How THRAX is Changing Wellness and Hemp in the Tri-State Area

Announcer [: 00:00:01

This is the Tri State Time Machine brought to you by Alex R. White, pllc@suedistractedriver.com each week, your host Vanessa Hankins and her guests share memories and stories about the past, the present and the future of the Tri State area. That's West Virginia, Kentucky and the Ohio areas. If you used to live here or you currently live here, you're going to catch yourself saying out loud, wow, I remember that. Now here's Vanessa.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:00:31

Hey, guys, it's Vanessa. Welcome back to the Tri State Time Machine, where we explore stories, people and the movements shaping the future of the Tri State by understanding where we've come from. And today we're diving into a topic that's changing lives, industries, and even legislation. Goodness, guys, I swear I'm getting these braces off soon and I'm going to be able to talk regular. But first, let me introduce Jason. Jason. Hey, how are you?

Matt Peyton [: 00:00:53

Good.

Jason [: 00:00:54

Good morning, everybody. You know, today we have a very special guest. Joining us is Matt Peyton, the Huntington native, co founder of Thrax, a local company with a growing regional presence. We're talking health, hemp, and homegrown entrepreneurship. Matt, welcome to the show.

Matt Peyton [: 00:01:09

Thanks for having me, guys. I really appreciate it.

Jason [: 00:01:11

Absolutely.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:01:12

Yeah. We're excited for you to be here.

Jason [: 00:01:13

So I'll tell you, let's start with kind of like a hometown angle. You're based right here in the Tri State. What led you to launch Thrax and what makes this region a good fit for a wellness focused business?

Matt Peyton [: 00:01:24

Yeah, so I graduated from St. Joe in 2010. I'm a Marshall graduate as well. So when it went to Marshall, so right when Covid hit funny enough there, this is like kind of how we started. So we started with a beer chugging Facebook group. Actually, I'm a member of that still. So all the bars closed and my friend now partner with Thrax, Nicholas Johnson, we were going to pick up food from fat Patties and it was drive thru only. It started that.

Matt Peyton [: 00:02:00

Well, they shut the bars down this night and everyone was panicking. And we saw another group in Missouri that was chugging beers on live because their bars had shut down. And I was, I remember looking and I was like, why don't we just start our own? And so we started this Facebook group.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:02:17

And.

Matt Peyton [: 00:02:19

We said every hundred members we would chug a beer. And like 20 hours later, we had 2,000 members.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:02:26

It went crazy really fast.

Matt Peyton [: 00:02:28

Yeah, yeah. So that kind of evolved into us selling shirts and like, we're like, man, if we can do this, why don't we do something that we know and love. So cannabis came into play. He had, both of us had worked for several companies and have family members in the cannabis industry between California and Colorado and we decided to start Thrax. So at the time the 2018 farm bill had passed and it had a hemp industry part of it. So what that did was it legalized every state to set their own hemp programs which the definition of hemp is cannabis that has less than 0.3% Delta 9 THC on a dry weight basis and the products. So at the time we started with making CBD lotion and balms and we started selling CBD hemp flower and that's like what started us. Well, we slowly saw some of these big companies come in to not just the tri state but on a national basis.

Matt Peyton [: 00:03:37

So selling these other cannabinoids that we weren't familiar with. You know, we just knew cannabis as weed.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:03:43

Right, right.

Matt Peyton [: 00:03:44

And you know, in the past five years I've learned more about cannabis than you know, the rest of any prior knowledge.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:03:50

But it's your livelihood, so I hope so.

Matt Peyton [: 00:03:53

Yes. Yeah. So we've dove in the hemp industry and the hemp. The farm bill has allowed the plant to just be, you know, researched a lot more and all the different cannabinoids research. Yeah. And brought to market. So there's so many different cannabinoids. Some are psychoactive like delta9thC, delta8thC and some are mildly psychoactive like CBN which is more for sleep.

Matt Peyton [: 00:04:22

And then CBD specifically is not psychoactive and it has a lot of anti inflammatory benefits as well. So we watched. Back to what I was saying. With these bigger companies, they started selling Delta 8 THC and at first we spoke with an attorney that we had at the time and he said his words to us was I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole, like it's going to be shut down. Well, we tried to get into it. Then there was federal guidelines that came down from the dea. They released an interim final ruling that basically was saying that it was not okay.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:05:02

Well, it's like superseding the state one.

