Episode 35 - Boosting the Healing Powers of Cannabis with Herbs
An interview with Mitcho Thompson, herbalist and wizard behind Phytomagic.
It has been predicted that the “Wellness” industry is set to overtake the “Illness” industry in the coming decade. I have no idea if this is true or even verifiable, but there is little doubt that woke baby boomers are investing in preventing their bodies from breaking down rather than treating the symptoms once they’ve already wreaked havoc. As followers of this podcast know, cannabinoids are key to keeping the body’s engine humming at high performance. This interview with Mitcho Thompson is about blending cannabinoids with other herbs to increase their healing powers.
Mitcho is one of California’s early cannabis pioneers, an herbalist and a founding member of Peace in Medicine one of the state’s first dispensaries. He is Chancellor Emeritus of Oaksterdam University and a VP of the Sonoma Chapter of Americans for Safe Access. Plants are his pharmacy.
We met at his home in beautiful Sonoma county, California. A pet emu grazed in the front yard and the back yard was a shambolic Eden of giant cannabis plants (trees, really) and about 100 herbs all of which he knows by name and effect. Mitcho hand harvests plants like skullcap, passion flower and hops, blends them with other extracts of cacao, ginger, kaffir lime, and then turns them into tinctures (which are alcohol based) and oils (which increase the uptake of cannabinoids into the bloodstream). His two dozen remedies treat insomnia, inflammation, aching muscles, menstrual cramps and low energy, to name a few.
Interestingly, some formulas are made with decarboxylated (heated) cannabis oils, which make them psychoactive, but most are made with raw cannabinoids, so you feel the effects without getting high. I’ve been sampling them over the last few weeks. The sleep formula has been working like a charm and the energy booster (called “Disco Fiesta Tonic”), which I took one evening before dinner, definitely put some pep in my step. I didn’t realize it was psychoactive until people at the table kept remarking on the increasing number of smiles spreading across my face as dinner progressed.
NOTE: Peace in Medicine is now owned by the SF-based SPARC, so Californians should be able to buy Mitcho’s formulas, which will be sold under the PHYTOMAGIC brand, in any of SPARC’s four dispensaries. Keep an eye out.