with CBD, Delta 8, Delta 9 and Delta 10 gummies in different flavors, along with CBD oil and tablets. Other edible items include CBD lollipops and whole-bean coffee.
There’s also a full line of CBD skin care products in white and gold packaging, including anti-aging moisturizer and facial scrubs, whipped shave butter and whipped foam facial cleanser.
House of Healing offers various CBD, Delta 8, Delta 9, and Delta 10 products.
Photography by Jessica P. Turner.
On one wall, House of Healing has its bud bar, where customers can purchase flowers by the gram.
There’s even a tincture extract designed for pets.
“They are not just another smoke shop or pop-up neon green sign store trying to make a buck.” says Justin, a regular customer at House of Healing who declined use of his last name. “I had seen so many other ‘alternative medical marijuana’ and CBD shops; however, they appear untrustworthy or fly-by-night.”
As such, the manner in which House Of Healing chooses to aesthetically represent CBD and their brand is very intentional. Results can be found in their number of regular customers, well-produced social media videos and even the subtle influence to destigmatize hemp products and culture across Texas.
“I’m a registered nurse; I’m a young woman; I’m a mom; I’m not a degenerate, and I use these products every day,” she says.
As successful as House of Healing might be, nothing is more meaningful to Hanson than being on the forefront of a change in Lake Highlands and Texas.
“If I can be the face of something that people previously considered wrong, it’s important I represent the brand as best I can,” Hanson says.
