Reefer MEDness

Imagine you are a 75 years old male and you have a few medical conditions like well controlled prostate cancer, diabetes, high cholesterol and your knees hurt from arthritis. Your friend says you should try cannabis for your sore knees. You also live in a small rural Manitoba town that leans religious and conservative. Where do you go to find out if cannabis for your knees is a good idea? In Ste A...

One sunny evening in the summer of 2020, Kirk and Trevor had a meeting on Kirk's driveway. Even though all indoor meetings were taboo, they met someone bursting with excitement. Eric Greening's face lit up as he described the cannabis growing facility he envisioned building north east of Dauphin. Four years, a pandemic, spiraling inflation and all the other unknown unknowns of building a facility...

Recreational cannabis legalization means tons more teenagers will start using the drug right? That prevailing myth and other interesting trends were examined by Luis Segura, Silva Martins and their team from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. In the USA, cannabis legalization happens state by state, and not all at the same time. That provided the perfect environment for the r...

Here's a blast from the past! In honor of the 7th Anniversary of cannabis legalization in Canada, we are going to replay a dinner party we had. Back in October 2018, Kirk and Trevor cooked with cannabis for a bunch of guests to celebrate cannabis legalization. Let's have a listen! Additional Music: Desiree Dorion  desireedorion.com Marc Clement -  Facebook Transcripts, papers and so much more at: ...

David Traylor has 2 undergrad degrees in Bio-Chemistry and Molecular Biology. He is a former pro lacrosse player. He got involved in BioTech in the 1990's and dealt with the difficulties of getting molecules like erythropoietin to market at scale. From there he got into investment banking. Obviously, with that background, the next step is to do cannabis deals on 6 of the 7 continents! Golden Eagle...

It's a beautiful late summer day. Let's do something different. Kirk and Trevor take a stroll around their hometown of Dauphin, Manitoba. They talk cannabis, Kirk's European travel plans and greet people on the street. Our co-hosts duck into a local cannabis shop, Payson's Joint. They record stories from staff and customers. Unrehearsed, person-on-the-street stories are the best! They always go in...

It’s like having a trial lawyer try to explain how cannabinoids interact with endogenous cannabinoid receptors! You know what that is like? It’s, it’s, it’s… actually pretty great. Come hear how a trial lawyer got into the cannabis space, how he thinks the acidic versions of cannabinoids are bursting with medical promise and just come listen to one of our new favorite characters! Robert “Bob” Hill...

Working as a professional musician means long journeys between gigs, sleeping in different beds, setting up on new stages, and partying with other creative folk. Although substance use among musicians happens, and might even be stereotypical, we found a more interesting and insightful story. Desiree Dorion’s band finds that cannabis plays well with their lifestyle and hits all the positive notes. ...

More than 200,000 Canadians are registered Medical Cannabis patients. Due to a cumbersome national system, many of these individuals discover the benefits of Cannabis alone, with little therapeutic expertise to guide them. Learning about your medicine or just trying to access your medicine, these tasks are made easier when engaged with a business like Tantus Health; a Medical Cannabis Dispensary....

Picture Miami. What do you see in your mind's eye? Beautiful photos of beautiful people? Instagram worthy food pics? A culture more Caribbean than American? Now imagine you meet a Chef from Miami. What does he teach you to cook? The perfect Cuban Sandwich? What is his secret ingredient? What if it is cannabis? Meet Tarik Sparks. Photographer. Chef. Cook Book writer. Listen to how he weaves serious...

The team gathers in the studio for the first time since pandemic restrictions were lifted. Rene interviews Kirk and Trevor, and gains insights into the creation and growth of this Passion Project. With 100 episodes in the library, the team has lots to review. From suppositories to driving, seizures to criminal records, Parkinson’s to David Crosby, current fans will enjoy reminiscing with the team....

"Everyone has a plan until they are punched in the face." - Mike Tyson Imagine getting engaged, and within 6 months your finance gets diagnosed with cancer. Mickey from and High Society Hemp Co. doesn't have to imagine. Mickey is from Texas where cannabis is still illegal. Her husband was going through chemotherapy, surgeries and even had some ribs removed. He was in pain. The opioid pain killers...

