Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome, friends, to
episode 308, where I chat with
Angelina Blessed.
Welcome to Bite Me, the showabout edibles, where I help you
take control of your high life.
I'm your host and certifiedgonger, margaret, and I love
helping cooks make safe andeffective edibles at home.
I'm so glad you're here.
Helping cooks make safe andeffective edibles at home, I'm
(00:27):
so glad you're here.
Welcome back, friends, to BiteMe.
The show about edibles, thepodcast that explores the
intersection of food culture andcannabis, where I help cooks
make great edibles at home.
And, margaret, what are wemaking today, you might be
asking.
Well, we're not making anythingbecause instead, we are going
to be listening in on a fabulousconversation I had with
Angelina Bless, and I thinkyou're really going to enjoy
this conversation.
So if you're tuning in for thefirst time, thank you so much
(00:49):
for being here.
This conversation is going tobe a real treat.
And if you've been listeningfor a while, thank you so much
for showing up week after week.
I really appreciate you.
It is because of the listenersthat I continue to do this show.
Now, angelina Bless if you'renot familiar with her, she is a
retired Muay Thai fighter andyou are going to get to know her
much better today.
(01:10):
She's long used cannabis andedibles to help manage the aches
and pains that inevitably comewith a career in fighting.
She's also been a longtimeedibles maker, working in the
legacy market and attempting anentry into the Ontario legal
market, spending her winters inThailand for a number of years,
smart woman, she has turned herfocus to the Thai market,
(01:32):
creating beautiful single-sourceinfused chocolate bars.
We don't only talk about that,but we also talk about how she
uses cannabis while training,her experience with cannabis,
hyperremesis syndrome, how sheapproaches CBD for daily health,
her skills in hash making, thedifferences between North
American and Thai cannabisculture, and a whole lot more.
(01:53):
This was a fun and informativeconversation that I really think
you're going to enjoy.
Without further ado, please havea listen to this conversation
with myself and Angelina Blest.
All right, I think we are nowrecording Everyone.
I am joined today by AngelinaBlest.
(02:14):
I'm super excited to have heron the show.
You have been sort of in myradar for quite a while now.
I know I've been in the sameroom as you before, but we've
never actually met until today.
So I'm very excited about thisconversation and, angelina,
would you like to say hello tothe listeners of Bite Me and
tell them you know the elevatorpitch about who you are and what
you do.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Thank you so much for
having me, margaret.
I really appreciate being here.
I appreciate having a platformthat is dedicated to edibles and
all things that's kind of in myheart.
I am a retired professionalMuay Thai fighter.
I fought professionally mostlyin Thailand, china and Mexico
from the years of 2006 to about2019 was my last fight and I
(02:59):
just started medicating becauseI was trying not to take
painkillers and so I startedmaking cookies and butters and
oils for all the guys at CMnumber one, which is a Muay Thai
gym in Toronto, ontario, and Ijust kind of noticed what they
were doing and they would all gooutside before training and
smoke a little something andthen, like I would just watch
(03:21):
them kind of move into a flow oftraining and it was never
stigmatized to them and that wasreally cool.
Now I don't think at the timethat they understood that they
were kind of medicatingthemselves and using it as a
medication, but I really saw thebenefits of all of that.
So starting to feed themcookies was a really cool thing
(03:45):
uh, was a really cool thing.
And then they were noticed inthe legacy market uh, people
like Amy Weinstein, who ranother people's pot and she ran a
bunch of really great uh legacydispensaries Uh 416 medicinal
was one of the names and she gotme onto a vice documentary
called uh cannabis candy landand that got millions of views
and it was me and all theedibles and uh concentrate
makers of Toronto back I believeit was 2016.
And it was really funny becauseall the edibles and concentrate
(04:06):
makers of Toronto back Ibelieve it was 2016.
And it was really funny becauseall the shatter makers and
whatever were all wearingbalaclavas and had voiceovers
and I was just me in my MuayThai shorts going like, hey
everybody, I'm Angelina.
And and then I took Damien fromVice into the ring and I beat
him up and then took him intothe kitchen and made cookies for
him.
So I kind of started thereno-transcript and you know those
(04:47):
became the best of people.
From there, legalizationhappened and I got my, which was
once a 100 milligram veganchocolate bar, into a 10
milligram vegan chocolate bar inthe legal market in Ontario and
I'm really proud of that.
It was 100 milligrams of CBDand 10 milligrams of THC and
only one milligram per THC persquare.
(05:10):
So it was a really great what Ithought starter chocolate bar
and the Ontario market beingwhat it is and all of the greedy
people that have their hands inall the products.
It became very different thanme making chocolate bars and
selling it to people and gettingthe money for myself.
It became all these licensedproducers and salespeople that
had their hands in it, takingpercentages and whatnot and
(05:33):
borrowed a lot of money and thenthey just bankrupt companies.
So it's tough and heartbreakingand then I really, you know,
hit a probably two yeardepression of you, depression of
my dream might be gone andwhatnot, and not trusting any
legal license producers inOntario any longer.
(05:54):
And I've been spending everywinter in Thailand for the last,
I believe, 21 years now.
So I would go and I would trainand fight and I wasn't
medicating, obviously inThailand because of the rules,
but they legalized a few yearsago.
And then my dream kind ofchanged where I got an
opportunity through a produceror through a sales company in
(06:16):
Thailand, where I was able tobring my chocolate bar to the
legal market in Thailand.
And that was kind of a mindblowing dream of all of my
worlds coming together, becausethe stigma is even worse in
Thailand with how people andThai people thought about
cannabis.
So it was a dream come true.
(06:38):
And so I've now had two tripsover there where I've been able
to go to the gyms, talk toathletes, and I got to design a
chocolate bar that was above andbeyond anything that Ontario
could have ever produced.
So my Ontario bar legal bar wasproduced in Kelowna through
Valens and then shipped here andgone through a sales license
(06:59):
company and then had to ship tothe OCS and blah, blah, blah and
it was like I said, 100milligrams of CBD to 10
milligrams of THC.
But the bar that we got to makeit comes out of Chiang Mai,
which is in the north ofThailand, and I got to design it
through this company that wasalready making chocolate bars
(07:20):
and I got to teach them how toinfuse it with the full spectrum
that I wanted to, which wasn'treally my choice with Ontario.
It had to be distillate ornothing, and you know they
didn't really tell me anythingabout what was going on.
But my chocolate bar inThailand is made on an organic
cacao farm, made with super love, and the quality of the
(07:40):
chocolate is just like nothing Iever experienced in Ontario,
except for the legacy one, andit's it's been really cool that
I've been able to just do salestours, talk to the stores, see
the insanity going on within theThai legal market right now and
the ups and downs of it, andyou know it's a bit of a wild
west out there right now, butit's super exciting so that's
(08:03):
amazing.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
You just said so many
things that I want to touch on.
It's a bit of a blurb, so yeah,like a pretty long career in
fighting, and so I can imaginethat it's only natural that you
ground towards edibles to helpyou with performance and
recovery.
One of the things I just wantedto touch on was in Thailand.
You mentioned that there's evenmore stigma around cannabis use
(08:26):
there than there is here, andthat surprised me in a way,
because it just feels like, eventhough it was illegal for so
long, that it was sort of partof the life there in a lot of
ways.
Like I've heard, some peopledescribe cannabis use in cooking
as like sometimes using anotherherb like basil or something
like that.
