The Canadian Medical Cannabis Program has been available for more than two decades, yet the process of obtaining cannabis as medicine remains very cumbersome. In comparison, Recreational Cannabis, seen as a substance of misuse, is easy to acquire. When people express an interest in trying cannabis as a medicine to their health care team, many health practitioners simply direct their patients toward the Rec market knowing (or maybe not) the restrictions the Cannabis Act places on budtenders. Budtenders cannot discuss health conditions with customers. While many health professionals continue to ignore the highly regulated medicinal cannabis system, a group of entrepreneurs calling themselves Cannabis Coaches, are filling the need. In this episode we learn how certified Cannabis Coach Terese Bowors started a small business educating people about medicinal cannabis. We come to understand how a group of non-regulated health educators are developing their own Standards of Practice.
E136 - The Cannabis Coach: An unregulated health educator
Research Links
Music By
prophetDesiree Dorion
Marc Clement
(Yes we have a SOCAN membership to use these songs all legal and proper like)
Episode Transcript
Trevor: Kirk, we're back.
Kirk: How are you doing?
Trevor: I'm doing well. We have a puppy. A puppy named Rosie.
Kirk: Please enlighten me about your puppy.
Trevor: At the moment, she's more entertaining than Eric. But, you know, I'm sure. I'm sure Eric will do something entertaining shortly. So we have been trying to train the puppy, and she's actually pretty good. We're mostly house trained, but trying to find a good way for her to tell us, Hey, please take me outside. I've got to go pee. So, you know, a couple dogs ago, Mali, she was good at telling us, but she was literally scratched holes in the door. So effective. But, you know, we'd rather not have holes in the door. And our last dog, Sheldon, he was really good, he would just come up and bark at you. And actually, he was really good at just barking at my side of the bed quietly. So he'd just wake me up and say, I got to go outside. So I don't know how Doris trained him to do that, but, you know, that worked well. Rosie just sort of gets a little frantic with the playing and you go, okay, you've got to go outside. But we're so Doris is trying and relatively successfully, we've got a little bell that Rosie can hit on the ground to to tell her to go outside. And it's going okay. 50, 60% of time. She'll hit the bell. But she has also decided that there is another use for the bell, and that is when my toys are trapped. It's an emergency. So in Rosie's world, the air vents, the grates are evil for some reason. So if a ball rolls on an air vent, she can't possibly retrieve it now and needs someone to help her. So if that happens, she rings the bell and a ball got stuck in one of Doris's shoes. So, you know, ball is trapped. So last night, I don't I can't remember where the ball was trapped, but she literally grabbed the bell, picked it up, brought it, threw it at my feet and started banging on it. Not she had to go outside, but because her toy was trapped somewhere. So on the training thing, I don't know who's trading who, but it's it's a process.
Kirk: Your train your dog to ring a customer service bell.
Trevor: Yes.
Kirk: So you can get. That's very cool. Yeah. Our dog just basically puts his cold nose on you and says outside, now, you know, our dog actually speaks the words outside now.
Trevor: Well of course he does.
Kirk: With a cold nose. Yeah, yeah. And if we forget, you know, before we go to bed to let him outside, he will let us know at two in the morning. Yeah. And so we he's training us to let him go. Anyways, we're back, we're discussing a cannabis coach.
Trevor: We're discussing training and coaching and that kind of thing.
Kirk: Is that the Segway? Well done.
Trevor: Well, it wasn't before, but it is now.
Kirk: It is now. Okay
Trevor: So who do you who do you have for us this time, Kirk? A lady from BC, I here.
Kirk: Yeah. Yeah. Terese Bowors. As you know, we've been looking at Reefer Medness - The Podcast. And you know, we both have educate ourselves in cannabis as medical professionals. But because of our registration, we belong to a regulated profession, each of us. Regulated profession means that we have a college and a set of laws that we must follow as health professionals. Cannabis coaching is a non-regulated profession, and I met Terese through some connections I made out on the West Coast when I was doing the recreational Road Trips and visiting rec shops and camping out, meeting people. I met a lady from the Kootenays who introduced me to Terese, who introduced me to people at the Unicorn Festival. Long story short, start talking to her, interviewing her. Cannabis coach. Yeah. So what did you think of what would you like to bring forward before we listen to her?
