Reefer MEDness

Kirk brings Trevor another batch of Summer Road Stories. Kirk spent time traveling through Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba learning from Bud Tenders. We hear how CBG, the Cannabinoid of the summer, is “a bubble bath for the brain”. Kirk and guests discuss the strategies Bud Tenders use to help people buy their medical cannabis. While sitting in one small town, a long boarder stopped to talk ab...

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...

We first met Spencer Payson in Episode 75 - Road Stories. When he opened a new store in our hometown of Dauphin Manitoba, Kirk went to say hello. Talking to an owner of a Recreation Cannabis store provides practical insights to how society is changing it perception on cannabis. Sitting in the staff room of his new store, Spencer shares personal and professional stories about his cannabis experienc...

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...

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...

Terry O'Regan has spent his career in the pharmaceutical industry. He has worked for several Big Pharma companies including ones that have developed important treatments for neurological diseases like Multiple Sclerosis. Terry had heard there was a class of therapeutics for neurological conditions that pharmaceutical companies weren't working on, cannabinoids. Terry kept hearing from neurologists...

A short intro for the eminent Dr. Ethan Russo is challenging. Ethan Russo is a neurologist who explored the Amazon rain forest in the 90's to explore medicinal plants with aboriginal tribes. He returned to the USA and became interested in medicinal cannabis. He quickly became an expert in the field, and worked as a consultant for GW Pharmaceuticals. Later, as a Senior Medical Advisor for GW, he wa...

We've got another amazing group of attendees from CannMed 23! Joe Thompson   One evening they said dinner was on Lanai Beach. In Manitoba, if you are at a conference and someone says dinner is on Lanai Beach, then Lanai Beach is the name of a room. But in Florida, they actually meant dinner was on a beach. That sounds like a lovely idea, unless it is over 30 C and there is no shade. Thankfully, I...

Ahmed Labied – Morocco - At the opening reception of CannMed 23, there were all these people with green t-shirts that said Morocco. Trevor introduced himself and was told he had to talk to Ahmed Labied. Ahmed explained that in August 2023 there should be the first legal crop of cannabis coming off the field in Morocco and that they’re organizing a cannabis conference in Morocco in November 2023. T...

Canadians are changing their perspective of cannabis. People are using it as medicine and access has never been easier. Why is this bad? Why should anyone care how we access our medicinal cannabis? Canada is one of the few countries with federally legal cannabis. However, Canadians are not all benefiting from the creation of the Cannabis Act. There are barriers doing cannabis clinical research. Ma...

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...

Kieley is in the lead as our most interviewed guest. Kirk still teases Trevor how he blushed back on E34 when Trevor and Kieley talked about cannabis and sexual dysfunction. We talked to her on the Craft Cannabis Panel on E63 and during our trip to Calgary Hemfest in E78. Today we catch up with this cannabis entrepreneur and force of nature. The company she founded, Parkland Flower, is winning awa...

There are very few, if any, reliable methods of measuring cannabis impairment. Road-side sobriety tests done by trained Drug Recognition Experts are very subjective and workplaces are limited with how they assess employees with safety sensitive jobs. Back by video evidence, Gaize offers real-time impairment screening within 6 minutes. This portable AV device is considered accurate, providing objec...

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....

Dr. Rob Sealey returns to the podcast. Back in S3E7 he talked about Cannabis For Kids. Today we drive down the road to the other end of the age spectrum, Cannabis and Seniors. Dr. Sealey is super knowledgeable, but also pithy comment machine! Within this episode he says "you wouldn't go into your local liquor store and say, which bottle of Marlow should I use for my arthritis." He also figures "if...

Kirk and Owen continued discussion moves into a more personal realm as they share their views of the current state of Medical Cannabis industry. Kirk sees a disconnect with federal verses provincial government system management whereas Owen wants more services for individuals needing cannabis as medicine. As he continues his advocacy of medical cannabis, Owen also speaks to current projects to hel...

In this episode, Kirk learns how the law was on the side of righteousness when Owen Smith found himself in front of the Supreme Court of Canada defending a desire to help the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club, a longstanding compassion club. In the first part of a longer discussion, listeners gain insights to his six-year legal journey which ends with him becoming a medical cannabis industry advocate...

Why not pick up your medicine on the way home from work? Buying your cannabis from a recreational store is certainly more convenient, especially when there is a store in pretty much every neighbourhood. In this episode, we learn the advantages of following the Health Canada Medical Cannabis pathway. Justyna Johnson is a Medical Cannabis Educator employed by The Clinic Network. The enthusiasm for h...

Tarris Baptiste was athletically gifted. Tarris was driven. Tarris was on the brink of breaking into the National Football League. And then, it didn’t happen. Ten thousand hours plus spent on becoming an elite football player didn’t matter anymore. Now what? Tarris had a shadow pursuit that paralleled his football career. Sometimes it helped him succeed. Sometimes it got in the way. But now, he sh...

I bet you are on drugs right now! Don’t believe me? How long has it been since your last caffeinated beverage? Over 90% of us use caffeine daily. Most of us use alcohol at least weekly. Many of us use prescription medications to treat everything from ADHD to high blood pressure. Now thanks to cannabis legalization, more and more of us also use cannabis. If we use cannabis, it is likely that we are...

Pre-legalization, policing of was disproportionally excessive and punitive to BIPOC and poor folk of Canada. While Cannabis is now legal, thousands are still saddled with cannabis convictions preventing them from employment opportunities, international travel, and or joining volunteer groups. Although federal legislation “Bill-93 - No-fee, Expedited Pardons for Simple Possession of Cannabis” has r...

On July 23, 1983 at an altitude of 41,000 feet, Air Canada Flight 143 travelling between Montreal and Edmonton ran out of fuel because of confusion between metric and imperial measurements. However, the crew of the Boeing 767 successfully landed the passenger jet in Manitoba’s Interlake in what is now known as the Gimli Glider. That intrepid flight crew applied their years of training and experien...

What is the evidence? Where are the studies? There is no proof that cannabis can treat anything! Well…What if I told you there are lots of studies showing that cannabis has medical benefits? What if there was a study going on right now in Sarnia looking at Cannabis and Dementia in Long Term Care (LTC) homes? Dr. Blake Pearson and his partners in Lambton County are the epitome of “Think Global, Act...

We had a plan. Back in March 2020, Kirk and Trevor were going to host an event that served cannabis infused food in a restaurant in Dauphin. Then, the world shut down with the pandemic. As we're coming out of the pandemic, we thought we'd revive the plan, but the Manitoba Government gave us a hard no. Now we're talking to Nathan Mison, from Diplomat Consulting, for a brief history of cannabis lega...

Brent Alarie is informed he has COPD, then it was multiple sclerosis. No wait, he receives another diagnosis of blood cancer. These were just a few of the catastrophic verdicts given to describe how his body was betraying him. He needed to create change and prepare for his enviable death. With a new bucket list he started living his best life under the circumstances. A six-year painful journey, of...