Can you talk a little bit aboutthat?
Speaker 2 (08:44):
You know, I think
it's really, I think it was
really stigmatized with theThais because of how illegal it
was for them Right so now.
But what we're seeing, whatwe're seeing in Thailand, is the
Thais aren't buying the weed.
It's a very, very lowpercentage of Thai people that
are buying cannabis because theprices are actually more
expensive in Thailand than it isin Canada.
(09:05):
So, like, if you're walkingaround, say, kosan Road or any
of the kind of more populartouristy areas, you're looking
at like 10 to 15 dollars pergram of kind of maybe sometimes
questionable cannabis.
But what?
Who are buying it?
Are any of the foreigners?
You know a lot of the Muay Thaifighters, a lot of people that
(09:25):
are there for a long time andespecially popular in like the
wellness communities.
So that stigma is breaking.
But I still feel that like Istill can't walk into like an
all Thai gym and really talkabout cannabis, because people
will still kind of look at me alittle bit sideways, especially
when it comes to like Muay Thaiand cannabis, right so.
But there are some super weedfriendly gyms, especially
(09:49):
Bangkok and Phuket, and that'sreally cool, but it is mostly
foreigners for sure, and peopleare figuring out the wellness
benefits to it.
So that's, that's a big, bigplus, and I think I think that's
really where that conversationneeds to kind of be pushed as
well, as opposed to just, being,say, intoxicated by weed right.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
Right, yeah, a little
more mindfulness around it
would probably bring more peopleto it, because it makes sense
that if it's been so illegal forso long that people would be
not necessarily just suddenlylike, oh okay, it's fine now.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Like it's not often
how people's minds work, so even
in Ontario, you know people,still there's still a still
heavy, super heavy stigma to it.
You know like yeah, there is.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
I just forget about
it because I work in this.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
No, we absolutely do.
But my my partner was teachingthe cannabis and society course
at Centennial College, which hewrote, but it was really
interesting because most of hisstudents are international
students, so a lot of kids fromIndia and a lot of kids from
China.
So a lot of their papers thatthey're writing are being like
yo, I just came to this countryand there's weed shops
everywhere and I've never evensmelled it and everyone's on the
street smoking it and they'refrightened by it, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
So, even though
they're taking the course and
wanting to learn about it andlike probably doing it to like
upset their parents and whatnot,no-transcript bud tenders are
(11:31):
so important and I used to workin a dispensary like back in
when we had the first legalstore in the town that I live in
and people were coming in toexplore.
My favorite customers were likea few little old ladies that
came in that wanted to buy weedin a pipe and they're like I
haven't smoked in like 60 or 70years.
But honestly, like, are youdirecting her to the, you know,
(11:53):
infused pre-rolls like you justmentioned?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
No, yeah, definitely
not and like doses are really
low, like my dad walked into astore and somebody gave him a 10
milligram edible and thatshould be doable, but he had a
really kind of scary experienceabout it and that's terrible
because unfortunately, I wouldsay, a majority of people
probably have a bad ediblesexperience when it shouldn't be
like that, right, but like andyou've been involved in the
(12:16):
edibles space for a long time,so you know, I'm sure, all too
well that 10 milligrams for oneperson is nothing and 10
milligrams for the next personis like he's, like you said,
with your dad, a horrible time.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yeah, and so the
start low, go slow thing that
people always repeat is soimportant, because it's it's
true.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
But that's the thing
that's.
I think that's why blessed didwell in the legacy market,
because a lot of people werejust kind of setting up tables
and you know we were stilllearning how to measure THC and
a lot, and like we were stilldoing it from flour, so that
makes it even more likeunspecific as to what the dosage
could be.
But we were there to answerquestions and that's like we got
the old ladies who just werelike I have arthritis pain, I
(12:58):
have a daughter.
That's bothering, you know,like it's just like you know
there there really needs to besomeone there to be able to
answer the questions.
And you know it's it.
Can you know?
We a long time ago I did a yogaclass for people who had not
consumed before and I fed themlike two and a half to three
milligrams and for people thathaven't experienced cannabis
(13:20):
before, you could see that theywere a little bit touched by it,
right, and I think that's kindof cool and exciting.
So you know it's, it shouldn'tbe a scary experience for people
Like if we're you know likeyeah.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
But it is sometimes,
which is why it's important that
people like yourself are outthere doing the work that you're
doing, because you're justeducating people around how to
consume edibles safely, which Ithink is super important.
It's more what's the word I'mlooking for.
People are more intimidated byedibles, probably, than other
forms, because that bad time canlast for so damn long.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, it sure can.
I had a lot of experiences whenI first started experimenting,
where you know I'd lick thewrong fork or something and just
like, Well, we've all done thatIf you've made any edibles, so
we've all probably licked them.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
You haven't even
eaten your baked goods yet,
you're already fried.
But right exactly now, as faras your athletic career goes,
was there anything in particularthat brought you to cannabis?
Speaker 2 (14:17):
um, absolutely um,
you know, getting getting
punched in the head for a livingwas definitely uh, you know,
and the thing about the kind oftimeframe of fighters that I
came from is that we weren'ttaught anything about recovery.
You know, I basically likedidn't have a period for six
years because of my you know thefight weight that I was keeping
myself at.
(14:37):
You know the constant headtraumas.
I went to China and I gotknocked out by someone that was
way out of my league.
You know, as soon as she hit me, I knew I was in big trouble
and you know so flying back withthat kind of a concussion.
And then I started likelistening to, you know, joe
Rogan talk about sensorydeprivation, talking about the
healing benefits of CBD andstuff like that, and I really
(15:00):
had to start to consider that,because you know I would go to
the doctor and be like I don'tfeel well, I'm super nauseous,
lights bothering me, screens arebothering me and I didn't
really know what to do.
So, you know, kind of seeingwhat the guys were doing at the
gym, I just kind of followedsuit, but, having kind of bad
lungs, I didn't want to besmoking at the same time.
So I found, you know a realbenefit from kind of high fat,
(15:22):
low sugar edibles.
And there was nothing on themarket at the time that was kind
of covering that.
And you know, as a fighter,keeping myself within a low
fight weight category, you knowI couldn't go home at night and,
you know, eat a bunch ofcookies or whatever.
Didn't feel right about that,especially knowing, like the,
the anti-recovery benefits ofsugar.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
you know, like it
just wasn't, it wasn't making
sense to me right right, yeah so, and so you started to
introduce cannabis into yourregular training regimen
absolutely and just.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Uh, you know, and as
recovery to start, I started
working with strains, like youknow pink, kush and blueberry
and those like heavy indicastrains and really finding the
benefits of what would happen assoon as I started to sleep a
little bit better and then eat alittle bit better.
Because, like, you come homefrom sparring and you're kind of
like jacked up with pain andthen you kind of like toss and
turn all night and every timeyou turn over you're like, oh,
(16:15):
this hurts and that hurts andyou're not getting the sleep
that you need, so then your bodyisn't recovering.
But as soon as I started addingthings like the sensory
deprivation tanks with all ofthe magnesium, and then you know
a little bit of breath work andthen you know some edibles,
like I really found that therecovery was better.
Now it was after another severeconcussion where I had to take
some serious time off and wasn'table to have any kind of impact
(16:39):
or have anyone punch at my facethat I just started like using
it for shadow boxing and lightrunning at at home and that
really made a huge difference inmy mental state.