Matt Peyton [: 00:05:05

So then we decided we didn't have anything to lose and we were just going to do it anyway. And we were like, if these big guys can do it, then we're going to give it a shot. And what's the worst that can happen? You know, we get shot down. Well, that progressed into us starting to make gummies. So Nick had made gummies for many years in Colorado and We decided to just use that same method, except we'd use Delta 8 THC that we would import from a lab in Colorado close to where he lived. So we brought that to West Virginia and after about six or eight months, it actually became financially viable. Wow, that's impressive. So he, we got, I got him to move back.

Matt Peyton [: 00:05:57

So. Yeah, we have a farm in Mason county and that's where I call it, the farm. We don't actually grow any hemp there, but hopefully one day that's our goal, is to grow cannabis there, whether it's recreational or medical.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:06:11

Yeah, that'd be cool.

Matt Peyton [: 00:06:12

But yeah, so we started, started making gummies, and that was about four years ago now. So from there we've done a lot, we've made a lot of products and I can't believe it's still rolling.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:06:31

One of those things that you're just like, I don't know how we got here, but here we are.

Matt Peyton [: 00:06:33

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Time has flown by, that's for sure.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:06:37

That's awesome. So you've already told us, you know what Thrax is. So for anyone that was wondering at home listening, but what makes your product stand out against similar businesses?

Matt Peyton [: 00:06:50

Okay, so definitely us being local has helped in like the regional aspect. I think that's been a massive thing, just word of mouth. I think that our name specifically is easy to know. It's a well known brand, at least regionally, and it's easy to say, absolutely. And it's also used as a, basically like a slang term for like good weed. So, like weed, we have heard that term since we were kids. And so we looked into national businesses that. And no one really had used that word.

Matt Peyton [: 00:07:28

Thrax.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:07:29

Yeah, that's awesome.

Matt Peyton [: 00:07:30

In the cannabis industry specifically. So we've, we've definitely benefited from that group. That definitely helped a lot. And then a lot of local business owners allowing us to be on the shelves next to them. One thing specifically that puts our product next to other ones that makes us stand out is the taste and the texture of our gummies. So I will stand by the fact that our gummies taste very, very good. Sometimes dangerous, flavorful. Yeah.

Matt Peyton [: 00:08:04

Sometimes dangerously too. And one time I was driving back from Kentucky and I ended up eating a few gummies and I had to let my buddy take over. I was like, dude, I was starving. And I was like, all right, this isn't. I gotta, I gotta let this suck.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:08:22

This is not working.

Matt Peyton [: 00:08:23

Yeah, that's true.

Jason [: 00:08:27

So historically, this region obviously has been known for coal, railroads and steel and things like that. Now we're seeing industries like wellness, hemp, alternative medicine taking hold. What role do you see that uls, thrax will be playing in that evolution in this area?

Matt Peyton [: 00:08:42

Well, I mean, I hope that we're able to grow, you know, actually grow as far as growing medical cannabis. I would love to be able to grow where we're at our farm and employ more people, you know, make more tax dollars for everyone, and from there, just help give back to the community however we can.

Jason [: 00:09:04

Outstanding.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:09:05

Yeah, absolutely. So I know that there's a lot of confusion. We've talked about confusion a few times, but there's a lot of confusion out there about the difference between cbd, thc, hemp and cannabis. Can you kind of give us the quick and clever version of the difference in those?

Matt Peyton [: 00:09:19

Yeah. So CBD is non psychoactive cannabinoid. That's the main cannabinoid found when you grow hemp, whereas marijuana itself usually is thc. So high cbd, hemp is what's grown usually with the farm bill, specifically in West Virginia. So there's a lot of different definitions legally, state to state. West Virginia is a total THC state. So we define hemp as less than 0.3% total THC. So we add Delta 9 THC and THCA.

Matt Peyton [: 00:09:58

And so there's an equation there. Other states have THCA. So THCA is a non psychoactive form of THC and it has to be heated to turn into Delta 9 THC. So West Virginia, if you go across the border, you see a lot of THCA flower that is not allowed in West Virginia because of that equation. CBD is allowed here along with all these other cannabis like Delta ATAC. Delta ATAC is about half as psychoactive as Delta9 THC. And I know this is getting into.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:10:33

A lot of semantics and just I'm like, really enthralled. I'm very impressed.