Potheads are too, well, stoned to succeed in tech, right? A medicinal cannabis user couldn’t be a successful serial tech entrepreneur, could they? Well, meet Brian. He is a US Marine Vet who became a successful tech entrepreneur several times over. However, Brian’s military service also left him with PTSD. Brian tried all the standard PTSD treatments and none of them worked for him. Then an ex-mil...

We first met Janna Champagne as a cannabis nurse. Since we last spoke, she has transitioned to being a Board-Certified Master Herbalist, a Professor of Integrative Medicine, a prolific academic author, and a founder of an autism non-profit. As the discussion develops, Kirk and Trevor learn the height of Janna's expertise and the depth of her passion for educating healthcare providers about the the...

Bernardo Carreira the owner, and founder of 8000 Kicks believes hemp is the past and future of textile manufacturing. His business goal is to leave a legacy. In this legacy, hemp becomes mainstream and the most ubiquitous fiber available in the textile industry. This small European company creates shoes using the strongest canvas fiber available, with soles made of algal blooms. While continuously...

Ponce de León never found the Fountain of Youth. Andras Bilkei-Gorzo from the University of Bonn in Germany thinks Ponce should have looked at low dose THC. Andras and his team have been giving mice low dose THC and finding some interesting results. Listen to how to get an older mouse to swim to an invisible platform faster, how THC can flip a metabolic switch called mTOR on and off at the same ti...

Akeem Gardner and his team at Canurta are delving deep into the hidden corners of the cannabis plant. They want to know if we extract this cannflavin, this terpene, this cannabinoid, or one of the other thousands of molecules in the cannabis plant, can it treat a disease? Last year at CannMed 23, he talked to us about how cannflavins could be used to treat a particularly nasty brain tumour called...

In Canada, older adults represent a fast-growing demographic of cannabis users. As part of her graduate program, PhD student Madison Maynard did a national enquiry, within the USA, on how cannabis modulates the chronic pain, mental health symptoms, and sleep concerns of people between the ages of 55 and 74 years old. Although the evidence leaves questions of efficacy unanswered, the goals of the s...

Yes we are going waaaayyy back in the archives today. Pre-legalization back. But the discussion about taxes and addiction are still very relevant. Are we addicted to taxes? Trevor and Kirk talk to Dr. Jason Childs. He is an economist who says whether you want to reduce harm from cannabis or increase government coffers then keep taxes on cannabis low. In fact, having the government subsidize licens...

Do you know anyone with dementia? If you don’t, you will. We humans are living longer and healthier lives. There are more healthy 75 year old people alive now than there ever have been. However, the number of people with dementia is sky rocketing as well. Enter Dr. Mechtler… Dr. Lazslo Mechtler is the Medical Director of Dent Neurologic Institute, the Chief of Neuro-Oncology at Roswell Park Cancer...

Once again, VanHoot is traveling northern prairie highways and Kirk is stopping to make cold calls to recreational stores along the way. In this episode, he revisits some of the shops he visited in past trips to ask specific questions about how people are using Rec Shops to obtain their medicine. Have a listen as he also discovers what budtenders are selling in the 2025. Saskabuds Cannabis - Humbo...

Ryan Kocot was the in-house legal counsel and director of compliance for a multinational cannabis company. He now has his own practice in California, Massachusetts and New York. He helps operators scale into multiple States, do joint ventures, trademark, and other intellectual property license agreements. Listen as Trevor and Ryan discuss the weird and counter-intuitive land of multi-states operat...

Ontario entrepreneurs are solving a problem that Trevor confronts on a weekly basis. People going to recreational cannabis stores with health questions like, "Are these gummies okay with my seizure meds?" We know that a large percentage of customers at recreational cannabis stores are using their cannabis for health and wellness purposes. Yet, budtenders are limited in the health information that...

It is safe to say, Mr. Clayton Moore is a growing concern within the hemp industry of Southwestern United States. As an undergraduate within the Texas A&M Agricultural Soil and Crop Science Department, he has his fingers, hands, and mind buried deeply in growing a better understanding of hemp and cannabis. He is: a leader within a student lead initiative called CHIL, an advocate for decriminal...

Newton Zheng is a good Canadian guy. (That seems important to mention, lately). Listen to his rise in athletics (we're calling him the Rocky of Badminton now), to Newton taking a different career path than Elon Musk, to Newton becoming a digital marketing entrepreneur. Newton and his team at ePropel Digital has found a niche helping cannabis dispensaries and other cannabis businesses. Cannabis bus...