Even so, uh, you know, learningabout my own flow and stuff
became a really kind of coolthing.
And then I started playing withsativas and you know, learning
about how they energized me andwhatnot, so it uh, it was kind
(17:02):
of a a kind of cool uh thingthat I figured out or felt that
I had figured out.
So it was really fun for me tojust to start my runs and, you
know, rip a couple of bongs anddo that.
And then I, you know, had goneto Kelowna and brought my legacy
brand out there and partneredwith Ross Rubliotti.
So I was had all of my edibles,I made kombucha and chocolate
(17:26):
and cookies and took it all toKelowna and sold it out of his
store and so that was a big, agreat partnership, just because
he and I were athletes who gotit, you know, and and yeah, that
was, that was a really cool,fun time Very illegal, but it
sounds like I mean infusedkombucha.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
That would be pretty,
pretty delicious.
I think I love it.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Just, you know, I
call it like the champagne of
cannabis, right.
So it was just like somethingabout those bubbles.
I just I felt like it kind ofwent straight to your head and
you know the the benefits of theSCOBY and ginger and all of
that, it just, uh, it was areally cool product.
You know, I I'm so sad thatmaking edibles in Ontario was
such an expensive and overpricedthing.
(18:09):
You know, I wanted to put outinfused water and stuff, but
like they're like it's going tobe $8 retail.
I'm like we're still talkingabout water, right.
So it's it's, so it's it's.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
it's tough, but I've
heard from a few people that
have been in the edibles makinggame, like on the legal side,
that it's a double regulatedindustry.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
You have all your
food regulations, then on top of
that you have the cannabisregulations, making it a pile of
regulations, yeah yeah, wholecanada's got their hand in there
, the government's got theirhand in there, the ocs has their
hand in there, the saleslicense people have their hand
in there.
It's an impossible situation,you know.
Know, like my, my legal, youknow my legacy chocolate bar was
(18:45):
$20.
But you're getting 120milligrams of THC from it, you
know.
And then the legal bar was $10.
And you're getting 10milligrams of THC in it.
So it's, it's hard to getpeople to do that especially you
know it was the middle of thepandemic and all of that.
So like who really had moneyfor it?
And then you see the chocolatebar companies that were doing
well and they've got a fivedollar piece of chocolate on the
(19:08):
market that tastes liketerrible.
But people, unfortunately,that's where the economy's at.
They're like I want to get high.
It's five bucks, whatever.
So it's, it's hard.
That's just where we're at inthis economy, unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Yeah now, were you
using thc as well, like during
your training?
Speaker 2 (19:24):
it sounds like you
were mentioning that you were
using cbd for recovery, butyou're introducing thc into your
training program yeah, the lastfew years of my training, there
was always, you know, I wouldalways smoke before I would go
to the gym, you know, and not ona sparring day or anything like
that, because like yourreaction time is different, like
don't be fooled.
Um, but I like for warmups, fortech, sparring, for, you know,
(19:48):
bag work, it's just gets me outof my head a little bit and I'm
always so, you know, adhd andreeling that it's good just to
kind of slow myself down alittle bit and that's, kind of
excuse me, what it does for me,right.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Yeah, I mean that
makes a lot of sense.
A lot of people are trying toget out of their head all the
time, so it's very good for that.
Now you've also talked publiclyabout having cannabis
hypermesis syndrome.
Can you talk about how you gotthe diagnosis and how you
treated it and the aftermathCause I think it's something
that a lot of people hear aboutbut they don't necessarily
(20:21):
understand.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
I had gone through a
few years of like a severe
depression and heavy, heavyanxiety post-pandemic and I
really wasn't sure what was kindof setting me off.
But for years I'd been havingnausea at different times of the
day and I always thought it wasfrom possibly like overtraining
or old concussion stuff or oryou know, I had all sorts of
(20:43):
weird things in my head aboutyou know what it could be from,
and then the symptoms juststarted getting worse and worse.
And so the thing about cannabishypermesis syndrome is that I
didn't correlate that my nauseawas because of the cannabis that
I was consuming.
Now, I was consuming a lot, alot, a lot post-pandemic.
(21:04):
I'd medicated myself into a bitof a corner, but I was smoking
quite a few bongs, quite a fewinfused joints, and then I was
consuming hundreds of milligramsof either RSO or hash-based
edibles or rosin-based edibles,and I was starting to get
(21:24):
vomiting severe, severe, severepain in my upper stomach and
right side pain through myshoulder, and vomiting and
trembling episodes that wouldlast for hours in the middle of
the night.
Uh, vomiting and tremblingepisodes that would last for
hours in the middle of the night.
Now, smoking cannabis duringthose would make me feel better,
(21:47):
uh, but then hours later Iwould have another episode.
So I took multiple trips, uh,to the hospital I got, I was
taken out of my house in anambulance one day because of my
weakness and uh, basically whathappens is that, uh, the
sickness uh will stop you fromfrom eating and then it slowly
starts to shut your kidneys down.
I had two emergency room doctorstry to diagnose me with this
(22:10):
and I was in complete denialabout it.
I thought that cannabis did nothurt people.
I thought that I was quote safewith it and educated about it.
But you know, after my seconddiagnosis and going over the
list of symptoms, I, you know,me and my partner were both like
this is exactly what it is.
So I had to do a severe detox,which was very uncomfortable for
(22:34):
me, and I was completely soberfrom any cannabis products for
six weeks.
Now, luckily, through theguidance of amazing cannabis
doctor and emergency room doctor, dr Ira Price from Hamilton, he
, he told me that I could startto consume CBD again.
So that was a bit of a godsendand and I figured that out, and
(22:57):
I figured that out Now it wasreally heartbreaking for me
thinking that, oh my gosh, I'mnever going to be able to
consume edibles again, because Iwas about six weeks away from
going to Thailand to get totaste my Thailand chocolate bar.
So I'm like, if I get all theway to Thailand I get sick from
this.
I'm just gonna be so unhappy.
So you know, I had been soberfor six weeks and then got to
(23:17):
Thailand and got to try a squareof my chocolate and it was
awesome and I didn't have any,um, any more symptoms.
But I do have to be carefulbecause if I start to get on a
path of, uh, of over consumptionagain, my body tells me almost
right away.
So I'll start to get nausea,I'll start to get the weird pain
in my arm, I'll lose weirdstomach pains, um.
(23:37):
So I do have to be reallycareful.
So I've given up, almostcompletely given up smoking
flour.
My hundreds of milligrams anight is probably maybe once or
twice a week at five to eightmilligrams of THC.
But I'll put back as much CBDas I possibly can.
We keep a bit of isolate aroundthe house, cbd isolate, so I
(24:00):
can.
I literally throw it intosmoothies, coffees, you know
anything.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
So so the.
So, basically, you can stillconsume copious amounts of CBD,
but not THC.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
No, I really have to.
I really have to keep it lowagain, really, really low.
So I'll smoke a couple dabs aday and of hash that I know
where it comes from, of you knowwe've made it and uh, you know
I don't, I can't.
I seem to have a bad reactionto, uh, a lot of the legal flour
(24:33):
that's out there.
You know, I think we, I thinkthat things aren't being tested
properly.
I think that there's a lot of Imight be having reactions to
anything, any of the nutrientsthat are being a lot of.