Trevor: I really liked her thing. First part wasn't that surprising. She was a medical user and interesting the history she talked about that and then maybe more surprising then suddenly we've got kids involved and some kids with medical issues. And then from there, you know, I guess it sort of, we've heard this story before in a good way, you know, I needed cannabis in my life, now I want to help other people with it. So we've sort of, whether there be doctors, nurses, whoever, we've, this has come up again and again. So it's not surprising, but good that the cannabis has sort of created another advocate.
Kirk: Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's sort of, you know, and 130 odd episodes we've had, how many times have we heard people tell us that cannabis pretty much brought them in kicking and screaming to learn more about it, because for whatever reason, it was working in their world. And Terse, you know, B.C. right. Kootenays. And we talk about this in the discussion. In the late 90s, in the 90s and maybe even the 80s. The Kootenays was known for some of the best cannabis grown in the world. They won lots of cups, cannabis cups, lots of contests. A B.C. bud and we talk about BC bud, we usually are talking about the Kootenays. Relatively speaking, though, cannabis has grown throughout the B.C. diaspora. But what I find interesting is talking to her about cannabis before legalization and how cannabis was so easily accessible. Medical cannabis was easily accessible in those days because there were stores, you know, for medical cannabis. And it wasn't until the Cannabis Act that cannabis ironically became less accessible to people who want to use it as medicine. So as you and I have discovered in the last seven years of the Cannabis Act being legal, that many, many people and I believe 100% of the people that use cannabis are using it for medicinal purposes, are getting their medical cannabis from rec stores. And because the medical profession is ignoring it. Ah, is ignoring is that the word? How Western medicine is still waiting for the double-blind placebo studies to prove the things that we are discovering about cannabis. Right. Until we get that western medicine is just going to allow people to use it and don't bother me, you know. So but she's saying, but hey, people need to be bothered. People need to learn about this. People need to understand cannabis. And there is a niche market for that. And there she is, right. Developing a business four years on, on how to help people understand cannabis.
Trevor: Yeah, no, I think that's a great place to lead in. You know, listen, to hear who her niche is. It might surprise you. You know, who decides they need a cannabis coach. But listen for that. And when we come out, there'll be a quiz. What was she teaching parents, 25 years ago, before she started getting to Cannabis? She's been doing miscellaneous education things for a long time. Like she said, she doesn't have a formal education degree, but she's been involved in educating.
Kirk: Listen for that.
Trevor: The quiz is what was she was she teaching people before cannabis? And with that, let's let's go listen to Terry's.
Terese Bowors: I'm Terese Bowors. I'm a cannabis wellness coach and I have been coaching since 2020, so I'm just over four years or yeah, just about four years I guess.
Kirk: So essentially what is a cannabis coach?
Terese Bowors: So a cannabis coach, so the whole concept of coaching kind of came along when, well, I found the program in the US. Out of Boulder, Colorado. And so I don't know what it was like there as far as cannabis education, but for here in Canada, when legalization came in 2018, the Government, Health Canada was like, Here you go, here's your weed and we're not going to tell you how to use it. And we're also not going to educate your doctors in order to help you get a prescription and guide you in in how to use cannabis. So that's where this opening came for educators and coaches like myself to begin to educate people on how to safely consume cannabis. Specifically for medical and therapeutic purposes. And so that's what I do. I work a lot with seniors. Originally, I started working with women in menopausal age, and that was really neat to be able to see how cannabis could support menopause. And then I started to notice this trend of seniors. So seniors are the largest growing population of people that are coming to cannabis, and they're kind of scared and nervous and not really sure what to do. And then they go talk to their doctors and then they get a lot of negative feedback. And and so I work a lot in groups, so elder colleges and continuing education for seniors where they can come and learn some of these basics. Change the stigma, bring the science out and really help them to utilize cannabis versus their pharmaceuticals.
Kirk: Okay. And this all came about around 2018. So ironically, when recreational cannabis was legalized, you started seeing a need for medicinal cannabis education.
