Alive & Kicking 2023

Make a Resolution You Can Stick To: Get Your Texas License To Carry

It’s New Year’s Day again, so time to make more “Resolutions” for 2023, and we all know how those usually turn out. Lose weight, get in shape, remodel the house, quit sniffing glue —all things that are tough to stay on track with. If you’re looking for something a little easier to do, resolve to get your Texas License To Carry in 2023. I promise it’s easier than anything above!

“But why do I need an LTC anymore? Isn’t it legal to carry a firearm in Texas without it?” Yes, Texas does have a form of Constitutional Carry (technically

Permitless Carry), which allows anyone who is eligible to own a firearm to carry it concealed or open. There are requirements that go with that right, but for the most part, you can carry a handgun without the LTC. But there are still a lot of good reasons to have the LTC anyway.

Top Reasons to Have an LTC

1.) There are still many places where you can’t carry without the LCT. Despite the Constitutional Carry law,

there are still many places where you can’t carry without the LTC. College campuses, open Government meeting places, amusement parks, and nursing homes are just some of the locations where permitless carry does not apply.

2.) Purchasing firearms is easier with an LTC.

Purchasing firearms is easier with an LTC. ATF rules allow for a valid handgun license to bypass the required background check. So instead of waiting up

to 30 minutes for a decision on your background check from the FBI NICS system (or 3 business days if you get a Delayed response), you can complete the paperwork and leave with your new firearm in minutes! It’s almost as easy as Uncle Joe says it is! (Almost…)

3.) Your LTC will serve as a second form of ID.

It’s not often anymore, but if you encounter a situation where two forms of ID are required, the LTC is just as good as your Driver’s License.

4.) Your LTC could essentially be a “Get Out Of A Felony Free” card at the airport.

The most significant reason to get your LTC applies to anyone who actually does carry a firearm with any regularity. The next time you’re at Dallas Love Field for a flight out, take notice of the signs at the entrance to the TSA line. There’s one with a picture of a handgun that says, “Did you UNPACK before you PACKED?” A gentle reminder that yesterday you might have been carrying a firearm in that same backpack that’s now your carry-on.

Courtesy Canva

There are signs at some airports that show pictures of the actual firearms they’ve confiscated from peoples’ luggage. If you accidentally forget to take it out and TSA finds it (and they will), you can be in a heap of trouble. If you don’t have an LTC in that situation, it’s either a Class A Misdemeanor or a 3rd Degree Felony that can ensure you never legally own another firearm. If you DO have an LTC, TSA has the discretion to simply ask you to put in in your car or otherwise away from the airport. Your LTC could essentially be a “Get Out Of A Felony Free” card in that case. That’s a huge difference; well worth the time required to get that card!

Getting your LTC is easy in Texas. The classroom portion is down to only 4 hours and can be taken online at your own pace for around $50 at Defiant-Arms.com. Once that is complete, take the certificate to any gun range, and they will help you with the shooting qualification. Ranges charge from $25 to $40 for that part, and it’s the same no

matter where you do it. Complete the online application with the State and submit your required documents along with the $40 fee, and you should have your LTC within 60 days.

No matter how you choose to exercise your 2nd Amendment right (LTC or Permitless Carry), US Law Shield is a musthave. You don’t drive your car without insurance (hopefully), so why would you carry a firearm without insurance? For around $100 per year, you have access to an attorney 24/7/365. If you have to defend yourself with deadly force in any situation with anything — gun, knife, tire tool, baseball bat, fists, vehicle, you name it — you are covered for any legal ramifications of it. Criminal and Civil cases, unlimited benefits, and coverage in all 50 States. Get 30 days for free to start at USLawShield.com.

As for shopping, Defiant Arms (5200 Denton Hwy, Haltom City, 817-3937738) keeps hard-to-find ammo in stock and popular items like the Kimber products made popular on the Yellowstone television show. “I always laugh when I see the Kimber product placement in Yellowstone; an obvious choice with

their huge presence in Kalispell, Montana,” says Dwayne. “My wife has always called the Bel Air ‘Beth's gun,’ even though she's never had a firearm on the show before the recent season fi-

nale.” They sold out of Bel Airs during the last gun show but will be stocking more soon. Then, then you can channel your inner Beth with your everyday carry. For details, visit Defiant-Arms.com.

Defiant Arms stocks the Kimber products made popular on Yellowstone.