I might be having reactions toanything, any of the nutrients
that are being used, any of thepreservatives that are being
used, and you know,unfortunately people aren't
being super honest within theOntario legal market as to
what's actually going on intheir flour.
So I have to be-.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
Yeah, and sometimes
the repercussions for some of
these big companies are not.
Don't seem to have a lot ofteeth.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
I think if somebody
has, if somebody say buys a
product and is unhappy with it,they don't take the kind of
right steps you know.
So if somebody say gets a Idon't know, a bad quality flour
or something that's moldy,people don't call Health Canada,
they just call the brand.
And the brand will be like oh,let me send you a free bag of
something, and that usually willsolve the problem or shut the
person up.
But you know it really comesdown to like if something is
wrong with it, if you catch moldon it, then you call health
(25:29):
Canada.
There needs to be a recall, youknow.
Speaker 1 (25:31):
So absolutely, and
you can go on the health Canada
website and see recalls thatthey have.
Oh wow, yeah, I mean thecompany has to be willing to
take down that whole crop ifit's got.
You know and imagine, imaginethe loss right?
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Imagine the cost of
that loss.
So they're going to doeverything because it's profits
over people.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
the odds are they're
they're going to put the profits
first and then and then here weare.
But yeah yeah.
So I really appreciate yousharing that story with me,
because I think it's somethingthat not a lot of people are
willing to talk about, because,like you said, we have this
belief that cannabis can solveall our ills and I think it can
solve a ton of ills, for sure,for a lot of people but you do
(26:14):
have to be maybe mindful of yourconsumption sometimes, because
the products that we're seeingon the market these days are so
different than the ones we saweven 20 years ago or 50, let
alone 50 years ago or whatever.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
so, yeah, and even
what you're consuming and where
you are, uh, makes a difference,you know.
So, like, if my stress levelsare different, you know I could
smoke something and I could havelike a bad anxiety reaction to
it.
So that's just because of mystress level being different and
everyone is different that way,right.
So, like my, you know, my newerrecommendations for people are
definitely you know, definitelystarting with CBD, you know it's
(26:49):
.
You know people are really overconsuming high THC cannabis
products and I think that it'snot helping people in the way
that they think it is.
You know so.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Yeah, yeah, and I
think also you can consume a lot
more CBD than you think you canlike.
To get some of those liketherapeutic benefits, you often
need a lot more CBD than whatyou might get in a legal market
edible.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
No, like consuming
five milligrams of CBD isn't
doing anything for anybody.
So even though, like say, theedible is 10 milligrams of THC,
having that five milligrams justkind of balances the product a
little bit more, but it's notreally doing anything for you,
especially like athletes orwomen or older people Like I
would love to see people eatingat least 100 milligrams of CBD
(27:32):
per day.
Cbd doesn't work because youeat it one time, you know it's
more of a more, um, more of aneffect of like take it every
single day and you're puttinglike a little bit of a barrier
on your brain.
It's helping, you know.
Uh, what do I call it?
Speaker 1 (27:48):
It accumulates in the
body too, right Like it needs
to accumulate a little bitbefore you seize the maximum
benefits, versus taking it onetime.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Exactly, exactly yeah
.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Now, do you have any
advice for people who suspect
they may be dealing with like acannabis hypermesis?
Am I saying that correctly?
Speaker 2 (28:05):
Cannabis hypermesis.
Yeah, you know, unfortunately,the only thing that you can
really do for yourself is take abreak from the products, and
that is really difficult and Ithink we are a little bit more
dependent on these products thanwe kind of want to admit or
believe.
So weaning is important and,you know, cold turkey may not
(28:27):
always be the correct answer towhich is what I tried to do and
I had.
You know, I did not have agreat reaction to it.
You know, my endocannabinoidsystem was just like this is not
.
OK, but yeah, you need to talkto a doctor who knows something
about it and unfortunately, nota lot of Canadian doctors are.
You know Canadian doctors arefamiliar with it but all they
(28:48):
kind of tell you to do is quit.
So there's, you know, I didlike a bit of a kidney detox and
liver detox and all of thosethings for myself and just gave
my.
You know they say green teareally helps and all of those
kind of, uh, bioaccumulator kindof things.
But um, uh, there just needs tobe more research on it and
there just really isn't.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
So I think kind of
spreading the word about it is
is important, but um, yeah, yeah, no, I I agree with you because
, like I said, so many peoplejust want to discount that whole
idea of cannabis being harmfulin any way.
But again, with legalization,we're seeing really potent
products on the market and ifyou're consuming those you know
extensively, then you might becrashing out your
(29:31):
endocannabinoid system.
Because that's all aboutphysical balance, right Like.
The purpose is to balance outall the systems in your body.
And, yeah, if you're leaningtoo heavy one way but nobody
wants to hear that they have totake a tolerance break.
It's always better when youchoose to take a tolerance break
than when you're forced to.
So, yeah, yeah, it wasn't funwasn't fun.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
I was really happy
when I could go back to it and
uh.
But it was also nice to kind ofstart over, because I was
really, uh, not good about kindof forcing myself to do
tolerance breaks over the last10 or 15 years.
Right, you just get socomfortable with where you're at
and you get so comfortable like, sleeping right through the
night.
And you know, as a woman my ageI don't always sleep through
the night.
(30:11):
So you know, I never wanted tokind of take that way, take that
away from myself, and I neverwanted to have to depend on, say
, pills or prescriptions to kindof get through that either.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
So naturally and like
you.
Like you, I do use a lot ofcannabis in the evenings and it
does help sleep as one of thebenefits of it, and when I don't
, I definitely notice thosevivid dreams that I've
definitely not heard for so yeah, like wow.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
What am I doing?
You know the days that I ate aton of edibles and I wake up the
next day and I realize Ihaven't rolled over.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
I'm like am I getting
a good sleep I'm not sure right
yeah, now changing gears just alittle bit.
You're a muay thai athlete andyou embody the image of a
powerful woman, so does thistranslate into business and
what's been your experience as awoman in a pretty male
dominated industry?
Speaker 2 (31:00):
and I that could that
could probably be towards both
the muay thai fighting and thecannabis industry I think, um,
with the kind of generation offighters that I got to grow up
with, in, like in thailand andtoronto, I was usually one of
the only females in the room, um, which I kind of liked, um, and
I wasn't really you.
(31:21):
I was treated a bit differentin Bangkok and some of the gyms
that I trained in, because ofthe, say, superstition that
comes with women.
You know, the original big MuayThai stadiums had signs on the
side of the ring in Thai thatsays women are not allowed to
touch this.
You know.
So there were.
You know women weren't allowedto fight in the big stadiums
(31:44):
just until, I believe, the lasttwo years.
So it's you know, there wereeven rings that I wasn't allowed
to step into, where I had totrain on the floor.
Now, I always got treated verywell.
But I think that, you know, Idon't feel the kind of
stereotype towards myselfbecause I think there's a level
(32:04):
of toughness to me and maybesometimes that might bring a
little bit of fear, but I thinkthat's okay.
But I really haven't dealt withstereotypes in the market
because I feel that I've broughta bit of a specialty to it and
and I think people kind of mayberespect what I've done and and
(32:25):
I appreciate that.
So you know, I don't feel thatI was treated super well within
the legal market legal market inCanada but I feel that the
legal market in Canada is run bypeople, for most part, that
don't actually care about thecommunity that's behind it.
