A couple of friends who wanted to destigmatize the way people perceive cannabis have opened up their own hemp dispensary in Warrington.

Green Light District, one of the few that manufacture their own hemp in-house, is located at 3632 Barrancas Ave.

Green Light District co-founders Cody Mathis, 30, and Aaron Crooke, 24, wanted to make sure they were not only selling plants but were an educational tool for those interested in the world of cannabis.

"We want to do a podcast where we kind of break things down essentially but then also on our blogs provide like what is hemp?" Crooke said. "Like, what is this? What is CBD? How do you get Delta-8 from CBD if there's only 0.1% of Delta-8 in the CBD plant? Just breaking things down and just being transparent because product transparency is super important to me."

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Hemp, which is cannabis within the legal limit not containing more than 0.3% of THC, was legalized by the 2018 Farm Bill. It allowed for hemp cultivation and the transfer of hemp-derived products across state lines for commercial or other purposes with no restrictions on the sale, transport or possession of hemp-derived products, as long as the manufacturing of the products are consistent with the law.

The bill created a new market within the hemp industry.

Mathis and Crooke grew up being the guys who would sell marijuana around their school or community, they said. Each struggled with drug addiction and underwent intensive drug rehabilitation.

Mathis, who has been clean since 2019, battled homeless during his addiction. When he was in rehab, which was connected to the jail, he spent a year getting his life on track and decided he would make the days count.

Through trial and error he created a company called Synaptex LLC.

Mathis helped mentor Crooke and get him back on his feet. Crooke was the one who came up with the idea of going into the hemp industry.

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Going from a petty drug dealer to a business owner has helped Mathis realize how beneficial it is to help guide people out of their dark past and get them on path to something greater.

"Business for me is like art for an artist. I don't mind working all day long," Mathis said. "I'll finish working here, I'll go home and I'll work at home too, just because it's enjoyable to me and it's a creative outlet for me."

They want to lead by example in their shop and use premium and all natural ingredients when manufacturing.

Partners like Frank Broughton help the pair with marketing to help educate people on cannabis.

"That was the whole reason for even opening the store because we have products that we made here locally," Broughton said. "All of this is federally regulated stuff that we wanted to put in stores and nobody took us seriously, so here we are."

In the store they have cartridges of THC-O, Delta-8, HHC-O, edibles, cereal bars, infused gummies with flavors ranging from green apple and raspberry. There are plate discs and hand pipes of different shapes and sizes.

"We want to be seen in the community, we'll put up big pot leaves on our banner that might look abrasive to a lot of people right now, like how any other similar industry works, but the more people see it, the more people are having to be around it in the community they get sort of used to it," Mathis said. "They start to let go of those preconceived notions or judgments that they had before as they learn more about it and see it."

For more information go to their Facebook or website at green-light-district.com.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola hemp dispensary Green Light District in Warrington FL