Matt Peyton [: 00:10:40

So Delta 8 is one of those cannabinoids that was legalized with the language of the 2018 farm bill. So CBD, non psychoactive, THC, psychoactive, and cannabis itself is everything under the sun. I mean, you could everything. The cannabis plant produces both those along with 50 other cannabinoids. So it's really cool going in the future just how much the plant is being unlocked through just the evolution of the free market.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:11:17

So in addition, I guess to that question, what does growth look like for thrax? What do you think's next?

Matt Peyton [: 00:11:26

Well, we're going to keep trying to expand. Right now we sell to like over a Dozen states we have retailers in, and we ship to over 30 states. It depends on the legality. But on a regular basis, we ship to, like, at least 30 states in consumers.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:11:49

Yeah.

Matt Peyton [: 00:11:50

So if you are a user of any. Any type of cannabis products, you know, we can shout out a coupon code at the end for.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:12:00

Oh, sweet.

Matt Peyton [: 00:12:01

For the podcast.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:12:02

That's awesome.

Matt Peyton [: 00:12:03

But, yeah, we. We ship usually Monday through Thursday. We try not to ship on Friday, specifically during these hot summer months, because gummies are not very friendly with. Yeah, yeah. You know, we've been having this issue for five years now, and. And my buddy got some gummy vitamins in the mail, like, from a national brand. It was, like, for hair growth, like, biotin gummies. And they came in the mail the other day, and he was like, look at this.

Matt Peyton [: 00:12:32

And they were just melted in there. I was like, oh, we're not the only ones having this problem.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:12:35

Yeah, absolutely.

Matt Peyton [: 00:12:37

And their answer was, don't order it again until after summer. And I was like, wow, they just don't care. We're, like, actively trying to insulate and use cool packs in all of our packages, and so far, so good. We just tried a new method. It's working really well. And we found a digital thermometer. Not to go off too much, but we found these little USB stick thermometers that you turn on and you can put inside of a package. And then when you receive the package, you can plug it in, and it will show you every 10 minutes what the temperature inside the package was.

Matt Peyton [: 00:13:11

So we were curious. Like, all packages I'm shipping from Mason county or Huntington, if I'm shipping it to a Huntington address, it goes to Charleston, then comes back to Huntington. So we're like, where is the point of melting? Where is the heat? So that allowed us to figure out how well our cool packs were doing, because we sent one without one with. And we got to see the where at what time, and we tried to match it with the tracking. Like, where is it?

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:13:36

Yeah.

Matt Peyton [: 00:13:37

What time does it go? And how well did the installation work? So today I'm shipping the package from Huntington to Charleston. My buddy in Charleston, I'm gonna send them to, and we're gonna see what happens with those. See what? The temperature.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:13:50

That's so cool. And I'm just, like, very impressed, like, for consumers, that you guys care enough about getting the product to them in the form that it was intended. Yeah, Yeah, I think that's. That's awesome. Yeah, I think because I've ordered a lot of vitamins and Stuff like that, like you said, the biotin and things like that. And usually you get it from Amazon or anywhere like that, you're shit out of luck. They don't care. That's your problem, not theirs.

Matt Peyton [: 00:14:14

Yeah, we're usually pretty good about replacing people's stuff, but we try to avoid that.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:14:20

Absolutely. That's super cool.

Matt Peyton [: 00:14:23

Yeah.

Jason [: 00:14:25

So let me ask you, do you see this as part of a bigger shift, like, as far as, you know, people eventually moving here towards natural wellness and entrepreneurship?

Matt Peyton [: 00:14:34

Yeah. I think cannabis could play a massive role in tourism, specifically in areas like the New River Gorge or, you know, the. Just. We have such a beautiful state with so many state parks, so many landmarks, you know, Seneca Rocks, Blackwater Falls, you know that the list goes on. So if you look at areas that have recreational cannabis, specifically, like Colorado, with their massive outdoor scene, it definitely has played a massive part of their tourism.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:15:03

Absolutely.

