Meet the veteran-owned Charleston cannabis company living the dream

He calls himself the “Cannabis Willy Wonka,” but his journey to the nickname wasn’t all sweet. 

Cody Callarman graduated high school in 2008 and joined the U.S. Marines. Overtime, he ended up losing three people to combat and eight to suicide.  

During the hardships, Callarman resorted to alcohol. 

“I got a DUI in 2017, and although I am embarrassed of it, it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” Callarman said. “It really scared me straight with, ‘hey, I can’t use alcohol to treat my PTSD.’ So, I decided to try cannabis for the first time since I lived in legal state.” 

In California at the time, Callarman was fascinated with the plant and its capabilities, so he began to grow some himself. Leaving his position as a government contractor for the Marines, he returned to South Carolina and began farming, investing about $250,000 in his operations. 

Today, Callarman is the founder and president of Carolina Dream, a cannabis company focused on using the plant for both mental and physical wellness. 

“It was a very good first year, but it’s a very saturated market,” Callarman said. “Farming is by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.” 

Callarman said he took a break from farming his own plants for the past two years but due to an increase in sales, he will be growing the plants again this year for his products. During the two years not farming, he sourced the plants’ product exclusively through North Carolina and South Carolina farmers. 

Previous to his own experience, 2014 brought a set of challenges to Callarman’s life as well. After a surgery gone wrong, his mom had surgery and was left waking up with her right leg paralyzed.  

His mom was put on multiple pain management medications and “quickly became not human,” Callarman said. He began flying a consistent supply of cannabis from California and six weeks later she was off 90% of her pills and able to return to work part-time. 

As Callarman manages his company’s growth, he also serves as a lead veteran activist in South Carolina legislature for cannabis. Callarman said he helped Sen. Deon Tedder write a bill which passed to oversee the sale and distribution of products containing hemp-derived cannabis in South Carolina, helping both consumers and producers.  

Callarman said his position advocating in the state government is to “come to a middle ground with the stigma (around cannabis) in the South.” 

“We’ve been given propaganda from our parents and our grandparents for decades on how this is habit forming and addictive and it can kill you and all this stuff,” Callarman said. “Essentially everything they said has been completely untrue.” 

Compared to alcohol, which causes about 178,000 deaths each year according to the CDC, the DEA reports there has never been a death due to cannabis. 

South Carolina allows plants and their products to contain 0.3% delta nine THC of its dry weight, Callarman said. If the percentage is higher, it is considered marijuana, which is illegal in the state. 

Most of Carolina Dream’s products are sold to health and wellness stores, focusing more on wellness for customers in a “micro dose,” Callarman said.  

“We want to help eviscerate that stigma that’s out there,” Tyler Murray, chief operating officer, said. “Hopefully through the work that we do, we can provide that sort of education and empowerment locally, but also throughout the Southeast.” 

Carolina Dream’s product ranges from $17-$37 for their gummies bags, and offers a cheaper rate for people who subscribe to regular deliveries. The company also makes a lotion, which Callarman said works great with eczema.  

“I find it overwhelmingly positive that cannabis can help change people’s lives for the better,” Callarman said.  

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The Carolina Dream team is working on rebranding their bags to be more mainstream for any customers who are nervous to try the product, Callarman said. New packaging will also be made to be more accessible to sell on shelves with other similar products.  

Carolina Dream has 30% of their customers in Charleston, with the majority of all customers being on the East Coast. Callarman said they are able to ship to 48 states, South Dakota and Idaho being the excluded two.

Carolina Dream is primarily online. Callarman said is not currently working on a brick-and-mortar for the company, but does sell to small stores in the region.