A SHOP selling legal cannabis-derived products is opening in Pickering, in a sign of the substance’s increasing popularity.

Jade Proudman’s shop ‘Savage Cabbage’ is opening officially on Monday, April 30 - though there will be an open day and ‘meet and greet’ held on Saturday, April 28.

The premises, situated in a unit on Eastgate Square, will sell cannabidiol or CBD oil. They will also sell other health products and a range of hemp clothing, plus they have been licensed to sell homemade cosmetics such as bath bombs.

Cannabis-derived CBD oil is rocketing in popularity both nationally and locally, particularly with people with conditions such as epilepsy, back pain and anxiety.

Recent months have also seen a new business start-up by Ryedale-based Chris Burton who is selling products online, and CBD oil is also stocked by health food shops such as Grain2Gain on Yorkersgate in Malton.

Jade, who manages the family business of Savage Cabbage, said that although the premises are new, the business has been going for several years.

“Quite simply this is a dietary supplement,” she said. “We’re just trying to help our bodies be the best they can be.”

She added that the shop will have a strong educational aspect, with a seating area for discussions over CBD coffee - but for medical advice, her customers are directed to a group called the ‘Realm of Caring’.

“It’s free support and guidance on cannabinoid therapy for anybody on Planet Earth,” she said. “All of my customers get directed to them. I can’t give medical or dose advice, but I can talk to people about cannabinoids and about my story.”

Aged 14, Jade was diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and fibromyalgia, in her 30s was then diagnosed with epilepsy and then in 2012 was very ill and had to manage chronic pain. “I had three years of absolute horror,” she said.

She said that changed when she saw ‘Weed’, a CNN documentary on the health benefits of cannabinoids grown by the Stanley Brothers - with whom she is now friends and who grow the Charlotte’s Web-brand cannabis for her CBD oils in Colorado in the USA.

“I managed to get hold of some and I felt fabulous,” she said. “I thought, I need to tell people about this.”

She said she then approached the brothers. “I said, ‘What can I do to help people like me?’ They asked if I had a business or a company. I said, ‘No, but I can have one by tomorrow’.

“So overnight we set up Savage Cabbage. After six weeks I couldn’t manage it by myself, the demand was so significant.

“We now support people in 61 countries.”