Matt Peyton [: 00:15:05

And I think that in our space, the hemp space, it's allowed a lot of people like us to get into it without as much red tape. Whereas the medical and recreational marijuana companies have billions of dollars in lobbyists and a lot of crazy licensing. With us being a West Virgin Indian company, they make it extremely easy for us. The West Virginia Department of Agriculture, we just have to pay $1,000 a year for our license, and then we have to register all of our products per sku, which is capped at a thousand dollars. So actually that's all we have to pay every year. There's also a retail sales tax that retailers have to build into the price of all the hemp products. But most of our sales are all wholesale.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:15:56

Yeah, that's awesome. That's really neat. So we already talked about what was next for Thrax. Let's talk a little bit about where people can find your products in the area or the products themselves.

Matt Peyton [: 00:16:10

So most of our products or our entire product line can be found at Stogies. It can be found at Lulu's. It can be found tons of different gas stations, 31st Street, Marathon, and can be found Lulu Mart in the West End. Mr. Smoke. Most smoke shops in general have our products and a lot of smaller gas stations around here. One of one of the cooler stores we got in was Jungle Gyms in Cincinnati.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:16:41

Yeah, that is really cool.

Matt Peyton [: 00:16:43

Yeah, we. We were a big fan of them, so that was really cool to be on their shelves. We're also in tons of different distributors locally. We're in Q and I Wholesale out of Canal City. We're in Goldsmith Sydner in Huntington Lane. Wholesale out of Catletsburg. But then really the best way to get our products directly would be from our website. And like I said, we ship directly usually Monday through Thursday.

Matt Peyton [: 00:17:18

So if you get an order in, chances are if it's in the morning, it's going to go out that day. So that, that's probably the best way to get our products is probably from our website, I think.

Jason [: 00:17:28

So ever maybe open a storefront and do direct sales? Or do you like the way things are now?

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:17:32

Still in my questions, Jason, come on.

Matt Peyton [: 00:17:35

So we've thought about that, you know, but this area has just been saturated with. With vape stores and smoke shops and like, you know, there's only one pie and they're already doing that job for us. So I think the time has passed for us to do that as it stands, because we're not really interested in having a brick and mortar the way it stands right now. Now if we were able to have a dispensary, sure, we would love to open a dispensary, but the office of medical cannabis is. They haven't opened any applications for a long time, like five years.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:18:15

Oh, wow.

Matt Peyton [: 00:18:15

So, but the end goal is to just from seed to consumer. You know, we would love to be able to grow and process and manufacture all of our stuff in house. So in the future, I would love to love to have a brick and mortar dispensary. But yeah, as of as it stands right now, us just being a hemp company, I don't think we have any plans on opening a brick and mortar.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:18:41

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I think, I think I'm a lot of questions because you asked my last one. You're. You're like in my brain.

Matt Peyton [: 00:18:52

Yeah.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:18:53

Do you.

Jason [: 00:18:54

What is your most popular product? Oh, yeah, like a rare product that maybe people just don't know that much.

Matt Peyton [: 00:19:01

So our most popular product is probably our 30 count variety bag. So it's a 30, 40 milligram Delta 8 gummies. And that seems to be, over the past two years, our number one selling. We've started just calling it the daily dose. That's like what. What actually AI came up with.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:19:22

That's your monthly supply?

Matt Peyton [: 00:19:23

Yeah, I was, I was actually used AI to make a sales sheet and it started calling it that and it stuck. So that's our number one. Now one of our newest products is our Relax and recharge gummies. So they have 20 milligrams of Delta 9 THC, 20 milligrams of CBN, and 20 milligrams of CBD. And that's my personal favorite product. They're blueberry flavored, and they are excellent. If you eat a half of one of those gummies, it's extremely good for sleep. And we've had great feedback from them.

Matt Peyton [: 00:19:56

So that's maybe a more rare one because it's newer and not everyone has picked it up yet because it's a little bit more expensive. But that's my favorite product.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:20:09

But when that's the aim. Yeah, that's. Having the option is phenomenal.

Matt Peyton [: 00:20:13

Yeah, yeah. People. We get feedback all the time. I mean, people are from all ages, specifically on our website. I think our majority of our customers, like, almost 60%, are over the age of 40. And I wouldn't have guessed that. A lot of women. So I've got customers.

