Why is cannabis good medicine for menstrual discomfort?
Cannabis is helpful for all pain relief, because when you use it topically it mingles with your nerve endings where the pain is felt. It also affects the pain receptors in the brain, so it’s helpful for all pain in general. It elevates your mood and relaxes your mind so that your body can do what’s it’s supposed to do, which is feel comfortable and heal. That’s just three reasons to start out of too many to count.

How do the active ingredients in cannabis help specifically?
CBD is very helpful for inflammation and pain and THC is also very helpful for pain, so the two of them together create what’s called an entourage effect and that’s when cannabis does its magic, when both of them are present.

How does Whoopi and Maya’s salve target menstruation difficulties?
One of the things that makes our salve unique is that it has healing herbs in it aside from cannabis. It has an herb called Cramp Bark, which is named that because it’s so helpful for period cramps. There are herbs that are good for hemorrhaging and mood elevation and it contains nervines, which calm your nerves.

Is the salve able to penetrate through to the cramping muscles?
Absolutely. Topicals have an incredible ability when combined with the proper carrier oils to go really deep and penetrate your system. Studies have found that cannabis topically can help treat things like endocarditis and go deep inside your internal organs. We do a proprietary blend of carrier oils that are also health beneficial and carry the medicine deep within your body.

How about the chocolate, what makes it an effective PMS medicine?
Raw cacao before it’s processed is the highest antioxidant containing food on the planet and it releases a whole slew of comfort hormones and happiness hormones, so it has nice soothing effects on the system. Our chocolate is delicious, divine, raw and organic.

Why do women crave chocolate during their periods?
Isn’t that so funny? First of all, there’s iron in chocolate and we lose so much blood on our periods. Chocolate’s full of micronutrients. It also stimulates the release of serotonin and endorphins, both associated with feelings of comfort. When I found that out I laughed so hard, because how many times have I gone to chocolate for comfort? What woman hasn’t? Also, it enters your body through the endocannabinoid receptor system, just like cannabinoids do.

What are some of the bath soak benefits?
The bath is really good for stress and anxiety. The hydrotherapy combined with the aromatherapy help with PMS and aches and pains. The lavender calms your entire nervous system, the heat in the water makes your body release melatonin, which makes you tired, and the magnesium in the salts draw the toxins out, the ones that make you sore. You, like me, may very well find yourself in a weird fetal position in a zen hole, thinking, “I should move my body, but why?”

Is the bath intended to give an elevating effect?
It’s so interesting, I think these baths are in a category of their own. A topical effects you locally, an edible affects and alters your whole system, and this is doing both. It’s not really getting your head high, but it’s relaxing you, taking away anxiety, and the effect on the body is super. You just get so relaxed.

With so many tinctures entering the market, what sets yours apart from others?
What makes our tincture unique is that it has a lot of health benefiting herbs aside from cannabis, like raspberry leaf, and superfoods like elderberries. Elderberries are delicious, they’re beautifully bright and purple in color and they’re full of antioxidants and immune strengtheners. Raw honey, besides being also delicious, has antibiotic like effects as well and is a natural preservative. Natural glycerine as part of our base means no harsh alcohol taste. And, we use a 0 PPM solvent free concentrate for this particular edible, which means it’s been tested in a lab and it’s 100% solvent and impurity free.

Does the tincture give one a high feeling?
It is fully activated, so it’s the best of all worlds. You control your own milligrams. If you want to get really elevated and relaxed, then the chocolate is actually your best bet. This is more medicinal and is designed as an analgesic to take away your pain and also take the edge off so you can work and stay active. Depending on how much THC you want to administer yourself, which is clearly marked on the bottle, you decide the serving size.

How did you know cannabis healing was your path in life?
It’s interesting, because when I was working at a dispensary I still wasn’t doing my own hustle, so I was getting a paycheck and working for someone. After that it was a lesson for me to let go and trust. It was perfect timing because it was full trim season and after months of work I got together enough earnings to do my own grow and make edibles at the same time. I ended up moving from there to a point where I was just relying on edibles and now it’s become something where even if I wanted to do something else, I wouldn’t have the time. People like the products and keep wanting them and this is what I’ll do. It’s an awesome feeling.

Why is cannabis good medicine?
Cannabis is the best medicine because you have more than 200 cannabinoid receptors all over your body. They’re all over your brain, they’re all over your vital organs, they’re everywhere important where you have major functions going on, like your reproductive center, your sleep center and the part of your brain that controls your appetite. The side effects are desirable, there’s feeling good, sleeping well, eating, probably having some laughter and some people only smoke cannabis to get those results, so it’s honestly the wonder, miracle medicine.

What was the journey that brought you to Whoopi and Maya?
Definitely what has gotten me here is my love and passion for cannabis. Every single thing that I’ve done in life has been brought back to cannabis for me, whether it was, “I can’t wait to finish this so I can go enjoy my cannabis,” or, “Wow, this is better, I enjoy this more with cannabis.” It’s been partly being in the right place at the right time for a long time. About eight years ago I established Om Edibles after having worked in the dispensary right after I graduated from San Francisco State with a degree in psychology. I was able to connect with each person and take the time to educate them about cannabis, about which strains worked well for what, what everyone’s goals were, what their intentions and needs were. Some of the patients I’m still in touch with now, ten years later. The information I learned was so interesting to me that it just stuck. So, to say I caught the bug is an understatement. When the dispensary got shut down, I started making medicated truffles. In California we have Prop 215, so we called it Queen 215, it was me and my best friend. We switched the name to Om Edibles in 2012 and won our first High Times’ Cannabis Cup that year. In 2015 we earned six more awards between U.S. and Jamaican Cups. That lands us at the lucky number seven and leads us up to today, where we are beginning the birthing of Whoopi and Maya. OM will most likely become aligned with Whoopi and Maya, which is awesome, and here we are, this is it!