Terese Bowors: That's right. That's right. Yeah, because we've had medical cannabis in in Canada for a long for years before that. But it wasn't mainstream, right? Like you had to kind of dig to, to find out, I could get a medical cannabis prescription. And then actually doctors were more willing to fill out a prescription because basically back then it just said, I agree that cannabis could be helpful for this condition. And so that's what my prescription looks like years ago. It was to help with sleep. And they wouldn't put, you know, like they wouldn't put my diagnosis on the prescription. They would just say, Terese suffers from insomnia. Is there. Terese finds cannabis helpful for insomnia. And then I would take that to the to the medical dispensary and then get my cannabis. But that all changed. And then doctors were like, actually, I don't want to give you a specific one, two, three gram dose per day. I don't want to I don't want to step foot in this. You got to figure it out somewhere else. Don't talk to me about it. And a lot of people I was hearing their doctors saying, if you want to go this route, then don't come back to me because I'm not going to support you on it.
Kirk: So. So that's a good place. Let's dig a little deeper. So you are in British Columbia.
Terese Bowors: That's right.
Kirk: You are in the Kootenay area.
Terese Bowors: That's right. West Kootenays.
Kirk: Let's go. So some of the best known cannabis growing area back in the 80s, 90s and aughts. Yes. Yeah. So if I heard you correctly back before 2018 as a medical cannabis consumer, you were a medical cannabis consumer, it was easier for you to get medical cannabis in those days.
Terese Bowors: Yes.
Kirk: Now now explain that to me, because I'm inferring that you would go to a brick and mortar store that may not have been legal at the time, but of course, we are talking about B.C..
Terese Bowors: Yes.
Kirk: So so if you don't mind, go back a little bit for me about what it was like for you as a medical cannabis user back before 2018.
Terese Bowors: So we had medical cannabis dispensaries and they were legal. So we had them here in the Kootenays and there in Vancouver. There were there were numerous places around, but in order to shop there, you had to have a prescription. And so they were all legal products from the previous system of Health Canada system, but not anybody off the street could go in to purchase. And so when legalization came, they changed those medical dispensaries into retail stores. And so anybody over 19 could go and shop there, but they removed the whole medical aspect. So you couldn't ask questions about medical cannabis. You couldn't the budtenders were not permitted to talk about cannabis in a medical way. They couldn't support they couldn't support patients. And so patients now were moved to an online process. And so you had to get a prescription, a new prescription and find a doctor who would give one to you, which was rare. And so when we moved to online clinics with doctors and nurse practitioners online, who would give you the prescription online. And then you take that prescription to your medical LP or licensed producer. And so all the medical LP's, licensed producers are all online. And those are the those are the medical stores are all online. So can you imagine a senior trying to navigate. I have to go what to what website, get my prescription and then I have to figure out over 300 plus different LPs across Canada. I have to figure out which one is going to work for me and which products they carry is going to work for me. And then I have to place an order and give them my credit card. It's not an accessible avenue anymore as opposed to just way back when we just walked into the store, showed our prescription and got our medical cannabis.
Kirk: You know, I truly want to dig deeper into this and we'll get to your coaching in a minute. But, you know, what you just described is very cultural and very Canadian. I spent time in Vancouver during the eclipse. Now, when was that? That was 2008 or 2009. That eclipse? Remember, there is a solar eclipse. So this is pre this is pretty 2000 pre 2018. And Vancouver was littered, littered with medical cannabis dispensaries. But you know, as a Manitoban, we recognized that that wasn't necessarily federally legal spots because in Manitoba we had nowhere to get medical cannabis unless you bought it online. So so it's interesting for you to it's interesting for you to say that because what you did was so normal for you in British Columbia to go to a medical dispensary before legalization of the Cannabis Act. That didn't happen in many places outside of Toronto, B.C. and I say B.C. because I think it was all throughout B.C., whereas, you know, we had people in Manitoba that like, literally lost their livelihood because they were trying to grow medicinal cannabis without a license. So interesting. So there you are, 2018, The Cannabis Act has come in. We've been taught as nurses to treat cannabis as an abused substance, right? We haven't been trained as nurses to treat cannabis as medicine. I mean, I've said this many, many times. So there you are going, Holy crow nobody's out there helping people. So you picked up the slack. So Terese. Who were you? What did you do before 2018? Before you became a cannabis coach? Take me down the track of how you got there.
