Rosebud — Under the awning at Slaphappy Hemporium in Rosebud, is a sign that reads: “The only dangerous thing about hemp is how the government treats it.” Beneath it, John and Kara Grady have built a business that is equal parts shop, lounge, classroom and soapbox. 

John Grady, who can riff on everything from ancient church history to storm photography, isn’t shy about his approach. 

“We don’t want to be just a weed store or just a CBD store,” John Grady said. “We want to be the hemp store that people go, ‘Holy skybalon!’ When they walk away, they feel like they just walked through a documentary about hemp.”

The Gradys’ path into hemp was personal. In 2014, their son was undergoing his fifth protocol of chemotherapy since beginning in 2008, and traditional treatments weren’t enough.

“That night, we flew to Colorado, and I guess you could say we committed our first felony together,” John Grady said.

They sought cannabinoid therapies to help their child, not to break laws. That early experience turned into years of research, and eventually into a mission: educating others on hemp’s potential.

By 2022, they launched Slaphappy Beverage, followed by Slaphappy Hemp in 2023 and Slaphappy Hemporium this year. The name — Kara’s idea — captures their approach: creative, approachable and a little irreverent.

Their store, Slaphappy Hemp-orium, looks nothing like a head shop. The Gradys modeled it on a winery: shelves of carefully explained products, a lounge for “social consumption,” and a focus on education.

“They always teach you about the grapes at a winery,” John Grady said. “We do the same thing with the hemp plant.”

The Gradys emphasize that hemp is far more than smokable flower and gummies, although they do carry those, as well as hand crafted tinctures designed for focus, energy or sleep. Other consumable products range from Willie Nelson’s CBD coffee and teas to infused Italian olive oil, hemp protein coffee and hemp flour.

Their signature drink, MelloCello™, is a lemoncello inspired soda with 10 milligrams of hemp extract. Next up, they plan to release Torpedo Juice, a pineapple-gin style beverage with a portion of the proceeds split between veterans’ organizations.

Outside on the “Waxy’s Smoke Deck,” customers can bring food from local restaurants, and yoga sessions and sip-and-paint nights are in the works.

“I hate using the word ‘recreational,’” John Grady said. “You don’t go out and recreational drink. We talk about social consumption.”

Beyond consumables, the store carries HempWood flooring, bath towels, blankets, animal bedding, and chicken feed.

“If you give chickens a 20 percent hemp seed diet, you cut their cholesterol in half,” John Grady explained. “And you boost the amino acids and omegas like two fish oil caps.”

Their son, legally blind from brain tumors, is preparing to launch a dog treat business in the store’s kitchen.

“He’s got one recipe we call his crack recipe, and the dogs follow him around like the pied piper,” John Grady said with a grin.

Running a hemp business in Missouri means engaging in politics — something John Grady has embraced. He has testified, lobbied and even written op-eds about hemp legislation.

“I’ve learned to start calling them out on stuff,” he said. “I have reps and senators call me about things now. At least we’ve got some that are still workhorses up there doing the people’s work.”

He’s blunt about the pressures hemp faces.

“There’s a civil war going on right now between marijuana and hemp,” he said. “Both are the same plant. The only difference is an imaginary line created by the federal government.”

Multi-state marijuana operators, he argues, push legislation to limit hemp, even as regulators turn a blind eye to problems in the licensed marijuana market.

“The war against hemp is being done by the marijuana industry,” he said, pointing to money and influence in Jefferson City. “I’ve told people before, if you use hemp and cannabis as a litmus test, look at how they treat those things. Which one has the most social equity? That’s the hemp market. Which one actually has the most bad actors? That’s the regulated cannabis market.” 

“When kratom came to the floor, a substance known to kill people, 148 members of the General Assembly — two No votes and 12 absent — voted unanimously that kratom should be allowed to be sold anywhere: nursing homes, gas stations wherever — as long as it’s (labeled) 21 and up, and it has an ingredient that says kratom,” Grady said. “That’s the only safeguards they put out there for the public. Yet, in 2022, 846 people died strictly related to kratom overdoses. So when they talk public safety, it’s not really about public safety. When you get down the numbers that they actually publish. About 60 percent (of cannabis poisonings) come from marijuana, and only 40 percent come from documented hemp cases. So, the regulated industry has a lot more problems than the so called unregulated, or self-regulated, free market.”

John Grady has built credibility by refusing to back down. At one press conference, he confronted former Missouri Governor Mike Parson about campaign donations from the marijuana industry and officials cut off his questions. At a second press conference, other reporters in the press pool refused to continue until he was given equal treatment. John Grady said his Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) post was raided after the second press conference.

His advocacy goes beyond Jefferson City. In August, he was invited to help St. Louis County shape its hemp regulations.

“They set the bill aside and said we’re going to put together a committee. They want me to be a part of that committee to help shape how St. Louis County is going to address hemp,” he said.

For the Gradys, hemp isn’t just business or politics — it’s also service. They donate product to veterans through the Grunt Style Foundation and its Irreverent Warriors program, which organizes hikes and community events for vets nationwide. Closer to home, they run the “A Thousand Ripples” program, which provides free cannabinoid therapies to cancer patients and veterans.

“Any active cancer patient that signs up on our website, we’ll sit there and do a consultation and provide cannabinoid therapy free of charge,” John Grady said. “From 2022 until last year, we gave away about 16,000 grams of cannabinoid therapies. This year alone, we’re knocking at about 11,000 grams already”.

One local woman asked for help for her grandmother, age 85 and battling cancer. Grady thought he could at least help get her eating again, and made up a special tincture. “They first came back and said, ‘Our grandma cried.’ They cried. We all cried. Then they came back later and said it was really working,” Grady said. “That’s a hundred times better than getting a dollar bill. My first fruits always have to go to somebody. For us, that acre is veterans and cancer patients.”

To the couple, the store is about more than products. It’s about shifting culture and showing hemp as an ordinary farm crop with extraordinary uses.

“We are the center of Orion’s Belt of Missouri’s hemp belt,” he said, pointing to the farms that dot Highway 50, including Grandpa’s Family Farms in Chamois and South Point Hemp in Union. “We’re farmers. We know there’s profit in the harvest, just like soybeans or corn. That’s why we treat it like a true commodity, even if there’s no exchange for us to be on — except the ones we create ourselves.”

The Grady’s personalities are woven into every corner of the store. Slaphappy Hemporium is filled with humor, stubborn independence, and the refusal to accept the way things have always been. Whether it’s standing up to lawmakers, crafting hemp sodas or giving away therapies to veterans and cancer patients, they are carving out their own space in Missouri’s hemp story.

“We don’t want to bury our talents in the ground,” John Grady said. “We want to use every last drop for the people we can help.”