Matt Peyton [: 00:20:39

I've got. I got a lady in Ohio who's 85 years old who actively. She has my phone number now, and she worked. Yeah. So. So she wanted. I think she emailed us through our wholesale page, and I thought it was a store, and she just wanted to figure out a way. What's the easiest way to do this? To take my credit card over the phone.

Matt Peyton [: 00:20:58

And I'm not recommending to do that, but I helped her out, and I've done that with her to place orders. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I love that. She actually lives in a retirement community, and she is providing our gummies to every party. Yeah. She gets them for all her girlfriends there.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:21:19

I love that.

Matt Peyton [: 00:21:20

Yeah. So. But going back. So I'm gonna backtrack a little bit. So with what got us into it, I kind of forgot all about this. I'm gonna.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:21:31

That was actually gonna. That was gonna be my next question as we were sitting here talking is how you got into this.

Matt Peyton [: 00:21:36

Yeah. Yeah. So my mother had Ms. And Nick's mom has ms, and we have both seen their benefit of using CBD prior to Thorex, and that. That definitely has been motivating factor with watching us help other people. So, you know, just like that woman I was talking about, or there's a woman, a friend of ours, a friend of mine, her mother's best friend is in hospice right now, and apparently she's, I don't know, dealing with colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, and she's on a morphine drip. And apparently she's been giving her our gummies, like, helping her sleep every night. And actually later today, I'm taking her some to give to her.

Matt Peyton [: 00:22:29

And, you know, it's good that that's able to provide a little bit of relief, you know, especially towards A terrible time of life, but not even just that. It's just the regular, everyday wellness and just being happy living. People with arthritis, you know, just aches and pains. But a big thing is sleep. We always hear that. Sleep, sleep, sleep. Our products that allow people to relax and just get a good night's rest. And you gotta.

Matt Peyton [: 00:22:57

You got to be careful with your doses, though, because you may sleep a little too much.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:23:01

Well, that's what I was gonna tell you. The way I found out about Thrax, it was about three years ago, I think, and could have been two for my brain doesn't function real well. When you're a mom of two kids, you. You lose track of time. But my chiropractor was telling me about how when her father was in life care, they had used your products for his comfort. That's how I first learned of the company. So I thought that was really awesome that you guys are playing such a big role in many lives in that way. I think that's really.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:23:35

That's something else.

Matt Peyton [: 00:23:36

Yeah. Yeah. I really appreciate you telling me about that. I've heard that a decent amount of times now. I mean, the list goes on and on. Specifically that loved ones that are no longer with us, that were able to use our products towards the end of, you know, to help with their pain and that the ages go, you know, from 20s to 80s, obviously. And, you know, it's pretty cool to just see us make a difference, you know, on the side of everything.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:24:10

All right, Absolutely. And to see that it's so universal, lets, you know you're doing something right. Yeah, that's really cool. All right, well, I. I am actually out of questions for real this time. Do you have any more, Jay?

Matt Peyton [: 00:24:25

No.

Jason [: 00:24:26

You know, my only thing that I would like to get to our general public out there. How would you describe anything that would kind of help heal some misconceptions of this industry?

Matt Peyton [: 00:24:39

Okay. So I think that the era of reefer madness and whatnot is obviously always looming over us. And there's just the misconception of, you know, people using drugs. This is drug use, this stoners, blah, blah, blah. Well, there's tons of active members of your community that you don't even realize that are actively using cannabis and due to the stigma, specifically, you know, more in our region than, you know, say, Colorado.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:25:10

Right.

Matt Peyton [: 00:25:11

So I think that responsible use is key, just like anything else. And I think that there's absolutely no difference between someone going home and drinking a six pack of beer.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:25:24

Absolutely.

Matt Peyton [: 00:25:25

Popping a gummy. I think it isn't addictive. It doesn't destroy your brain like alcohol does.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:25:32

Right.

Matt Peyton [: 00:25:34

So I'm all about letting people do what they want to do and the government not getting in the way. So I think that this. I'm not sure how we're gonna move forward from that, but I think that with people seeing it being used to help people, just like in those end of life situations, or whether it's a little girl who has seizures, using CBD drops to help with seizures. And I think going forward with. Just as states are progressively, you know, changing the laws, we're seeing the hemp industry. For instance, two states, Texas and Florida, they voted to kill their hemp industry and both of their governors vetoed it. DeSantis and Abbott both vetoed it. Abbott last week vetoed it.