Terese Bowors: Yes. So I was a mom, a caregiver. I have two children. They're adults now. But at that time, two children who had severe chronic illnesses. And then I had my own chronic illness as well. So I was navigating health and wellbeing for my family. We were traveling around the world trying to find remedies for each of us and trying to find a way to navigate a healthy life. And so that's kind of when cannabis came to me in 2010 was when cannabis came knocking on my door and being like, Hey, why don't you try cannabis? And that changed the trajectory of my health and wellness for sure, and then for my kids. So my daughter, she was diagnosed with type one diabetes when she was nine. And so I didn't use cannabis for her, but I used it for me because I was up all night with her not able to sleep. And I used cannabis to help me pulse when I need to be up and when I need to be to be sleeping. So it helped moderate my sleep and my mood and my pain that I was going through. So in that situation, cannabis was helpful for me. And then my son contracted Lyme disease when he was 14.
Kirk: Shucks.
Terese Bowors: And it was very severe. Incredible amount of pain in his brain. Severe fatigue, loss of appetite and low mood. And just he basically slept for four years. Five years. And at that time, I didn't have my cannabis consumption public. I was very, very private about it. And I was listening to a podcast about cannabis, didn't think the kids were around, but he was he was listening and he was 16 at that time and he heard about medical cannabis and what I was learning, and he was like, Mom would cannabis work for me? And I was like, I don't know. So we went down that path of a pediatric medical cannabis prescription, and we got one. We found a pediatrician in Vancouver who was more than willing to support us in our medical cannabis journey. But it didn't come with any education. Again, she was like, Well, I can write the script and I can get you connected with the LP, but I don't really know what to do next. And so that's where my research really dived in to being able to help him and find the remedy that would help or work for him. And so now he's 22. He's moved out of the house. His health is stable. He still has fluctuations, but he's managing and I really believe that's due to cannabis. I don't think he would be here if he didn't have that support and guidance with this amazing plant.
Kirk: Yeah, Terese, I could go down that avenue. We've done a couple episodes on Lyme disease and I can only surmise that your son was diagnosed late, so when he was in the late phases of it. So yeah, he's got a lifetime issue there. At some point, I would really like to talk to you more about the Lyme disease and pediatric approach and add that to our library. But however, let's get to you as mom learning about cannabis. So you took a 12-week I think you took a 12-week course from the Institute.
Terese Bowors: 12-months.
Kirk: 12-month course?
Terese Bowors: Yes, It was a year long from the Cannabis Coaching Institute.
Kirk: Yeah. And is it university, you must have taken a series of their courses.
Terese Bowors: No this program, so they've changed the programs that are on there now that offer an educator program, which is 12 weeks. But the coaching program, I think is on hold right now, and that's the full year. So it was one program full year. We've dived into the into the science of cannabis. Dosing, all of everything really about cannabis. We touched on growing it. Medicine making and dealing with different medical situations and and then the whole coaching aspect of how to work with people. Yeah.
Kirk: I noticed on your web page you thanked the B.C. government. So does the B.C. government recognize you as a credentialed cannabis educator?
Terese Bowors: No.
Kirk: Okay.
Terese Bowors: However, that came about through a grants that I received when I was just getting started. Covid was and it was Covid grants available. And so through my family corporation, because I run my coaching under my corporation, we qualified for grants. And so part of the and they didn't really care what the business was. and so I'm like, okay, good, don't dig deep on this one.
Kirk: Okay.
Terese Bowors: So, so I received some funding to for my startup.
Kirk: Okay, good. That's very cool. That's and it's good that you got under the radar. Coaching. So, you know, do you have any background like your university grad that got married, had kids and in your profession went to motherhood? Like what is your background in what do you blend with it?
Terese Bowors: Yeah, so I'm certainly a teacher at heart. I took just two years of starting into my Bachelor of Education and then realized I wasn't a teacher for children, that I really like working with adults. And so I actually stopped my education and went right into teaching adults. And at that time, I was working with families in teaching them how to sign with their babies. So this is 25 years ago when baby sign language wasn't even a thing. So I was the first certified baby sign language instructor in Canada.
Kirk: Wow.
