Reefer MEDness

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 experiences. We also learn how he trains his...

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 Partners was the first investment b...

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 operations, trade marks when cannabis prod...

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 that cannabinoids held great promise...

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 was involved with the development of ...

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 brought a ball cap for my bald ...

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.

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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. Many prescribers and provincial healt...

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-military friend of his suggested Brian...

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 awards and she is pursuing new venture...

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 objective eye behaviours when deciding w...

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. If you are new to our podcast look...

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 we're at all related to mice and s...

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 help society be a better place to live...

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 and influencer. His cannabis story ...

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 her job comes from spending her work...

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 shifted his considerable focus to lea...

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 going to have cannabis and other d...

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 received royal assent, the complicat...