INTRODUCTION
Danville, a thriving, Tri-Valley small town in the East Bay, has one of the most diverse downtown shopping areas you’ll find, even in NorCal. With spotlessly clean sidewalks, lined with colorful flowering shrubs and potted plants, its main shopping street Hartz Avenue has unique storefronts offering trendy fashion boutiques, sporting goods suppliers, restaurants, bakeries, and any number of interesting places to draw one in to browse.
And that’s what I was doing one beautiful summer morning after seeing the sign that read “America’s Finest Hemp Company.” Looking in the windows, the store’s interiors resembled an old-fashioned apothecary with antique pharmaceutical showcases. And going inside, I felt I was entering an apothecary of yesteryear.
In addition to the botanical showcases, all the display fixtures were restored antiques and everything was for sale: the products on the shelves as well as the furniture, fixtures, and the pictures on the walls. This is a marriage of an apothecary supplying phytocannabinoid-rich CBD and an antique/lifestyle store.
It is definitely one of the most unique and charming shops on Hartz Avenue and should not be missed.
CANNABIS AND SEIZURES
Some years ago, before cannabis was legalized, I remember seeing a documentary on how it had been used effectively to stop seizures. It was a very dramatic segment on a substance that we associated at that time with”pot” and it was a revelation to see someone suffering from roll-over seizures, suddenly at peace with no seizure activity. Now that hemp is legal, there is a lot more research being carried out on this and many other conditions and we can expect more reliable claims about its effectiveness in dealing with previously untreatable conditions.
AMERICA’S FINEST HEMP
Jeff Sutherland who owns Amerca’s Finest Hemp Company was inside the showroom and we got to talking about cannabis and its many wonderful uses. Jeff, who works full-time in construction, became interested in cannabis after his wife gave birth to their second child. In “pushing” while giving birth, she fractured one of her vertebrae, which left her with serious back pain. The doctor recommended opioids for the pain, which did not help. Unable to get relief, she tried cannabis and found it was a better panacea.
Jeff suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, which can debilitate him with pain and he too found the only solution was cannabis when he had a flare-up. This is a testament to the power of the CBD that he is selling for others to share in the benefits of hemp.
That was Sutherland’s introduction to this miracle product at a time before hemp was legalized. It was the Wild West era of hemp when everyone and anyone, was trying to get onto the bandwagon — and there were no quality controls such as those that exist in the pharmaceutical industry. Finding a reliable source was not easy and Jeff found himself in some seedy neighborhoods in his effort to stay well.
At a family gathering, his relatives were impressed with how well Jeff and his wife were managing their pain by using hemp, and they asked for referrals. Jeff did not feel comfortable sending them to the run-down neighborhoods he was frequenting for his supplies. The neighborhoods were too dangerous.
This happened to be around the beginning of Covid. and as a result of the pandemic, Jeff’s construction workload diminished. In order for his wife to continue working at her high-paying job outside the home, Jeff took over the responsibility of taking care of the family and being at home.
Using his downtime well, Jeff began studying everything he could about this miracle compound that came from the Cannabis Sativa plant and became well-informed. He sought out experts in the field and visited the dispensaries that were springing up like wildflowers as everyone was getting into the CBD business. With his newfound knowledge, Jeff decided he was ready to open a cannabis store, that would be in a good neighborhood and offer the most reliable phytocannabinoid-rich CBD. No one else would need to go to a seedy neighborhood to get their supplies of inconsistent hemp at a black-market price as he had.
The purest form of cannabis comes from the flowers at the top of the cannabis sativa plant. The mass producers take the flowers, leaves, and stalks, and pulverize all of them. Jeff needed to control the quality he was selling and only wanted to use the flowers. In due diligence at the ouset, he found reliable dispensaries whose cannabis was consistently top-shelf; now, he packages his products under his own brand and logo.
USES FOR CANNABIS
Once cannabis was legalized, there was a flood of wild claims that it was a cure-all for everything. Nothing could be further from the truth. But with more research, it has been proven to help with the terrible side effects of cancer treatments, anxiety, loss of sleep, PTSD, and menstrual cramps among others. And above all, it is a natural product and not a manufactured drug.
Most people using cannabis today only resort to it after traditional medicines failed them. Traditionally, most encounter it looking for pain relief, where it has been particularly effective, more so than the liberally-proscribed opioids the medical profession tends to resort to (directly leading to an increase in addiction to these substances). Cannabis is not addictive and is at least as effective, and in some cases more so, in controlling pain.
Cannabis has also been successful in treating pets’ ailments and there is a burgeoning market in the manufacture of cosmetics that are blended with cannabis.
CONCLUSION
Quote “Far more than any other CBD store, we hand-select and curate nothing but the absolute best, highest quality and most trusted CBD and hemp products in the market.”
America’s Finest Hemp Company divides its products into oils, tinctures and gummies, coffee, and tea, and there is always someone in the shop for a consultation. For those who cannot come into the store, America’s Best Hemp has a website offering all the same products and one can also arrange a consultation with Jeff online.
AMERICA’s FINEST HEMP COMPANY
Jeff Sutherland, CEO
422 Hartz Avenue | Danville, CA 94526
(925) 406-4400 (shop)
(925) 683-8201 (mobile)
Tuesday – Saturday Hours: 10 AM–6 PM
Sunday – Monday Hours: 11 AM–5 PM
afhempco.com