Terese Bowors: Started training other instructors. And we taught baby sign language throughout B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan for a number of years. And so my teaching, my teaching skills come from my own development, not from university, but from my own experience and my own passion. And then from there moved into more health and wellness teaching. So I worked with essential oils and started teaching about how to how to how to work with oils as another tool for wellbeing. So I'm self-taught, definitely dived into so much research around wellbeing and health and self-care as I've been nurturing my own family through that as well. So I walk the talk and I speak through experience and through passion.
Kirk: Very cool. I admire that. I love your web page. Your web page is very female focused. Obviously, you focus on women, women learning together and you look like you've got a huge botanical garden in your in your like behind the wall there. You have a big, big botanical garden growing.
Terese Bowors: I have a decent size for a city lot. We're in the city, but we back on to a forest. And so I'm very secluded. I have a number of plants over 20 plants. And they're not really visible by the public. So I have a pretty good little niche of an area and primarily grow cannabis. Vegetables kind of went by the wayside. I can trade cannabis for vegetables and so I do a lot of companion planting and a lot of enriching the soil. So the soil to me is the most important and making sure that I'm using organic or organic inputs and not yeah, I just want the cleanest, the cleanest product that I can have.
Kirk: Very good. Very good. So you use you use the cannabis that you grow. Now, again, we're living in Canada. I'm a nurse. I've got to follow the laws. So you're obviously a medical cannabis grower. Or you have the license to grow outside and you've read the small print, right? You're not allowed to give it away?
Terese Bowors: No, but I can't. But I still grow my four plants, so.
Kirk: well done
Terese Bowors: Time I have my medical cannabis grow, which is mine. And then I have my four plants and that's what I share with other people.
Kirk: Very good, actually. See, Manitoba, we're not allowed to grow our four plants yet. Yeah, we're not there yet. Wab Kinew our new premier has said that he's going to eventually do it, but he's got other priorities. So he hasn't written the law yet. I have a medical cannabis grow. So a few months back my wife and I went to the West Coast, went to Haida Gwaii, and I pitched a bunch of seeds in our garden and I have a fence around it. And I came home and by God I had a couple of cannabis plants growing. So it's kind of cool. And we've had a we've had a wonderful autumn. So they actually, again, grew up until I think I harvested in mid-October. So which is really odd for, for living out in the prairies. Yeah.
Terese Bowors: Here too. It was a beautiful fall.
Kirk: Beautiful. It still is. It's still lovely out. So you coach people. I'm going to direct people to your web page. You know, you've got a blog going there. You've got cannabis coaching clubs, events. You're quite active. So your business is it's still a small business. Still growing.
Terese Bowors: Yes, still growing. Still growing. And I'm taking a bit of a of a bit of a bend, a different focus. And if you're interested, we dive into that, too.
Kirk: Sure. Go for it. What's the bend?
Terese Bowors: Okay, so this kind of goes along with what you were sharing about the Buddhist monk. Was that a Buddhist monk who is using cannabis? And so that's kind of the bend where I'm going is working. So I still work with people in a therapeutic way, but also in a spiritual way. So cannabis is so underrated in the ability to transform our our beliefs, our minds, our bodies and everything about us. And so I hosted sacred cannabis ceremonies and with the intention of bringing the sacred in and the intentionality and allowing transformation to happen in such an easy and quick way, really. And so he probably talks more about this. And I'm just I'm just digging through his book and I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I do the similar kind of experiences. What then what he's talking about as well, though I'm not a therapist, so I don't, I don't dig into people's experiences it by more just hold the space so that people can explore themselves and we get to the realm of bliss cannabis, as you know anamide is the is the endocannabinoid that we make in our own bodies that cannabis mimics through THC, which gives us to the place of bliss. And when we're in that space of bliss, we can heal and we can be connected to our bodies and become more true essences of who we are. And so I'm very, very passionate about that too.
Kirk: So you're bringing that into your coaching.
Terese Bowors: More so different. Like so a lot of my coaching clients are not really there yet, so it's more a different group of people who are interested in exploring cannabis in that way. So I touch on it, but I'm just planting seeds with clients more so.