They're very it's very rarethat those people are still left
(32:46):
.
You know, a lot of the legacyproducers got walked out, got IP
stolen from them.
So I'm happy that I still have,even though, like my, my bars
aren't on the Canadian marketanymore.
I think we kind of took themoff at a good time.
But yeah, I think I, yeah, Ithink.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
You haven't had to
deal with it too much, which is
nice to hear.
It's always nice to hear whenyeah, Cause I don't like to hear
the bad stories to be honest.
Although it sounds like yourexperience with the Ontario
legal market was in itself, nota great story, or not a great
experience for yourself.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
No, not a great story
at all.
You know, like the people thatwe dealt with took care of
themselves and their brandsfirst, but they promised us to
do a lot with our brands and soit wasn't just Blessed that came
in, it was blessed and a fewother really cool brands from
the legacy market, and they justkind of took our stuff and, you
(33:43):
know, put out some products butdidn't push it in the way that
they should have, didn'tcommunicate with us the legacy
market people would haveliterally been slapped for it,
but for some reason therobberies that kind of happened
(34:04):
are allowed within the legalmarket, Right?
Speaker 1 (34:07):
which doesn't make a
lot of sense.
It's like that white-collarcrime that just gets looked the
other way whereas if it was anyother kind of crime, the book
would be thrown at them and behauled off to jail.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
And like I think
people just don't check resumes,
which is crazy to me.
So these people can be allowedto take companies, bankrupt
companies, not support thebrands that they promised to,
but then can still move on andtake over other companies and
take on other brands and stillkeep going.
So you know, like if Ibankrupted a company, I hope the
(34:40):
next person wouldn't hire me.
You know they'd look at myresume and be like, oh wow, she
did a terrible job running thatcompany.
So like why are more brandssigning with these people?
But I think that's the thing isthat people don't go like I
never went online and namednames and I never went online
and like said so and so needs aslap.
You know like, uh, even thoughI say it at home a lot, but you
(35:01):
know, um, but I think that's it.
You know like we'll probablyhave to fight in court for years
if we ever get to see anythingfrom it.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
But um right.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
You know it's sad
that we weren't taken care of in
the way that we were promised.
Speaker 1 (35:15):
Yeah, for sure.
Now I also wanted to mentionyou in Thailand how some women
weren't allowed to fight incertain rings until a couple of
years ago, and I'm just curiousthis is a little off topic
perhaps, but are you seeing moreof a resurgence in women's
sport?
Because I feel like in Canadaand maybe in the US there is a
(35:36):
lot more interest in women'ssport now and I think that's
really exciting actually.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
The level of fighters
that I see coming out of
Thailand right now I'm just soexcited for because, you know,
they were like the originalwomen that I got to kind of grow
up around, like the KayleeReese's, you know, and you know
the Julie Kitchens and thosewomen, but they were rare, you
know, there was like a handfulof them.
And now the level of the womenthat are coming out that are
just shredded and super talentedand super aggressive and just
(36:09):
amazing at what they do, so likeI'm really, I'm really excited
for them.
You know, I wish I was 10 yearsyounger again, that I could
still be a part of that, butit's just like they're badass
and it's thai women and it's uh,you know, it's women from all
over the world.
So the uh easiness of travelingto thailand and becoming a part
of a gym and all of that uh isvery different than when I
(36:31):
started going in 2005, when wedidn't even have, like you know,
we barely had a um, like aninternet cafe that we can send
emails from Right.
So, like now, with, like,google translate and, you know,
TikTok advice and stuff, we,like people, are able to get to
Thailand and do it a lot easier.
So, you know, when I went in2005, I was dropped off by a
(36:52):
bunch of people that you knowdid not speak English, and then
I had to find my way back to thegym at six in the morning,
getting chased by dogs, and youknow it, it was just, uh, you
know, it was me, in a room fullof thai boys that didn't speak
english, and we're just like whois this girl, you know?
Like why is she even here?
Speaker 1 (37:08):
canadian girl, yeah
you're in thailand, yeah, so you
are seeing it and I.
It makes sense that you'reseeing it in fighting, because
I'm also seeing it likebasketball and soccer and like
all these areas where women'ssport seems to be growing and
there's a lot of fans who arecoming out to see games and
fights and all that kind ofthing, what's that?
Speaker 2 (37:24):
what's that rugby
player, that, uh, that american
rugby player, and she's justlike she was like iona mayor or
something like that.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
That's her name, yeah
I think it was pretty brilliant
like she's like a girl crush.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
I'm like, why are you
so powerful and cool and like
and I think that's you know likewhen I see like little girls
fighting on, uh, like a TikTokvideo or whatever, like these
little badass, like six-year-oldgirls just like choking boys
out, you know, in MMAtournaments and whatnot, I'm
just like this is just the bestthing for them.
You know, little little girlsgrowing up strong is just like
(37:59):
such an empowering thing to seeand something that I just like
love and would push forever.
Like if I had a little girl,she would be in jujitsu so quick
.
Like that kind of strength andempowerment, that kind of.
You know, I think that's whereyou get a lot of your confidence
from, like walking down thestreet and sometimes I'm like I
could beat that person up and Icould beat that person up, you
know so like it gives you likethis non fear of just walking
(38:21):
around and I think there is somuch fear in our society right
now.
I think like having thatstrength, you know, knowing that
you could lift yourself up overa wall if you needed to, you
know like it's.
You know like I think there'stoo much badness in the world
right now to not be kind ofprotected in that way.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
Yeah, exactly, which
brings me back to edibles and
beyond recovery, are there anyother benefits you believe
edibles offer people who usethem, and how do you usually
educate your audience about?
Speaker 2 (38:47):
them.
I think it's kind of, you know,like the conversations that
we're not allowed to have inOntario for marketing purposes
or whatever.
I could have never said CBDwill help you, or eat this and
your body's going to feel better, but in Thailand we can, you
know, and that.
So that's exciting.
So you know, I think that, yeah, people just need to have the
(39:09):
conversations about why theywould want to medicate, and I
think that's where it comes from.
Like, are you medicating forpain?
Are you medicating because youneed to sleep?
Are you medicating just to, youknow, ignore your husband for a
few hours, like what's?
You know what's?
Why are you here?
And I think that's, I thinkthat's a really important place
to start.
You know, like, I startedmedicating because I had severe
body pain and didn't want totake pills and I was having
(39:33):
severe anxiety and didn't reallyknow what to do with myself.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
So, you know, I think
everyone's question could be
different or should be different, and yeah, I think it sounds
like that just goes back to theintention of why you're
consuming, so you can consumemindfully and that's not to say
that you can't still consume.
You know large amounts ifthat's what you're into, but
just doing it with a knowledgeof why you're doing it.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Absolutely,
absolutely.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Yeah, I don't think
people talk about that enough,
or they should be talking aboutit more, but that is important.
Now I am curious because you'vementioned you spent so much
time in thailand, which I thinkis wonderful, and you are so
smart to get away from thosecanadian, shitty canadian
winters.
Wow, a little envious over here.
I mean, it's a beautiful daytoday, but canadian winters are,
(40:19):
notoriously.
What are some of the keydifferences you've observed in
cannabis culture and consumptionpractices between Canada and
Thailand?
