Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Founder of Ohana, Jasmin Thomas is educating women on their health journey through her brand, and coaching women through her cannabis industry network – Entourage.
After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) at the age of 25, Jasmin Thomas turned to CBD to help relieve her symptoms.
Instead of disease-modifying drugs, Thomas found CBD was ideal for managing the pains, aches and spasms associated with MS – an autoimmune condition that affects the brain and spinal cord.
Championing science-driven, plant-based skincare, Thomas went on to launch her natural lifestyle brand Ohana Natural Skin Care in early 2020, offering a CBD-infused skincare range, recipes and updates on the benefits of cannabinoids.
“I didn’t really accept the disease-modifying drugs that were offered to me as they were super hard, such as chemotherapy or they had a 35 per cent chance of giving me a thyroid issue, for example,” said Thomas.
“I grew up in a very organic and homeopathic household so I looked for other medicines. I also grew up with a granddad who was very deeply ingrained into the Rastafari movement, who had been teaching us about the benefits of medicinal cannabis for years, which I had always come back to.
“It also happened that, the day after I was diagnosed, I started a new job in pharmaceuticals, and the client I got given was GW Pharmaceuticals, which had the drug Sativex. So all of these very different things that happened in my life at the moment were pushing me towards the cannabis plant.”
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Thomas found herself visiting cannabis and CBD trade shows and discovered CBD which allowed her to consume without any psychotropic side effects, allowing her to attend work as normal.
“I found CBD really stopped some of the frustrating symptoms that were quite painful and annoying at that time. I went I got really engrossed in the industry – I wanted to learn more. I’m a very curious person and it gives me a big thirst for knowledge,” Thomas continued.
“I am about six years in now of using cannabinoids as medicine, and I am totally free of disease-modifying drugs that come with horrible side effects. I am able to live my life – I run multiple businesses, I have a baby, and it’s just something that I really wanted to be able to share with other people. So, Ohana was my way of sharing the benefits of CBD in a number of efficacious skincare products that would allow women to put their well-being first.”
Ohana’s products infuse CBD with herbal products that have anti-inflammatory and other beneficial properties. The brand launched with a balm which Thomas had found to be a discreet way to use CBD whilst at work.
“We work with third-party formulation scientists to really harness the benefits of aromatherapy essential oils and plant-based, clinically proven properties to make sure that we are getting the most out of all the ingredients in our product,” said Thomas.
Thomas met Jessica Steinberg in 2018 in a cannabis co-working space and found they were the only females there. Being part of the nascent industry, the pair noticed that it was an industry without historic notions of being male-dominated.
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Steinberg is a PhD student at the University of Oxford researching the cannabis industry, an official delegate for cannabis-related meetings held at the UN and WHO and the managing director of international cannabis consultancy, The Global C.
The pair decided to set up the Women’s Cannabis Industry Network – Entourage Network – to coach women in cannabis.
“As women, it has been a passion project of ours for both of us in any industry that we’d worked in such as the banking or the pharmaceutical world. I had been exposed to championing women in STEM and that has always been important to me. So, it is a passion of mine and has translated to whatever industry that I have moved to.
“We decided to bring women together. So, we created the Entourage network, which is basically to coach and empower women into the legal cannabis industry. It is one of the only multi-billion dollar industries that has such a high level of C suite positions and above for women. We want to make sure that that remains and that it grows, and that women feel as economically empowered as possible.”
The network holds events for women such as CBD-infused fine dining, film nights and talks, across London, Zurich, Barcelona, Paris and New York.
“I think for me the most important thing and our ultimate mission is to empower women on their health journey and make sure that they have all the access to what they want, what they need to make a decision on what works for them.”
Ohana is now expanding into the tech space to further empower women on their health journey. The brand will be creating an app that streamlines symptom reporting in order to reduce the time to diagnosis and help women get early medical intervention and improve long-term outcomes for chronic health conditions.
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