Chris Macek didn’t grow up around cannabis. A religious childhood meant he held negative views and false beliefs about the plant (as many of us did). But his transformation around cannabis began back in 2005 when he opened Barron Studios. He and his brother grew this recording studio from a single room to one of the best recording studios in Houston.
Running a recording studio meant coming into close contact with highly creative people – many of whom consumed cannabis. It was seeing how cannabis sparked creativity and divergent thinking in the artists he worked with that ultimately changed his opinion on the plant and planted the seed that would become HiFi.
“I watched how it helped people access other parts of their brain. [The artists] would be more willing to try new things. To fail. And maybe you fail 99 times, but in recording, you only need one good take.”
HiFi: Bringing Cannabis to Texas
After Texas passed a state-level version of the 2018 Farm Bill, Chris wanted to bring cannabis to people seeking expanded creativity. So he founded HiFi, short for High Fidelity, an e-commerce hemp retailer with a brick-and-mortar store in Houston.
HiFi doesn’t center its product marketing on the idea of getting high–it’s about smashing preconceived limits and leashing your inner creative genius. It’s about defining the vibe you want and accessing it through the plant. It’s about creative rebellion.
“I view cannabis through the lens of utility and creativity–not escapism. Creativity is a Trojan horse to bring cannabis to people. There’s a lot more use cases when you can show people how it breaks down barriers. Artists, coders, and in between–cannabis helps you find that flow state.”
Watching these professionals tap into another state of artistic possibility helped Chris see that this plant was not the dangerous gateway drug school programs promise. He even found that cannabis, particularly sativa strains, could help his creativity as the sound engineer.
“I have to have self-regulation with cannabis consumption. It’s great at the start of the [sound engineering] process when we need creative ideas. But at a certain point, we need to stop with the new ideas and get down to the details–and then it can get in the way.”
Educating Consumers on Hemp versus Cannabis
Chris knows there’s no difference between hemp and cannabis. But in a state like Texas where medical marijuana exists more in name than practice and cannabis is still the “devil’s lettuce”, selling hemp flower is the best workaround to bring the plant to the people, without risking jail time.
“Our first clients came from the black market. When we started, lower THCa percentages didn’t sell. We had to educate them–just because your guy on the corner says it’s 35% THC doesn’t mean that’s true. You need more than THCa–you need terpenes. You need balance.”
Education is a large part of what HiFi does, both in store and online. If you visit their website, you have the option to chat with an AI budtender, named AiRica. This tool doesn’t just recommend whatever the most expensive flower or most potent–it asks you about your goals for consumption and directs you from there.
I asked AiRica for a suggestion that would energize me and give me focus, without being overwhelming, with use cases for hiking and meditation. She suggested a tincture with CBD and CBG–in line with what I would expect a knowledgeable budtender to suggest as well.
“We don’t just hire anyone to be a budtender,” Chris said. “They have to be able to explain the laws [in Texas], grow techniques for cannabis, how it’s cured, and terpene profiles. Our ethos is about ‘what are you looking to do tonight?’”
The prevalence of Delta-8 products also took its toll on Texas consumers.
“It really turned people off cannabinoids and ‘delta’ products. The challenge is educating people without explaining it to them in such a complex scientific way that they don’t understand.”
His background in music has given Chris a unique approach to explaining THCa to people.
“We have to break people away from the idea that THC is already in the flower. It’s like this – when you cut a demo, that song is not ready to be put out. You take it to a studio which fixes it up and makes it ready to be listened to. For weed, the step of getting it ready is lighting it on fire. THCa is the demo. You have to get it ready to be THC – by applying fire.”
These days, thanks to their commitment to client education, products with lower THCa percentages are hard to keep in stock.
“We brought in prerolls that tested at 15% THCa and 8% CBDa – they flew off the shelves. We couldn’t keep them in stock.”
Finding High-Quality Hemp from Good People
Chris acknowledges there are plenty of bad players in the hemp space. Without the same level of state regulations that govern the cannabis industry, people in hemp have room to run wild. In Texas, for instance, there is no legal age requirement for buying hemp–so a teenager could walk in, buy THCa hemp, and leave to get high without breaking any laws. What holds HiFi accountable is their desire to bring good product to people who need it–and their credit card processor.
Product COAs are available on their website, but restrictions with banking mean that HiFi is reliant on their production partners to get results.
“We check the test results. We’ve double-checked the labs and have even spot-checked individual products, to ensure they’re accurate. Basically, our credit card processor doesn’t want our name on them encouraging the testing labs to sway for better results.”
I asked Chris how he felt about the divide between legal cannabis and hemp–a false divide based not on biology or science, but arbitrary rulings on legal amounts of chemical compounds in plants that are otherwise exactly the same. His frustration was evident.
“This going back and forth plays into the narrative that people in cannabis are dumb stoners who can’t get their act together. Ultimately, this plant needs to be legal and it needs to be regulated. It makes me angry when people try to play up the hemp/cannabis divide because it only serves infighting. It’s distracting. The longer I’ve been in this industry, the more backstabbing I see. Cannabis needs to be legal. It needs to be regulated.”
How does HiFi find high-quality hemp to sell? In an industry where many people choose to cut corners at every given opportunity, it takes self-accountability to deliver the best. HiFi works with cultivators in Oregon, Colorado, and California.
“Good cultivators are growing cannabis in one room and entering it in Metric. They’re growing hemp on another to sell out of state to boost their profits, because of the oversupply of legal cannabis.”
HiFi: High Fidelity, High-Quality Hemp
It can be hard to find reputable companies to trust in the hemp space. Brands put out CBD pillowcases and drinks with 50 mg of THC sold directly at the grocery stores, and first-time consumers don’t know how much they don’t know. But people like Chris and his team at HiFi are working hard to break down preconceived notions, overcome the stigma of the plant, and help people understand that cannabis is a tool to live the life you want.
He was most surprised by the amount of people who visit his shop who had medical needs that THC serves. Texas has an existing medical marijuana program, but it’s small, limited, and constantly under attack. Bringing high-quality hemp to people is the best way for them to access their medication in a state that would rather they stay on pills.
HiFi knows that cannabis isn’t about “getting high” all the time–it’s about finding new ways to look at old problems, accessing higher levels of creativity, and giving people the tools to live their most empowered lives. In a state like Texas, that is revolutionary.