Speaker 2 (40:29):
um, canada, thailand,
just kind of opened it up in a
whole way that I'm not going tosay is better or not, but they
started right away with yourconsumption spaces.
You know, like I, uh, mychocolate bars are in Medman in
Thailand and like what a spacelike number one looks like a mac
store.
Uh, number two had anincredible flower selection,
(40:51):
edible selection, incrediblyeducated staff.
But when you walked in and yousay bought a gram, they give you
a rolling tray with a grinder,with papers and you can.
There are a bunch of differentseating areas.
There was a safe room that hadvideo games and couches.
You know you had two differentpatio rooms and they wanted you
(41:13):
to stay, but they were alsoserving alcohol.
So like in the, in the fridgewas like beers and edibles and
you know, and drinks and whatnot.
So it was like I don't, youknow, especially in such a
tourist kind of place, I'm notsure if that's the safest thing,
because you've got tourists whomay or may not be comfortable
(41:33):
with cannabis, who are nowputting it with alcohol and then
possibly getting on a scooterto get themselves back to their
hotel, right, so it's, you know,I really appreciate the
openness of what I saw.
You know it was anything frompeople on street corners with
card tables and weed and glassjars, and I think that's like
(41:57):
one of my favorite things fromthe legacy days in Ontario was
the fact that you could go intoa shop.
You can see the flower.
You know, like I'm not going tobuy a, you know, I guess if I
was buying online, maybe, butlike if I was going to buy a
sweater, I'd like to see it, I'dlike to touch it, I'd like to
look at it, you know, but notbeing able to see the cannabis,
not being able to smell thecannabis like my body tells me
(42:17):
right away when I smell weed ifI want it or not.
You know, like it's an absolutelike yes or no for me.
So you know, I love theThailand places that allow for
that.
Now there's some really greatthings going on.
Like my friend, brian Lunt,owns a place called the Beach
Samoy, which is the firstlicensed cannabis hotel, and
(42:40):
they are super, super intowellness and they have a
naturopathic doctor that willtalk about what you want.
They have a lot of really heavyCBD products in there and you
have the option of having mychocolate bar on your pillow at
the hotel and that was just like.
But I think that's how itshould be and you know there is
(43:01):
that discussion of like is thisproduct suited for you and how
is it going to make you feel?
And you know, so they are ableto have.
You know they're doing likebreath and bud workshops where
you can do breathing and it's,you know, you can consume and
they offer you whatever you wantto.
You know, and I just you know, Ithink that's a really beautiful
thing and ontario is kind oflike uh, lacking that you know.
(43:24):
So it's, um, you know, I, youknow I it's sad that we can't
really talk about the benefitsof what cannabis does for you in
Ontario and it just puts us ina weird kind of place.
So, like, I don't know, you canstill have alcohol
advertisements, right, and youcan see people drinking and
smoking whatever.
So it's it's terrible thatcannabis can't have the same
(43:49):
affiliation, you know.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Yeah, and also the
fact that we're six years, at
this point into legalization, westill don't have any like
consumption lounges, I think iskind of a missed opportunity,
because I'm sure a lot of peoplewho come to visit places like
Toronto or any other big city inCanada would love to be able to
come and sit down and just buyenough weed to roll a joint and
enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Right.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
That's still not a
thing.
I mean, they just legislated tobe able to take the paper out
of the windows or whatever, soyou could see into the store
like that took us six years.
Speaker 2 (44:21):
I'm like that's so
sad.
I'm like so you can bring yourkid into the lcbo, buy as much
booze as you could possibly everput in a trolley that doesn't
have a single warning label onit.
Like tell me how a bottle of151 proof doesn't have a warning
label on it.
Like the level of sickness thatI would get from drinking that.
But then, like, a pre-roll haslike you know, if you consume
(44:43):
this, all bad things are gonnahappen.
You know, I'm like, yeah, butdon't worry about the vodka, you
know, or whatever.
So, um, but you know, like Iloved, I loved Thailand because,
like, when I got to the beachSamoy, you know, the staff
brought me a bong to my room.
I'm just like, where am I rightnow?
This is amazing, you know soand I love that.
(45:06):
Like any of the consumptionspaces that you're in and you
could either rent a bong, youknow they would clean it, they'd
bring it over.
Like it's just just, you knowhow was that not awesome?
Speaker 1 (45:14):
and it was awesome
and you know, it almost sounds
like it's a little more, eventhough legalization has been
newer for them and it's gonethrough some fits and starts,
yeah, that they're more quicklynormalizing it a little bit so
that it's not like this backalley thing you can go to a nice
hotel and have them bring abong to your room or right cbd
(45:34):
chocolates on your pillow.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
I mean, that sounds
amazing right and like how is
that, I don't know.
Like most, most people will goto thailand and get absolutely
like hammered drunk when theyget there and like that seems to
be way more dangerous than abunch of people, say, sitting in
their hotel room and maybeeating a five or ten milligram
chocolate right.
Speaker 1 (45:50):
So and yet, if I was
to go to a hotel in Toronto and
ask for a bong, they wouldprobably look at me like I had
three heads.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
Like you're not
smoking on our property.
Yeah, Like yeah.
Yeah, let alone even getting apatio on your hotel room, right?
Speaker 1 (46:02):
So yeah, Well, the
last time I stayed at a hotel in
Toronto was a while ago, but Idid make sure to get a hotel
that had a patio A little bit.
Speaker 2 (46:09):
Yeah, it has to be
done All the way outside has to
be done.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
Yeah, Now I've also
learned that you're a hash maker
.
What brought you to hash in thefirst place?
Speaker 2 (46:19):
Well, it was kind of
crazy.
That was because of my partnerJoe.
My partner Joe has been a long,long time hash maker and we got
together like three or fouryears ago now and he was just
like such a breath of fresh airin my life and he's always been
pushing for brands.
He was.
He helped a lot with the hashcorporation in the beginning.
(46:40):
He's designed a lot of productson the market.
He helped bring Fritz's hashrosin edibles to a legal market.
He's done a lot, designed a lotof the hash snake, uh,
pre-rolls, uh, say for BennyBlunto and whatnot.
So, uh, when him and I gottogether, um, what I always say
(47:00):
is that he put his hash in mychocolate and we just kind of
were inseparable ever since.
So, um, me taking my chocolatebar from being a distillate and
isolate based bar into a fullspectrum hash edible was, I
found, life changing for me.
I find that the buzz of hash ismuch more medicinal as opposed
(47:27):
to yeah, I always kind of saythat like a distillate buzz is
much more of a punch in the facewith THC, where a hash buzz is
much more of like a gentle hugon the couch.
And I think you know if youever experienced hash when you
were in high school or whatnot,you remember how kind of chill
that was and I think that's kindof how people want to feel off
(47:50):
cannabis products.
But we've kind of were.
Just you know, I think startingwith distillate in the legal
market was a real mistake for usand I think that it is kind of
slowly backtracking now andpeople are kind of figuring out
the benefits of how hash makesyou actually feel.
Now he and I Joe and I startedmaking making hash together.
(48:12):
He works as a quality.
He does QA work for thecannabis industry.
He does a lot of regulatorywork.
That way I took over the labfor us.
We were just making a lot ofcraft cannabis for friends of
ours.
I like to mostly work withfresh frozen material.
It's become a real learningcurve for me.