Courtesy Instagram

BY EDWARD BROWN

Colt Power always had a love for and an appreciation of medicine. While making rounds as a pre-med student at Notre Dame, he realized he did not like the sight of blood, so he set aside his desire to be a physician to pursue a career in commercial real estate.

When state leaders legalized hemp farming in Texas and the retail sale of cannabidiol (CBD) products in 2019, Power tried some and found they reduced inflammation in his knees, something that limited his workouts. There was also an unexpected but welcome benefit to the CBD.

“My baseline anxiety level came down,” he said. “It changed a lot in my life.”

Power co-founded Power Biopharms in 2020 with wife Reagan Power, who works as an ICU nurse. The facility on the border of East Fort Worth and Euless produces medical-grade cannabis products to exacting standards.

Power said he created the company with the future in mind. Currently, the Lone Star State has a highly regulated med-

ical marijuana program through the 2015 Compassionate Use Act that allows Texans with certain conditions and diseases to access medications that contain very low levels of THC (the psychoactive agent in marijuana). If state leaders overcome unfounded paranoia that marijuana is a gateway drug to self-destruction and expand that program requiring patients to seek THC prescriptions, Power Biopharms will be able to use the same all-in-house model to grow both marijuana and hemp. For now, the Depart-

ment of Public Safety, which oversees that program, has not awarded new licenses for marijuana production.

On a recent morning, Power, marketing director Stephanie Hastings, and director of cultivation Nick Williams gave a tour of their indoor farm. All the hemp plants used to make gummies, tincture oils, CBD-infused pet treats, and other CBD products come from one plant that is continually cloned to make seedlings that are grown and cultivated throughout several rooms.

Williams said the Power Biopharms team started with 100 seeds that were grown and processed for properties like strength, size, and cannabinoid potency before a final winner was chosen. Every couple of weeks, staffers cut and process 112 flowering hemp plants before cutting away the leaves and hanging the flowers to dry. In the back of the lab, Williams demonstrated placing the dried hemp flowers in an extractor that uses heat and pressure to squeeze out a dark, continued on page 13

Texans and retailers are moving forward with medical and recreational cannabinoids even as state leaders cling to outdated paranoia over marijuana.

Several Power Biopharms shelves house hemp plants at various levels of maturity.

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Once the plants are harvested, Power Biopharms employees carefully cut away the leaves before hanging the stems and flowers to dry.

tk Trey Phillips, seen with wife Dr. Lisa Gardner-Phillips, says his clients support expanding access to medical and recreational uses of hemp and marijuana.

thick resin that is then used to make Power Biopharms’ products.

Holding a bowl with the final CBD compound, Williams said the resin has a market value of around $8 to $10 a gram, meaning he was holding around $1,700 worth of CBD oil. The same amount would be worth at least several times more than what CBD sells for on the open market.

“Even if we never go into the medical space, we are investing in local,” Power said, referring to the production process that occurs entirely at the farm and a nearby gummy manufacturer. “Instead of saying, ‘Here is a concentrate,’ we can say, ‘Here is the farm where it came from. We know how the plants were raised.’ People like working with a local source. There aren’t many farms doing what we do in DFW at the moment.”

Even with the DA’s confusing stance on the criminality of possessing hemp, the smell of cigarettes and blunts made from that plant is common outside local bars and other public areas. Tarrant County residents have undoubtedly adopted recreational use of cannabinoids even as Texas remains one of only 13 states that outlaw marijuana use.

Texas Tribune found that the local farming industry’s excitement over hemp has subsided in the wake of a drought and a market flooded with national competition.

“Since hemp’s legalization, farmers have lost interest in hemp, especially the kind grown for fiber and grain to make clothes, textiles, and paper,” the Tribune says. “Those who invested have yet to see returns and say hemp, like other crops, is

struggling across the state during one of the driest years on record. Farmers across Texas are having to cut their losses by abandoning failing crops to save valuable resources. And with so much at stake, some farmers aren’t willing to risk investing in hemp.”

Power said many people jumped into the hemp farming business in 2020 without understanding the difficulties of growing the plant, processing it, and finding a buyer. If those challenges weren’t hard enough for novice growers, the COVID pandemic magnified those economic challenges.

“There has definitely been a shakeout of people who thought this was going to be easy,” he continued. “It is still a very fragmented supply chain here in Texas. In 2020, I got a producer, processor, and handler li-

cense. Just by having a processor license, I was contacted by people who had grown hemp. We didn’t have the infrastructure in place yet to help them. It showed that a lot of people got excited, grew hemp, and didn’t know what to do with it. People jumped in at the growth level not understanding how hard it was to grow it. Even if they were successful, they didn’t have access to buyers and processing.”

