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Chesapeake — Two old high school friends — one now a retired general contractor, the other a retired Navy captain who used to fly helicopters — took another step this week in their latest career venture.
Hemp farming and CBD production.
Travis Chick and Peter Mantz won unanimous approval Tuesday night from the Chesapeake City Council to operate a CBD processing facility in the Greenbrier area. Chick and Mantz run a hemp farm in Suffolk. They will use the site in Chesapeake to convert hemp-derived CBD oil for human consumption.
Cannabidiol, otherwise known as CDB, is a non-intoxicating compound found in the Cannabis sativa plant. The farm bill passed in 2018 made the production of industrial hemp legal in the United States. The law comes with certain restrictions — for example, hemp can’t contain more than .3% THC, the psychoactive compound that makes a person feel under the influence.
With an 8-0 vote, the friends became the first to get approval in the city to manufacture CBD. There are two other businesses dedicated to selling CBD products, a city spokesman told The Virginian-Pilot, and other retail outlets sell them.
Chick and Mantz co-founded Seva Farms, where they grew about 6,000 hemp plants last year on roughly five acres. After harvesting the plants, they dry and package them up for shipment to Oregon, where a company extracts CBD from the raw plant and sends back an oily, thick, honey-like substance. They said at the moment, it’s too cost prohibitive to purchase the extraction equipment.
In Chesapeake, Chick and Mantz along with a handful of employees will convert the extract for human consumption as well as balms and lotions that can be rubbed onto sore joints.
Mantz hopes the company will be up and running by late October. They plan to manufacture gel caps to be swallowed like any other pill and liquid soluble drops and powder that can be mixed into a drink or baked goods.
Chick and Mantz have personal stories of experiencing benefits related to CBD. Chick’s left hip had been bothering him for a couple years and he was having a hard time sleeping or sitting for long stints.
After taking CBD, he said he slept well and his pain subsided.
“I could function,” Chick said.
Inside Business
Mantz said he uses CBD to help him sleep. His wife, a cancer survivor, took it to help for pain in her shoulder. Mantz is hopeful the product could be beneficial for those experiencing anxiety or symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
In 2018, the FDA approved Epidiolex, a purified CBD extract, to treat rare seizure disorders in patients 1 year or older. The product is only available with a prescription from a licensed healthcare provider, and while there is hope for treating other conditions with the plant extract, Epidiolex remains the only CBD-derived drug approved by the FDA.
Mantz said the next step will be getting approval from the Virginia Department of Agriculture to manufacture the CBD oil into various products.
Their processing facility will be in a warehouse owned by Mantz’s family, in the Greenbrier Industrial Park. They will sell their products to retailers or wholesalers, Chick and Mantz said.
They hope to expand one day and eventually grow most of their hemp plants indoors. Last year, they ran into some familiar farming culprits: bad weather and pests.
After making CBD products for people, the pair might also venture to man’s best friend: CBD for dogs.
Gordon Rago, 757-446-2601, gordon.rago@pilotonline.com