(48:35):
I was always in the kitchen andwhatnot with my edibles making,
but now I spend most of my dayin the lab and producing bubble
hash and that's been really funfor me and kind of cool,
exciting work.
So it's been really nice to seeto take flour from people that
I really trust, where thequality is beautiful, where they
(48:57):
freeze it in the proper way forme and then I can make it into
anything.
So it's it's nice to be able tohave products at home that I
can trust and consume and feelreally good about.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
So and I think you
are on into onto something,
because I'm starting to see alittle bit more of full spectrum
products in the drinks andedible space.
Yeah, because I think you knowthe companies are starting to
realize that distillate, likeyou said, it is like a punch in
the face.
It hurts for a bit and then itgoes away and then the full
spectrum is very gentle and itlasts, lasts longer and it's
(49:34):
just an overall betterexperience.
Speaker 2 (49:36):
And.
Speaker 1 (49:37):
I think people are
now starting to get smart enough
, like the consumers, thatthat's what they're going to
gravitate.
That's what I gravitate towardsanyway.
Like, if I have a choicebetween distillate and a full
spectrum, it's full spectrum,100%, and people are getting
really creative with that in themarket.
So I'm really happy to hearthat you've gotten into that.
And I didn't smoke a ton ofbottle tokes in high school.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
So I can't believe
how I smoked cash in high school
.
I came.
I'm lucky to be alive, really.
But you know, yeah, the bottletoke days are.
That's insane.
But yeah like on a cigaretteand whatnot.
I'm just like wow.
But smoked then too yeah, metoo, me too yeah, um, and do you
see?
Speaker 1 (50:20):
I guess the next
question I was going to ask is
if there's any commonmisconceptions about edibles and
hash that you'd like to clarifyto the um.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
Joe and I always have
a kind of funny conversation
about it because, like when yousee any of the hash rosin online
, um, I think people really kindof celebrate, um, a whiter hash
as being better and I thinkthat is really based in some
racist bullshit.
Um, you know, I don't believethat a whiter hash is a better
hash.
I believe that a whiter hash,uh, could possibly be slightly
(50:51):
cleaner, but you're alsoremoving a lot of the plant
material from it and you'reremoving a lot of the kind of
goodness from it.
So I think the stereotype ofwhite hash being a better hash
is not necessarily the correctanswer.
I believe, as much of thegoodness you can leave in it, it
makes it kind of more of abroad spectrum kind of energy,
and I I like that.
I don't think you need to stripit down and strip it down and
(51:11):
strip it down, but I do believethat people will kind of catch
on a lot more to eating hashproducts and definitely seeing
the benefits of what's going onthere.
Speaker 1 (51:24):
Right, so you see
people eating it more even.
Speaker 2 (51:27):
Well, I know I do
right, like I think you know, I
think when you give somebody thedifference of say, if you take,
so she is making hash raws andgummies now and I love him and
he's a, he's an incredible,incredible person in the legal
market and very deserving ofwhat he's doing.
But I think if you take hisgummies or one of the Fritz hash
(51:50):
raws and gummies and compare itto just a distillate gummy,
there is just such a massivedifference and people weren't
educated on it in the beginning.
But I think people are kind ofseeing the light with it right
now and seeing the massivedifference in quality and how it
makes you feel.
And I think strain specificeven better.
We tried some products lastnight.
(52:11):
I usually don't consume, uh,legal edibles very often, but
there's a brand called ollie outthere and they were doing some
really cool things with otherminor cannabinoids.
You know they were doing cbc,they're doing cbg, they were
doing thcv and all of that isvery medicinal benefits and so
they're still putting in the 10milligrams of THC.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
but putting in all of
those other minor cannabinoids
is just a whole other new stepin showing people the benefits
and actually how you can make itquite a bit stronger, as
opposed to just the 10milligrams of THC more home
(52:55):
edible makers incorporatingconcentrates into their edibles
more for a few different reasons, one being that they can, if
they know the potency of theplant material they're working
with, they can use a lot less ofthat to like infuse, and then
they can better predict thepotency to or calculate the
potency absolutely like if youbuy a gram of bubble hash or you
buy a gram of rosin off of theocs website, it'll tell you
(53:16):
exactly what the percentage is.
Speaker 2 (53:18):
You know you're
melting that down and you're
decarbing it, melting it downinto a butter or an oil or
something, and you can literallythrow that into anything and
you're going to knowapproximately.
You know once you divvy outyour portions uh, which one, you
know what each square is goingfor or whatever.
If you're making brownies orcookies or whatever, it's an
easy divide.
But when you're just doing itfrom flour, uh, especially if
(53:39):
it's untested, especially if youdon't know if you decarbonate
for the right amount of time or,uh, butter loss or whatever,
you're not sure.
And like that's like the firstbunch of edibles I made.
You know, we were reallyguessing in the beginning, right
, and then we figured it out,especially as we moved more to a
distillate product and whatnot.
But you know, I'm sure thefirst three or four batches were
(54:02):
completely wrong.
You know, they were probably 25milligrams as opposed to 250
milligrams.
I was just putting the zero orthe decimal in the wrong place,
right.
But um, you know, I think youknow when we had spoken about
recipes.
It's just, it is easy to justmake stuff at home now, and you
can do it with a legal oil, oryou could do it with like a gram
of hash or whatever, or youcould even take any of the
(54:24):
edibles that are on the market,say a chocolate, melt it down.
Uh, you know, there's all sortsof really cool products that
you can work with just to beable to medicate yourself at
home.
Speaker 1 (54:36):
Yeah yeah, the
options are are vast, and it's
kind of an exciting time to bein this, in this space, just
because there are so many moreoptions, though I do know a lot
of growers that will forever usetheir own flower and aren't
necessarily testing it.
But you can sort of figure itout, but you're always kind of
guessing a little bit.
Speaker 2 (54:50):
Absolutely,
absolutely.
You know it'd be really.
I think it'd be hard to do thatin the, in the legal market
especially, cause, like, everybatch is going to be a little
bit different too, right?
Speaker 1 (54:57):
So yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (54:59):
Yeah, that's really
cool that you're into into hash
making, cause I something I wantto try myself, but it's just
it's really hard, cold, wet,dirty work, um, and extremely
heavy and hard on the backbecause I am literally lifting
buckets filled with water.
So I felt that you know, mytraining as a Muay Thai fighter
(55:20):
really kind of set me up forthis.
You know I have funny backmuscles now from lifting buckets
as opposed to face punching,but it's, you know, it's been a
really cool experience and thereare so very few women that do
it.
You know I know of maybe fivein North America, five to 10 in
North America.
You know there's Cherry BellBlossom and you know we've got
(55:43):
Caitlin out in Kelowna and it'sjust, you know there's very few
of us.
You know Mila the Hashmakerlike super classic, amazing
women like that, and I thinkthat hash making has been a real
bro world for a long time and Ifeel a super deep connection to
it.
I'm like this plant is female.
Tell me we're not supposed tobe doing this Right.
(56:05):
So I, you know it's.
It's been very empowering andanytime you want to come to the
lab you're more than welcome andI super encourage it.
You know I can have you, haveyou fill in bags or whatnot, but
it's, you know, it's cool and Ilike being down there and I can
kind of live my life down thereand play my music and do all
(56:28):
the things and smoke weed if Iwant to, and it's you know it's
cool.