Still, Power sees promise for Texas. Consumer demand, he said, remains steady.

“CBD seems to benefit people who take it a couple of times a day,” he said. “People who understand that it is part of their health and wellness routine will continue to use it regularly.”

Texas remains a latecomer to the hemp farming industry. It was largely federal, not state, action that allowed local farmers to begin growing the once-banned plant following the passage of a 2018 law. The Farm Bill removed hemp with very low concentrations of THC from the Controlled Substances Schedules of the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration).

Sid Miller, Texas’ commissioner of agriculture, then backed legislation that codified the rights of growers in the Lone Star State to raise hemp as long as THC levels remained below .3%. Even then, Tarrant County’s former district attorney, Sharen Wilson, warned Tarrant County residents that they could and would be prosecuted for possession of safe and completely non-psychoactive CBD products.

“Our office was asked recently to clarify whether CBD oil is legal in the state of Texas,” Wilson said in a public 2019 statement. “Currently, it is legal only for epilepsy patients through a doctor’s prescription.”

Once the dried flowers are pressed, the CBD — a dark, sticky resin — is ready to be processed into one of several products.

Power and Williams worry that young and new users may wrongly associate CBD with products produced solely to create a high. While technically legal, cannabinoid derivatives like Delta-8, which provides a mild psychoactive high similar to marijuana, naturally occurs in only trace amounts in hemp. In early 2021, the advocacy group the U.S. Cannabis Council tested 16 Delta-8 products and found several contained copper, nickel, and other toxic metals.

Some of the products sold for use in vape pens under the CBD umbrella are untested and potentially dangerous, Williams said.

Power added, “We are for plant medicine, not synthetic medicine. I want to see products that have proven safety and efficacy make it to the customers. People throw out all these new chemicals. Because all of these things are sold under the CBD space, it muddies the water.”

them at their two locations (the Foundry District and Weatherford).

Trey said his store uses Power Biopharms CBD for his retail line of gummies and drops intended for medical use.

Over the past few years, Texas has seen a sharp rise in the number of Delta-8 and Delta-9 goodies. While the open sale of cannabis products that can generate euphoric highs might seem at odds with a state where marijuana remains verboten, Trey said a loophole in the original farm bill allows manufacturers to extract trace amounts of THC from hemp. In other words, it isn’t Delta-8 and Delta-9 that are illegal but rather the plants that contain THC in high concentrations.

With the beginning of the 88th Legislature’s regular session, the Thrive Apothecary co-owner worries that state leaders may pass laws banning popular Delta-8 and Delta-9 products that have grown the overall CBD market considerably because the psychoactives are sold under the umbrella of CBD products.

Non-CBD cannabinoids now account for upwards of 90% of his store’s sales, Trey said.

When Trey Phillips and Dr. Lisa Gardner-Phillips opened Thrive Apothecary in 2018, the married couple found few local hemp producers who could make a reliable quality product. Of the ones the Phillipses believed worked for them, independent testing of the products often revealed pesticides and other dangerous chemicals during those early years.

Quality control over CBD and hemp-derived THC has improved since then, Trey said, but Thrive Apothecary still independently tests products before selling

Trey said the average age of customers at either store is 55. Many parents or grandparents were interested in cannabis but never had access to it, he said. Repeat customers use hemp-derived gummies and drops to treat chronic pain, anxiety, and discomfort from cancer treatments. Trey Phillips, a retired Fort Worth police officer, said he uses many of his store’s products to treat PTSD. The co-owners recently expanded their Hero Program in which they offer free medical marijuana assessments to qualifying men and women from the fields of teaching, first responder, medical, law enforcement, or military. Patients can make appointments at ThriveMedicalCannabis.com, and Lisa will

place qualifying applicants on the state’s medical marijuana registry.

While the Lone Star State maintains a medical marijuana program, many aspects of it remain onerous. Qualified medical marijuana vendors cannot distribute to retailers, for example, which requires the hand-delivery of products that must be signed for. Those hurdles are increasingly untenable in a region where nearby Oklahoma maintains a much easier-to-use medical marijuana program and New Mexico allows the recreational use of Mary Jane.

