The Potcast with Ross Rebagliati

In this episode of The Canadian Potcast, Green Light in the Grey Zone: Navigating Cannabis Marketing Without the Smoke, delves into the unique challenges cannabis producers face in navigating the stringent marketing regulations set by the Cannabis Act, which severely limits advertising and mandates plain packaging. We explore producers' innovative strategies to inform consumers about their product...

Some people study cannabis, and some people study sex. There are not many people who study both, but we’ve found one of the few: Amanda Moser is a sexologist who studies cannabis and intimacy and she is on the show to run us through the science of sex with cannabis and how to incorporate the plant into the bedroom. Plus we have cannabis content creator and influencer Wu Russell on the show to talk...

In this episode of Potcast titled, "Beneath the Buzz" we explore our health and the planet. First, we’re talking to the doctor who has been working with cannabis for sixteen years about how the body works with cannabis, and why it does what it does in our brains. Dr. Bonni Goldstein says that even doctors don’t often know about the body’s endocannabinoid system and that makes it hard to find or ad...

Not many names are as closely associated with cannabis as Tommy Chong . He’s a legendary comedian, musician and actor who has shaped the way we view the plant and its place in culture for over half a century. Tommy joins the show for this special episode dedicated to him and his life. We learn how his time growing up as a racialized kid in 1940s Alberta set the stage for his career. Tommy talks ab...

On this episode of Canadian Potcast: Bongs and Bylines. Rachelle Gordon is one of the world’s leading cannabis journalists. She’s the editor of GreenState and she’s travelled the globe covering cannabis. She joins us to talk about her life in cannabis media and the changing landscape of weed journalism. Plus – we’ve made it to 12 episodes! Let’s celebrate by revisiting our favourite stories from a...

On this episode, of The Canadian Potcast you'll discover how five kids and a Chevy Impala invented 420. You'll meet Thomas O’Neill, “The Butter Baron”. A former black market dealer in Toronto who went legit around legalization… or tried to. His business was immediately shut down for violating cannabis regulations at the time. Now he’s founded the CCTA, The Canadian Cannabis Tourism Alliance, a non...

Ross Rebagliati won the first-ever Olympic Gold Medal for snowboarding, then swiftly lost it when he tested positive for cannabis. The medal was reinstated on appeal, but he’d already become a sort of stoner anti-hero. That infamy led to the end of his snowboarding career. Ross joins us to help tell the story of that whole saga, and everything that came after it. Plus we speak to a medicinal canna...

In 2000, the Ontario Court of Appeal struck down all cannabis laws in Canada because of one man and his lawyer. Terry Parker has serious epilepsy and the only thing he claimed would stop his life-threatening seizures was cannabis. In this episode of The Canadian Potcast , we speak to his lawyer, Aaron Harnett, about how he took the case through the courts and proved that outright cannabis prohibit...

Cannabis used to be the second most-grown plant in Japan, after rice. Today most Japanese people don’t know that the plant is a key part of Shinto rituals. We tell the secret history of how the USA led Japan to have some of the strictest weed laws on earth, with the help of Japanese activist Naoko Miki. Plus, if cannabis is illegal but sacred in Japan. in Canada, it’s legal and big business. Our p...

Cannabis may be legal in Canada, but in the US it’s patchy, and even here the regulations around marketing can be a little murky. So how do you market a product online, where your marketing could be seen in a state where weed isn’t legal? We talk to one cannabis marketer about how to navigate that world, and then we tell the story of Magu, the chinese hemp goddess, and of one woman’s quest to revi...

Da Kine Smoke and Beverage was the first recreational cannabis storefront in North America, and it created a media storm when it opened in 2004. The pot shop became internationally famous, with tourists traveling from around the world to visit during its short tenure on Vancouver’s commercial drive. Don Briere, who ran the store, tells the second part of this story. We also speak to Jaclynn Pehota...

Legalizing cannabis didn’t create the cannabis industry. Don Briere was one of BC’s biggest cannabis producers until the police shut him down in 1999 before he went on to open the first recreational cannabis storefront in North America: Da Kine Smoke and Beverage. In the first part of this two-part series, we tell the story of his life as an illegal grower. Plus we talk to Ted Smith, founder of a...

Cannabis tourism is more than just coffee shops in Amsterdam. It’s an emerging world of experiences, retreats, adventures, and pot-friendly accommodations… but how to find them? We talk to Elizabeth Becker of HiBnB about how she’s helping cannabis consumers navigate this new world. Then we go to Thailand, where cannabis has gone from a 5-year prison sentence to a big tourist draw in under a year....

In the USA cannabis is classified as medically useless, and as dangerous as heroin since 1971, on the federal level at least. Cannabis was first banned in the U.S. in 1937. In this episode of Potcast, we tell the story of Harry J Anslinger, the man whose political ambition and racism led to that ban. Also, while cannabis remains illegal at the federal level, businesses that operate in legal states...

“ The word assassin comes from hashish” is a myth that you may well have heard. It’s been in popular culture for literal centuries. So what truth is there in this myth? We explore the legends of Hassan-i-Sabbah and figure out what this myth tells us about the people who perpetuated it to begin with. Also: Samuel Gerges, Founder of Mary Jane’s Cannabis , one of Toronto’s most successful cannabis en...

When cannabis was made illegal in Canada most Canadians had barely heard of it, let alone tried it. The legislation was made off the back of a wave of anti-Asian racism… So how did a race riot in Vancouver lead to the prohibition of cannabis? That story, plus activist and dispensary owner Dana Larsen on the state of legalization. Dana shares his views on how Canada could do better. S1E1