So the next kind of journey forthat is that I'm going to be
setting up a hopefully settingup a hash lab in Thailand and
working with some of thecompanies out there, which will
be interesting.
But I think my kind of opinionon hash making is that, you know
(56:49):
, especially like the Ontariomarket again ruining things, but
you know they tried to make itinto like a nine to five, monday
to Friday, sort of thing, whereto me hash making is very
seasonal and weather dependent.
And you know, like in likeMorocco or Afghanistan, you know
they're not making hash fulltime.
You know they were doing itwhen it was time to do it and I
(57:10):
think that's kind of animportant thing that we need to
think about.
Like, I will be shutting downfor a little bit soon because
you know it's definitely the endof season and you know we're
not expecting more plantmaterial until, you know,
september, october again, and italso is really hot and you have
to have a very, very cold roomto do it.
You have to keep it at acertain temperature or else
(57:31):
you're going to ruin it.
So it's, it's, it's cool, likeI, I love it, and it's super
empowering, especially to makemy own input, for for my friends
, for myself, you know.
So it's yeah.
Speaker 1 (57:45):
Yeah, that's amazing
and I it's always nice to know
where your, where your finalproduct is coming from.
Like, I do like to get flourfrom friends or things like that
, and it's always nice to knowbecause I know exactly how they
grew it.
I've seen their stuff like thatit's.
It is really nice to be able tohave access to that.
Now you'll just mention itbriefly, but you said you're
going to potentially set up ahash lab in Thailand, which
(58:06):
brings me to my next question,which is if you have any new
initiatives or projects withblessed edibles coming up.
Sounds like that might be a bigone that's gonna that's gonna
be a big one.
Speaker 2 (58:18):
And then we're
working on a couple of uh new
products for uh, for thailand aswell, just to kind of continue
on with the blessed line.
Um, my products in thailand aredoing pretty well, so we'd like
like to probably launch a newchocolate bar with just some
different input.
I don't think that THC and CBDis the end all be all for
(58:40):
wellness and recovery.
I think you need to, you know,start with the food that you're
eating and the water that you'reconsuming and the social media
that you're consuming, and youknow, really figuring those
things out.
Now, I'm not going to suggestthat people who haven't smoked
hash before just go to get ahash infused pre-roll and, you
know, give it a go, but you know, smaller amounts of it.
(59:03):
Or starting with, say, a gummythat had small amounts of hash
in it, just to give yourself abit of a taste of kind of what's
going on is really important,and being in a safe place and
environment while you consume isimportant.
I'm not going to suggest thatyou eat a hash gummy and head to
a Muay Thai class where you'venever been before.
(59:23):
You know, I think that could bea little dangerous or or fun, I
don't know.
But yeah, you know, I thinkthat a safe place to consumption
is always important, andconsuming around people that are
knowledgeable about the productas well.
Now, I always try to leave myDMs open for anyone that has
questions about those sort ofthings, because I think that
(59:44):
sharing that information is youknow.
There's no point of gatekeepingthat kind of info, right?
So yeah, you want to make surethat people have the best
experience they can possiblyhave, so they'll try it again,
because it's wonderful most ofthe time, you know if you could
go home and have a vodka sodaand feel okay, right, but if you
go home and drink a you knowMickey, vodka and whatever,
(01:00:08):
you're probably not going tofeel that great.
You know, I feel like there'smedicinal benefits and
everything Like I'm not a I'mnot a pro alcohol person at all,
but I think that, you know,small amounts of things can be
really good and beneficial.
But I think, like CBD with amagnesium float and you know
some meditation and you know ahealthy, good meal with all the
(01:00:28):
right fats in it can reallybenefit as well.
Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
So yeah, that sounds
amazing.
That's great advice.
Now final question what wouldsurprise people about you?
Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
That's a great
question, probably that I'm
really super soft.
I think I'm pretty pretty softkid, but things that surprise.
Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
I mean, that's a
great answer right there,
because you said earlier thatyou're pretty tough, which I
believe, but then you'resuggesting you have the softer
side.
That perhaps doesn't.
Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
I think all the
toughest fighters are really
soft humans and I think thatit's because we've had to train
so hard and be so vicious andall of that that I think having
those kind of skills, hopefully,will make you a humbler human
and, uh, maybe a little bitsofter, and I I think that's
really important.
Um, you know, I, uh, I haven'tbeen training a whole lot
(01:01:26):
because of financial stressesand we moved to Hamilton and all
of those things.
So, um, getting back, gettingback into that is has been a bit
of a hard chore and I thinkthat surprises people that I'm
not training as much anymore.
But you know, I'm a little bitolder and I think me finding
that softness to myself and notfeeling it to be a necessity to
(01:01:49):
go train twice a day has beenreally healthy for my cortisol
levels.
So, even though I probably feela little bit lazy, lazier than
I used to, I think it'simportant for me to learn, learn
the slow as well.
I think that's really importantfor a lot of people.
I think society has reallypushed us to go as hard and fast
(01:02:10):
and nonstop and I'm so busy andlike why are you so busy?
You know, I don't think that'sthat.
Go, go, go is not like, it'snot healthy, and that's how I
pushed myself from 30 to 40.
You know, in the gym twice aday, plus baking cookies, plus
delivering edibles, plus workingat a salon, like it was.
I was just wowed, right, myphone going off all the time.
(01:02:32):
Now my phone doesn't go off,you know.
So I'm just like, oh, we'regoing to go walk the dog.
Speaker 1 (01:02:43):
OK, I'm going to be
outside.
Ok, yeah, but yeah, that hustleculture is pretty, pretty
prevalent in North America, forsure, and finding ways to slow
down, I think, is wise, becausewe all needed that a little bit.
Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
But I just want to
thank you so much, or did you
have one last thing to add?
Well, I just wanted to say Ithink the kind of cool thing for
me is that I've just started,uh, teaching an all women's Muay
Thai class at a place calledsoy dogs MMA which is in
Hamilton, and uh, being able toprogram uh, uh, all women's
class has been really beneficialto me because, uh, the way that
I was taught uh, to go harder,go faster, do burpees, you know,
know, just grind, grind, grind,you know, like, being able to
(01:03:17):
kind of program a class that hasto do a lot with getting your
heart rate up and then a lot ofmobility, but then teaching
women like how to fight, is hasbeen super empowering and I
think I think that's really cool.
So that I can, you know I canbring back, you know I can still
talking about like wellness andcannabis afterwards after class
(01:03:38):
.
But you know I've also starteddoing time massage.
So being able to use, like hashrosin creams on my like doing
infused time massages on peoplefor recovery has been has been a
really cool kind of next stepin my wellness kind of chapters
too.
Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
Right, that sounds
amazing.
Well, angelina, thank you somuch for being with me today and
sharing your story with thelisteners of Bite Me, and I wish
you all the best in all yourupcoming adventures.
Speaker 2 (01:04:06):
Thank you so much for
having me.
I really appreciate being here.
Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
Wow, angelina is one
amazing woman.
I hope you enjoyed thatconversation as much as I did.
You can find where to connectwith Angelina in the show notes.
If you enjoyed this episode,share it with somebody that you
think will enjoy it too, andwe'll continue the conversation
over the Bite Me Cannabis Club,and you can stay up to date with
all things Bite Me by signingup for the newsletter over on
(01:04:31):
the website.
Until next week, my friends, Iam your host, margaret.
Stay high.