KENT, Conn.—Jen Brown has fond memories of riding her bike from her New Preston home to Kent during her childhood. So, as an adult, when she decided to open a business, she immediately thought of Kent because it holds a special place in her heart.
Brown is the owner of oHHo, a store that specializes in plant-based products with benefits. Premium sustainability-sourced CBD and wellness products such as edibles, seltzers, oils, tinctures, topical creams, chocolate and more are among the items sold at the store.
In addition, a select number of boutique items are for sale.
Brown discovered oHHo and its products a few years ago after a decades-long journey with cancer (see sidebar “Brown’s Journey,” below).
Today, as a business owner and advocate for health, she guides patrons in exploring the benefits of plant-based products that, she said, can help with sleep disorders, anxiety and depression, chronic pain, nausea and vomiting, among other conditions.
With compassion, a smile and radiating energy, Brown offers one-on-one education and personalized recommendations.
“I go there because I love [Jen] as a person, just being around her has helped me, being around the positivity,” said Patty Duszak of New Milford. “She inspires so many people, especially those in the cancer world.”
Duszak, who battled cancer in 2015, formed a bond with Brown several years ago when they worked together at a school. That’s when Duszak first learned of Brown’s chronic cancer diagnosis and what steps she had taken with parts of the cannabis plant to fight the cancer when chemo was no longer an option.
“She’s such an inspiration to me and she’s made me think differently about things I do on a daily basis,” said Duszak, who shops at oHHo for products such as chocolate and drops that can help her with chronic insomnia and pain, as well as anxiety that stems from her recent diagnosis of cancer for the second time.
“Now I’m getting sleep when I couldn’t before,” Duszak said.
Estelle Trabucco, a licensed massage therapist who owns Equilibrium Bodyworks in Kent, noted that many individuals go to the store “when nothing else has worked” for their aches, pains, anxieties, and other health issues.
She said she refers some of her clients who suffer from arthritis and other aches and pains to oHHo, where Brown discusses various salves and other products that may offer relief.
Trabucco has had success with some products made from cannabinol (CBN), a minor cannabinoid found in cannabis plants, to help with her insomnia. “I recommend [Jen] left and right.”
“As a business owner, she’s full of knowledge. She loves her products, and she knows so much about them,” Trabucco said. “Jen will take the time to talk with [customers], go over what the different products are and do, and talk about what the best match would be.”
“She’s friendly, knowledgeable, patient and always has a smile,” said Trabucco, who is a local artist whose work is on display at the store.
Brown’s journey
At 22, Brown was diagnosed with cervical cancer. After eventual successful treatment, Brown faced repeated cancer diagnoses and subsequent treatments.
Four years later, she learned through genetic testing that she has chronic cancer, meaning her body is always in a state of cancer.
“I had outlived the expectation of surviving” at that point, said Brown of her health status.
Despite the discovery, Brown said she “was never stressed about it. I just wanted to fix it and get on with it mentally.”
In the years that followed, Brown underwent surgeries and chemo treatments to battle new primary cancers that arose, each time affecting a different organ. In total, she has had 10 different cancers.
“The biggest thing with every battle I had— and every time I had to do what I had to do —was my mindset,” the cancer survivor said. “I incrementally fought [and thought] ‘I’m going to beat it and be alive when a cure comes out for it. I think the mindset kind of helped me. I would live in those moments but didn’t sit in them. I would move through them. That was a huge thing for me.”
Just prior to Covid, after years of her body being in a constant state of cancer and 28 years of chemo—10 of which were almost nonstop chemo—Brown’s doctor informed her that her organs were shutting down and it was time to take a break from chemo. He predicted she might live six months.
Brown began to research alternative methods for treatment. Under her doctor’s watchful eye, with “nothing to lose,” Brown said she discovered and took small doses of Rick Simpson Oil, an oil made from the flowers of the cannabis plant.
RSO contains high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana that provides the “high.” Brown, an athlete in school, had never been a cannabis user and, as a longtime employee in the pharmaceutical industry, she “was trained and engrained to trust science and the studies.”
“I still do” trust the science and studies, Brown said. However, after a near-death experience with Covid and then seven weeks of using RSO, scans showed Brown’s “tumors were all shrinking.”
“That was the first ‘aha’ moment that this is actually working,” Brown said of the results.
It was then that Brown’s personal journey shifted. She left the pharmaceutical industry she had been a part for years and focused on learning everything she could about the cannabis plant.
Brown spoke with and developed relationships with manufacturers and growers, read books and took classes to become certified in marijuana and medicine to become “an advocate for medical use, an adjunct treatment to what is being used for disease.”
“I couldn’t unlearn what I had experienced,” Brown said of her experience. “I felt called to share.”
Brown shared her journey with those around her, as well as on cannabis health radio. Touched by her story and her results, she received communication from individuals looking for help, especially from those with cancer.
In addition, she learned from her family’s experiences and those shared by others how deeply family members and caregivers are impacted by loved ones with cancer. “Finally, my eyes were wide open. I had a better view outside of the disease,” she related. “I have to help these people, they’re stressed, not sleeping,” she said.
Brown said when she found oHHo and felt confident in their methods and products. She said knew that she could select them as her “CBD line of choice” to reach and help others who suffer from sleep disorders, anxiety and depression, chronic pain, nausea and vomiting, among other conditions.
For more information about oHHo in Kent, visit the store at 27 North Main St., Kent.
Editor’s note: Kent has crafted an ordinance that would ban retail sales of cannabis but would allow medical dispensaries with the approval of the Planning and Zoning Commission. There is currently a moratorium on applications for cannabis businesses in town that expires in December. oHHo has stated on the record that the products it sells to not reach the level of the state’s definition for cannabis and thus, it would not be considered a pre-existing retailer, according to Land Use Administrator Tai Kern. The proposed ordinance prohibiting retail cannabis sales will go to a referendum vote Nov. 4 during the municipal election.