Matt Peyton [: 00:26:28

And this is massive because Texas and Florida are the two biggest market markets in the United States. And so we're seeing the tax dollars come in. Billions of dollars of tax. Billions of billions of tax dollars from hemp. It's projected to be larger than the medical and cannabis or medical and recreational markets combined. The hemp industry projected to be larger by 2030. And I think that once people see the tax dollars rolling in, I think that that helps a lot, a lot change people's opinion. Because for the Tri State, as an example, the Tri State according the dea is a high intensity drug trafficking area.

Matt Peyton [: 00:27:10

So there's like 30 of those in the United States. Well, whether people want to believe it or not, there are hundreds of millions of dollars of illegal cannabis that have flown through this area for many years.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:27:21

Absolutely.

Matt Peyton [: 00:27:22

And it would be cool to be able to keep that money here versus that money coming from Oregon, Washington, California, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, everywhere else coming here and then leaving there. It'd be cool to be able to hold that money here, keep the jobs here and just tax it. Because no matter what, the demand isn't going to go anywhere. It's going to continually be where it's at and rise. And I think moving forward, if we could just have a little bit more common sense as far as regulations, obviously keeping away from kids. No one's advocating for that packaging guidelines. But I think just in the past decade, I've watched the narrative shift a lot. Even for my own grandmother.

Matt Peyton [: 00:28:08

You know, her seeing my family members, like her nieces and nephews who are in their 60s, seen them buy our products, you know.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:28:17

Right.

Matt Peyton [: 00:28:18

It's definitely helped change the narrative, but I think just education's key. So that's something we try to do on a regular basis. Is answer anyone's questions, right?

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:28:27

Absolutely. And what a cool feeling to get it from your. Your own family like that.

Matt Peyton [: 00:28:30

Oh, yeah.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:28:31

That's what it means the most. It's like, yeah, cool, bro. Like, you're your uncle's brother's cousin.

Matt Peyton [: 00:28:35

Yeah.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:28:36

But my grandma is down with it now. Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Matt Peyton [: 00:28:40

Yeah, she. She definitely changed the narrative. She's. She. She tried a gummy once and she ate like a corner of a star. And she's like, that made me dizzy. That's her. That's her stain for a lot of things.

Matt Peyton [: 00:28:54

If it's bourbon or it's made me dizzy, I don't like it.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:28:58

Oh, that's cute.

Matt Peyton [: 00:28:59

She's a warrior, though. She went. She had like two feet of her large intestine removed or small intestine. I don't know, small intestine, but. And she didn't take one pain pill. She had this massive incision. I mean, it was insane. I was like, I don't understand how you.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:29:16

My grandmother was like that. Like, she wouldn't even take, like, aspirin or Advil, you know, things like that.

Matt Peyton [: 00:29:20

It's crazy.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:29:21

These women were built different. They really were.

Matt Peyton [: 00:29:23

Yeah. Yeah, they really were. But, yeah, all of our products go back to just locally sourced and whatnot. So we manufacture everything in Mason County. We're in Ashton. And all of our raw material as far as our distillate, our infused ingredients, comes from a company in Colorado. And most of their biomass is sourced from Oregon and Kentucky, West Virginia. Our hemp laws going back to that THCA thing, hasn't been the friendliest state to grow hemp in due to that regulations.

Matt Peyton [: 00:30:06

So we've watched the. The spreadsheet from the department Agriculture for Hemp Growers go from like 10 pages, and now it's one page.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:30:16

Oh, wow.

Matt Peyton [: 00:30:16

Because a lot of people got into it and thought it was a gold mine and quickly realized these other states were already set up for it.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:30:25

Right, right.

Matt Peyton [: 00:30:26

Ready to flip the switch. So.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:30:27

Right.

Matt Peyton [: 00:30:29

But yeah.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:30:31

So going into the business, yourself and your partner, were you guys the first in the area or.

Matt Peyton [: 00:30:39

I don't know if I want to say we're the first, but there may be like, one other company.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:30:49

That's what I was curious how many that they're.

Matt Peyton [: 00:30:53

Now regionally, there's more. Like there's. There's one, two. I mean, but I guess based out of Huntington. Technically, it's just you guys. Yeah. And someone listening to this is gonna say, no, that's not. But I'm pretty sure as far as, like, what's actively on the shelves in the stores that I see every day.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:31:14

Right.

