Inside the London Restaurant Serving Cannabinoid Vodka Cocktails

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Inside the London Restaurant Serving Cannabinoid Vodka Cocktails

Alex Stanton of plant-based eatery Farmacy says taking the non-psychoactive cannabis ingredient has improved his skin and asthma. Now, he wants to spread the word with CBD-infused drinks.

When it comes to eating medicinally, Alex Stanton, the manager of Farmacy, a plant-based restaurant in West London, is not just an enthusiast, he's a fully signed up convert.

"I've been taking CBD for years and I've seen incredible benefits," he says, explaining how good the non-psychoactive cannabinoid has been for his skin, for his asthma, and multiple other conditions.

An old friend of mine used to say that a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with only an argument, and in this instance, I have to declare up front that I am that person with only an argument. And if I'm honest, a fair amount of cynicism about superfoods, medicinal foods, and single plant wonder cures.

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Nevertheless, who am I to gainsay Stanton's own experience of the benefits of CBD—short for cannabidiol—even if I might query some of the hyperbole around its miraculous powers?

"The science hasn't caught up," he says. "They don't know how it works, but they do know it works, and for a whole host of symptoms."

Stanton lists off some of the major diseases of our times—Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, diabetes—all of which, apparently, CBD has been known to help if not heal. Later, I do a search and there is a lot of credible research on how beneficial CBD could be in the treatment of certain diseases. And how non-beneficial, too.

Yet I try to keep my raised eyebrows lowered and get involved. I no longer want to be a woman with only an argument. I want to be a woman who can speak from experience. So, I sit myself down with Stanton to try both the CBD and medicinal mushroom-spiked dishes on Farmacy's menu.

Cannabidiol served at Farmacy in a syringe with flaxseed oil, cannabis oil, and grapefruit. All photos by the author.

Perhaps smelling my suspicion—thinly veiled as journalistic enquiry—Stanton begins with a story: the story of how cannabis was demonised.

"Call it a conspiracy theory if you like," he says "But there are some people who believe that everyone was fine with hemp until a mega-business decided to try and suppress the industry."

Hemp was once used to produce ethanol for fuel, it was used for clothing, it was used for paper, he says. "The word canvas comes from the word cannabis," he drops in.
Then one day, a large papermaking magnate decided he didn't want the competition from hemp anymore.

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"He started to call it marijuana, which was a slang word for Mexican wild tobacco and spread rumours that if you took it, you'd get raped by Mexicans. Or something like that. And so people began to believe that cannabis was horrible. I mean, it's not fact," he finishes with a shrug. "But that's one of the back stories."

I can promise you that if you take a CBD shot at Farmacy, your chances of being a victim of a violent crime at the hands of anyone of any nationality will not increase at all. I can also tell you: you will not get high.

CBD is the non-psychoactive ingredient of cannabis, but it is apparently the one where the most health benefits lie. THC will get you high, yes, but that's it. In other words, there's not much evidence in favour of smoking cannabis for health reasons. You might as well get the oil and drink it. You will still get the munchies, though.

"It's great if you've lost your appetite from illness and need to eat," Stanton enthuses. "Also it's got this amazing anti-inflammatory component to it and it repairs neurotransmitters. Even young children have taken it for epileptic fits and now they've stopped having them. It's literally saving lives!"

I check this too, and charity Epilepsy Action report that a trial did help some people have fewer seizures. It also gave some people diarrhoea, a decreased appetite, and tiredness.

CBD vanilla-infused vodka and mango cocktail.

Anyway, Farmacy serves CBD in multiple forms. First as a shot in a syringe of flaxseed oil, cannabis oil, and grapefruit, which leaves an oily slick of film around my lips, then as a much more pleasant smoothie in which the CBD is mixed with coconut water, pineapple, lime, acai, hemp seeds, and banana. Finally, I'm handed a cocktail of CBD vanilla-infused vodka, lime, hemp, and bay leaf syrup, chili sauce, and mango puree. It's very drinkable. But then vodka cocktails often are. Doesn't mixing all these super foods with booze kind of undermine the point, I ask?

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"Well, even alcohol was considered to have medicinal benefits in the past," says Stanton.

Farmacy's mantra is that of Hippocrates: "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food," and while there's no doubt that eating badly can make you ill and eating well can make you better, these guys push the envelope on the latter part, wholeheartedly committed to the health benefits to be found in what we eat.

Which leads me onto the medicinal mushrooms, served in a rather grey-looking "adaptogenic" latte. I don't know what the word adaptogenic means, but I drink it anyway. I look it up later to find that adaptogens are substances that stabilise physiological processes and reduce cellular sensitivity to stress. So, there you are. The latte is made from reishi and chaga mushrooms, and the powder of a herb called ho shu wu, along with maca, vanilla protein powder, dates, and almonds.

Medicinal mushroom powders.

"The reishi mushroom has been used for thousands of years," says Stanton. "No one knows how it got here. Some people think it's cosmic food. There's a theory that it came from space."

I do raise one eyebrow at this. I can't help it. "I know it sounds a bit whacky," he agrees. "But it doesn't really fit into the ecosystem the same way other foods do."

Stanton carries on: "The chaga mushroom is good for the immune system. There are thousands of chemicals in our environment, plasticides, pesticides, xeno-oestrogens—you name it. We need to supplement our immune systems because they're struggling to cope."

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The "adaptogenic" mushroom latte.

Honestly, my mushroom latte doesn't taste that bad, just a bit watery. But then I'm a full-fat-milk-drinking kind of girl, which isn't really an option, this being a vegan drink and all.

I'm not converted by Farmacy's take on the latte—give me a caffeine kick any day. But Stanton hopes that someday soon, mushroom powders and CBD oil will be on the shelves of our supermarkets with the acai and quinoa and whatever else is currently considered a superfood.

"It's just the stigma that stops it," he says. "But once we get over that, think about all the people who might be saved."

Who knows whether that's lots or a few or none. I took my medicine and it wasn't unpleasant. But for all the benefits there might be in food, I don't want to eat it like you might a spoonful of Calpol, unwillingly and with scrunched up nose because "it's good for me."

So, I might pass on the mushroom lattes and oily shots in future and just skip to the vodka cocktails. Because, well, miracle cure or not, life is short.