Texas Grower, Dispensary Compassionate Cultivation Joins Epilepsy Foundation in Funding Partnership

Compassionate Cultivation, a vertically integrated CBD business in Texas, is partnering with state chapters of the Epilepsy Foundation to ease the financial burden for patients. With subsidized health insurance off the table, CEO Morris Denton felt compelled to step up and help those in need.

The funding partnership begins with a $5,000 donation to both Epilepsy Foundation Central & South Texas and Epilepsy Foundation Texas. From there, future investment in this program will come from revenue generated by non-cannabis merchandise sold at Compassionate Cultivation, like branded hats and hoodies. (An online store is forthcoming.) The money will be managed by the Epilepsy Foundation, which will assess patients and qualify them for partial or full coverage of CBD costs, depending on income.

Denton says this partnership stemmed from the conversations he had during the state licensing process. “I had the opportunity to meet with dozens of patients that have epilepsy or dozens of family members that have kids or brothers or sisters with epilepsy,” Denton tells Cannabis Dispensary. “And it really shifted the way that I viewed what it is that we’re doing. It shifted and transformed what our role is this market in Texas.

“When you get to know people and you get to hear their story and see their struggle, it became very apparent very quickly to me that not all of these people that needed access to this medicine were going to be able to afford this medicine.”

Compassionate Cultivation has a 7,200-square-foot facility in Manchaca, Texas (south of Austin), which includes 2,500 square feet of canopy space and 2,500 square feet of processing and packaging. The company produces two sizes of CBD oil: 7.5 mL for $105, and 15 mL for $200 (at 100 milligrams of CBD per milliliter of oil). 

“Epilepsy patients need to have options and access to essential anti-seizure medication, including CBD,” said Sindi Rosales, founder and CEO of EFCST. “We're very grateful to CC for partnering with us to create this program.”

According to the Epilepsy Foundation, “roughly 30 percent of patients with epilepsy don’t respond to conventional treatments, … and CBD has emerged as a promising alternative treatment.”

Approximately 1.8 percent of Texans are diagnosed with epilepsy, according to Epilepsy Foundation Central & South Texas.

“It would be a real shame if, after the tireless work of all these advocates and the Epilepsy Foundation and all these moms and all these families that really threw in the effort, someone in Texas wouldn’t be able to get access to this medicine because they couldn’t afford it,” Denton says, “because it’s not covered by insurance.”

Top photo by Maggie Fitz