Reefer MEDness

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...

Kirk and Trevor bring you a Road Story that they didn’t need to leave home to find. A Mobile Cannabis Shop parked at Dauphin’s Countryfest, Canada’s longest running country music festival. Delta 9, Manitoba’s own Licensed Producer, made history as this was the first Mobile Cannabis store in Canada! The Delta 9 Mobile Cannabis Store was licensed by the Liquor Gaming and Cannabis Authority of Manito...

Dr. Jen Anderson wasn’t very interested in cannabis. As a newly minted family physician, it just wasn’t on her radar. She wasn’t against it. But cannabis just wasn’t going to be a tool in her tool box, professionally. She became a mom, and one of her children started having seizures. Lots of seizures. After exhausting all the regular anti-seizure medications, she tried cannabis on her child. It he...

The Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club (VCBC) is no stranger to defending the services that a compassion club can deliver. For decades, the VCBC has supported individuals with chronic and or life-threatening diseases by providing aid not available from government health systems. Kirk once again visits this west coast healing community. He examines how this celebrated organization is now fighting a $6.4...

You've said the word concussion. You might even have had one. But do you really understand them? Did you know a concussion is a minor traumatic brain injury? Dr. Patrick Neary and his team got a grant from the NFL to study if cannabis can help prevent or treat concussions! Dr. Neary explains, you don't have to actually bang your head to get a concussion. We've often said you don't have to like can...

Our co-host, Trevor has an unhealthy obsession with suppositories. You know that guy you never ask, "Hey, what is an NFT?" lest he talk your ear off? Well never ask Trevor, "Hey, what is a Rectal Rocket?" With that background, imagine our delight when we stumbled across Sarah Roberts and her company Cicatrix Labs. They make vaginal and rectal suppositories with cannabinoids in them! People have us...

Most certainly, we have learned Cannabis has benefits but it is not benign. With all medications it is important to understand the risk and benefits. In this episode Trevor and Kirk discuss the cardiovascular effects of chronic cannabis inhalation with an accomplished student of medicine, Dr. Venkat Subramaniam. Although, he admits limited studies are available, his literature review suggests thos...

In this episode, Kirk and Trevor bring forward the importance of Cannabis advocacy. With the legalization of recreational cannabis, some may see the need for Cannabis Advocacy as being dispensable. Stephen Stairs, a medical cannabis consumer is a leader within the Winnipeg green culture. He explains how the many interpretations of regulations, from all level of governments, requires his continuous...

At the beginning of the Pandemic, we met Eric Greening. He wanted to start a craft cannabis operation just outside our hometown of Dauphin. We check in with Eric and see how pandemic construction has been going, and as a preview for our eventual facility tour! Trevor and Kirk also discuss what Trevor is and is not allowed to tell patients about cannabis as a pharmacist. Our My Cannabis story is Hi...

When you take a prescription medication, it goes into your body, does what it is supposed to and then leaves. Part of leaving the body often involves the medication getting broken down or metabolized by enzymes in the liver. One of the biggest medication metabolizing enzyme systems in the liver is called the Cytochrome P450 enzymes. Why should you care? Because cannabis can effect the Cytochrome P...

Traveling the Yellowhead Highway eastward, Kirk leaves Alberta behind. Visiting local Cannabis Stores, he collects and shares more Road Stories from the Bud Tenders he meets along his way back home to Manitoba Music by: Paul Brandt -Alberta Bound-  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx4EkjJw5xk (Yes we got a SOCAN membership to use this song all legal and proper like) Additional Music: Desiree Dorion...

Do you have a favourite craft cannabis flower? Are you getting what you think you ordered? Think again. While attending the Calgary Hempfest, Kirk and Trevor gathered five Micro Cultivation License holders (plus a surprise cameo contributor!) to discuss the recreational cannabis retail space. The conversation revealed a complicated system of regulations, policies, and red tape which affect their a...

Imagine an affordable home that will not burn or grow mould, while it also cleans the air within. Christiana Goodvin, a self-described “Envelop and Building Science Engineer”, gathers locally sourced materials to build fire resistant homes that interact with the environments we live in. She uses hempcrete. Her hydrothermal designs will manage the indoor humidity, inhibit the transmission of bacter...

Ross Rebagliati, Michael Phelps, and Sha'Carri Richardson. Different athletes, different sports, and different eras. Tremendous athletic ability and years of arduous training aren't all they have in common. Their sporting careers have all been touched by cannabis. Dr. Mark Ware and his colleagues examined cannabis and elite athletes. What they found was captivating and thought provoking. Join Kirk...

Sharing stories is how we learn and connect. Kirk travels westward from Dauphin along North American’s most northern provincially connected highway system.  Listen to the quirky, cool Bud Tenders stories he brought back from the road.

Has Covid-19 affected your day-to-day? “Ah, yes!” We have all been touched; this virus has influenced behaviours within all of our communities and our condolences are extended to those who have lost love ones. This episode tells a story of an individual who recovered from Covid-19, only to suffer from debilitating symptoms long after the acute nature of the illness had passed. These are people ref...

We are in an opioid crisis.  Wouldn't it be great if we had another tool to taper people to a lower opioid dose or off their opioids altogether?  A group of almost 20 experts got together and drew up consensus guidelines on how to taper opioids with cannabis.  We got Aaron Sihota - Pharmacist, Dr. Brennan K. Smith, PhD, and Dr. Colleen O'Connell MD from the consensus guidelines group together virt...