Matt Peyton [: 00:31:14

For sure. I don't see many West Virginia brands even.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:31:19

Right. Yeah. And you really are everywhere.

Matt Peyton [: 00:31:22

Yeah. Someone else. They're not doing what you're doing. Yeah, we're trying.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:31:26

Well, you're doing it. Yeah, you guys are doing it. We hear nothing but great things. And we're so thankful that you came on the show with us today.

Matt Peyton [: 00:31:34

Yeah. No, I really appreciate the opportunity. Now back to that code.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:31:39

Oh, yes, absolutely.

Matt Peyton [: 00:31:41

For you guys at home, we'll just make it Time Machine.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:31:46

Time Machine that works.

Matt Peyton [: 00:31:47

Time Machine. If you use code, Time Machine at Thrax, C, B, D, T H, R A x c b d dot com. Time machine. It'll give you 25% off and free. Free shipping.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:32:00

Yes. That's massive. Thank you guys at home. That's awesome. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, you can send them my way if you don't want them. Whatever.

Matt Peyton [: 00:32:09

Oh, yeah. And also, I've got some products to give you guys too, so.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:32:12

Oh, look at the packaging.

Matt Peyton [: 00:32:14

Yeah. So we've got some of our Relax and recharge. I've got a couple variety packs. We have a sour variety, a regular variety, and then we have a newer product, our meteorites, which are strawberry gummies with gummy clusters, we're calling them, but they have nerds embedded into them.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:32:29

I get why a lot of your purchases, your customers are ladies. Your packaging is so vibrant. So vibrant. We love it.

Matt Peyton [: 00:32:40

This one's, like, a little far for us. This one's like a real Barbie. Ish.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:32:46

I love it, though.

Matt Peyton [: 00:32:47

But, yeah, we started doing these bags. We had tubes for a long time, but we started doing these bags. It was a lot cheaper.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:32:54

Yeah, they're awesome.

Matt Peyton [: 00:32:55

Better on the environment.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:32:56

Packaging's awesome. When we post this episode, we'll have some. Some photos and stuff like that for you guys to see. Everything.

Matt Peyton [: 00:33:02

Yeah, yeah. You guys give those to future guests, give them to your friends, family, whatever.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:33:06

Absolutely. That's awesome. Thank you. We appreciate it.

Matt Peyton [: 00:33:08

No problem. Thank you for coming on the show today.

Jason [: 00:33:10

Seriously. I encourage everyone to go get your alls product, follow your product, do all the things and follow the science that you are doing.

Matt Peyton [: 00:33:18

It's great.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:33:18

I was gonna say, if anyone is interested in all that, it's all on your website, right? Like, yeah, you've got all this information available.

Matt Peyton [: 00:33:24

Yes, we're on Facebook. Just. It's facebook.com thraxcbd instagram.com Thrax THC and then our website, thraxcbd.com but if anyone has any questions or comments, feel free to message me on Facebook or message our page. Email us.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:33:44

Absolutely.

Matt Peyton [: 00:33:44

We'll be happy to answer.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:33:45

I love that, like, you guys have the down home vibe. You're like, yeah, just find me on Facebook. Just, just bother me. I don't care.

Matt Peyton [: 00:33:51

Yeah. And then also, if anyone comments, I'll be watching. If anyone comments on your guys page, I'll. I'll answer anyone's questions.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:33:57

All right. Awesome. That's cool.

Jason [: 00:33:59

Seriously, come back.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:34:00

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, welcome. Anytime.

Matt Peyton [: 00:34:02

For sure.

Vanessa Hankins [: 00:34:02

All right, guys, we are out of here.

Announcer [: 00:34:07

Thanks for listening to the Tri State Time Machine brought to you by Alex R. White, pllc@suedistractedriver.com if you have a memory you want Vanessa to talk more about, just send her an email@tstmail.com or post a comment on the Tri State Time Machine Facebook page. Did you like the episode? Be sure to share it with friends and family. It's the only way we can continue this fun work that we do. You can find a link in the Show Notes that you can use to share it. And be sure to let our sponsors know you like the podcast as well. Their contact information can be found in this episode's Show Notes.