Grass Roots Health, a Chattanooga-based store that sells cannabidiol, or CBD, and other non-intoxicating hemp products derived from cannabis, will start channeling a portion of its sales to local health care nonprofits and organizations fighting the opioid epidemic.
The philanthropic initiative, called Fund 129, will begin by disbursing funds on a quarterly basis to the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, the American Legion, the Chattanooga Community Kitchen and other groups managing opiate recovery efforts.
Elisha Millan (Contributed photo courtesy of Elisha Millan)Elisha Millan founded Grass Roots Health in June 2017 after CBD helped manage her pain from Crohn’s disease. She said Fund 129 is part of her personal mission to offer people a safe and healthy alternative to addictive opioid painkillers and promote the therapeutic potential of hemp.
“I was a person who was homebound because of my pain level and because I refused to take any opiates,” Millan said. “Hemp has given me the freedom to be able to have good days and to have hope and be able to exist outside of pain.”
Although CBD comes from the same plant as marijuana, it’s stripped of the chemical that produces the drug’s “high” effect – tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC – and legal in Tennessee.