Next month, the Phillipses will open Thrive Apothecary’s third location, this one on the Near Southside. The new locale will also be the headquarters of the retail store’s medical marijuana program.

The retired police officer said Texas needs a strong and robust medical marijuana program.

“We believe at some point Texans will get access to recreational marijuana,” he said. “Most states had a strong medical program first that built the framework for the recreational side.”

legalize marijuana until we have federal reforms. Our state will likely walk our medical program forward and maybe increase the cap on THC from 1% to 5%. The public sentiment is too strong to not walk it forward, but they will do as little as possible. Once the feds say it is OK, Texans will follow. I bet we have federal reforms within five years.”

The Power Biopharms owner says they will be ready to produce CBD and medical-grade marijuana in separate facilities. Power said federal laws ban tax deductions for “controlled substances.” IRS laws like 280E require Power to file federal taxes stating he is effectively growing something illegal, and since businesses cannot write off “illegal” expanses, Power effectively pays 25% more federal taxes than someone in a state where marijuana is legalized.

Phillips said he and his wife are vocal supporters of cannabis reforms and state leaders should follow the will of the people and stop clinging to outdated notions of reefer madness.

“We believe at the end of the day that all citizens should have full access to this plant,” he said. “We support that, whether through decriminalization or changes in the health and safety code.”

Beyond expanding the size of Texas’ nascent medical marijuana program and better regulating untested CBD derivatives, Power Biopharms’ Power and Williams said state leaders should decriminalize or legalize the recreational use of marijuana.

A slim majority of Texans support the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in the Lone Star State, based on a recent poll by the Dallas Morning News. Nearly 70% support access to marijuana for anyone who claims a medical need.

“Texas likes to piggyback off federal decisions,” Power said. “I think we will not

Patients benefit best from products that pull from CBD and THC compounds, Power said.

“The plant is its own compounding pharmacy,” he continued. “The best medicine is a combination of all of these things.”

Even under tough state and market circumstances, Power and his small team say they are proud of the products they produce. Now, they need to focus on growing the market. Part of that effort requires convincing Texas CBD users to buy locally.

“We want to take our products to the world,” Power said. l

Colt Power (left) and Nick Williams are investing in medical-grade hemp in the hopes that state leaders will one day allow Power Biopharms to grow medical marijuana.

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Products sold under Thrive Apothecary’s Welcel line contain CBD grown and processed at Power Biopharms on the East Side.

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New Year, New Ownership at Knockouts West 7th

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A neighborhood icon of 14 years continues to thrive under the guidance of new owners. Karin Friday is no stranger to the Knockout brand, as she and her husband Tom are the co-founders of the Knockouts Haircuts for Men founded in 2003. The foundation of the company concentrated on creating a place and atmosphere where any customer would feel comfortable being well groomed and pampered.

With the new year came a new acquisition for the couple: purchasing the Knockouts West 7th street location built in 2009. Karin and Tom are residents of Fort Worth and are very excited to now own this great location in such a vibrant neighborhood. “We look forward to being part of the West 7th Street community and will continue to bring great men’s grooming services to the residents and visitors of the area.”

The full-service, boxing-themed salon provides competitively-priced haircuts and is known for its specially-chosen staff of stylists and barbers who are dedicated to providing upscale men’s grooming including four main haircut packages.

The Heavyweight® is the undisputed champion of services. Order one up and we’ll get you everything you need to get your head in the game. We’ll look at your options, slide a haircut between

two vigorous shampooing sessions and a scalp massage, and finish you off with a killer style.

The Middleweight includes a precision haircut, shampoo with conditioning scalp massage and hot towel, while The Lightweight is a basic precision haircut with no frills.

When you need to finish strong in only a few rounds, get The Uppercut™ (Buzz Cut). This cut covers the bare essentials with a clean cut, clean hair, and full scalp massage to ease your mind.

The salon also specializes in color/lightening, hot towel treatments, massage therapy, scalp massages, shaves, beard trims and waxing. Knockouts offers a pampering experience for men that is not available at discount walk-in salons.

Amenities like large leather chairs, individual flat screen TVs with remote controls at each station, and complimentary beverages all add to the experience. The environment is upscale, yet casual and fun.

The current team of 6 expert stylists and barbers are all very experienced in providing full service hair and grooming services. If you’re in need of the services that Knockouts (3008 W 7th St) has to offer, call today for an appointment 817-332-4141 or book online at Knockouts.com.

As they say, “You deserve this!”