Kirk: very cool again, again, we live in just different jurisdictions and as you probably know, different jurisdictions allow different things. For example, I know that in Vancouver the airports allow cannabis smoking in the tobacco smoking area. Well, in Manitoba, the only place you can consume cannabis is in your domicile. And if you are a renter, you may not be able to consume in your domicile if the owner of the house says no. So there's a lot of issues in Manitoba still about where you can consume this legal product. Now, again, in B.C. it's much different. So you're going to have to explain to me how it works there. So if you're going to have these moments, these spiritual moments, do you have them in a private residence? Do you have it in a commercial space? Do you do it in a park? Where are you allowed to consume cannabis? And this would be a commercial business. So where would you be allowed to consume cannabis for commercial purposes in B.C.?
Terese Bowors: Yeah, so I certainly do in my home. My home is set up to be able to host those events. Yoga studios if they're willing. Often though, I don't consume in that building like will set, are set our circle and then will go outside. Imbibe and then come back. There was a sacred cannabis ceremony at the Spirit Plant Medicine Conference this past weekend with Stephen Gray, and they were at UBC at the Nest in UBC. So UBC allowed the ceremony to happen. But you go outside to imbibe and then come back into the space. So you're not imbibing indoors per say, but it's there is no perceived issue with that.
Kirk: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's. It's a classic debate out here in the hinterlands, right. As a medical cannabis consumer, I'm allowed to consume my medicine where and when I want to responsibly. Which confuses many people. Because if I am outside, outside a concert and I decide to have a, consume or have a hoot, people tell me that's not legal. Well, no, in Manitoba it's not. You're not allowed to consume recreational cannabis outside a concert hall. But I have a medicinal license. So there's these Fudgie lines, right? I know B.C. is just so much different. And that's why I'm clarifying with you the laws. How do you do this? Because I can remember hearing about cannabis conferences and people consuming it. And I would I would, you know, be the loud guy in the corner saying, how are you doing that? And people looking at me as if I'm a fool or we just do it. No one bothers us. Yeah. However, however, I'm a registered nurse who has to answer to my college, so I can't just do that. Trevor and I, for example, would like to teach people how to dose cannabis through cooking with cannabis, right? Because that would be cannabis coaching. But there's nowhere we can do it in Manitoba. Well, like I figured the senior center. We would do it the senior center. So I called. I, you know, so, so it's very difficult to, to do it because it's a public place. The public can be there. So therefore, cannabis is not allowed. Children theoretically could be there. So it's not allowed. Right. So the Cannabis Act doesn't the Cannabis Act allows us to have a cannabis lounge, but the individual provinces prevent that.
Terese Bowors: Right.
Kirk: So in so in B.C., I know. Is there any cannabis lounges yet in B.C.? I know that. I know that the Victoria Buyers Club has one in Victoria. Yeah.
Terese Bowors: And there's a, there was a conscious, there was a space in Vancouver that they were hosting the after party at that was a consumption space as well.
Kirk: Interesting. Can you get licenses in British Columbia to hold it like I know like if you're going to do a social what we call social here, you'd rent a hall, get a liquor license and hold a social. Do you guys have that in British Columbia? Can you get a license for cannabis and consume it at a hall if you rent it?
Terese Bowors: And I'm not sure of all those legalities. I know that it's jurisdiction. So it's by jurisdiction. So like you might you might have a consumption space in Victoria, in Vancouver, but like in Nelson, we don't have one allowed yet because of the jurisdiction. So it depends. I think it's very individual for each community, unfortunately. Like it would be nice if we all just have the standard of, of all being able to do what we want to do.
Kirk: So it's just it is interesting and I'm enjoying this conversation. Sorry, I am taking you all over the place here. To go back to your to go back to your your business. So your customers, where are they from?
Terese Bowors: Mostly throughout B.C., some in the US, but mostly mostly B.C. So stretching from the island all the way up north and through the interior. I've got a little bit of work in Alberta, but I really was trying to stay more local, and I really prefer to do as much as I can in-person. I do lots on Zoom, but I really prefer in-person, so that kind of restricts on where I'm where I'm going.
Kirk: Well, I would think you have a pretty educated crowd. Like Nelson, The Selkirk region is known as a cannabis region. Of course, maybe its the in crowd, but I would assume you've got some pretty knowledgeable people there and people are just pretty much just accept it.
Terese Bowors: People who are in the legalization area yes, I would say that they are highly educated and have been keeping up on the research and information about cannabis. People who have been long time consumers who've been consuming for 30 years or whatever, what I'm noticing, so I had one man, his wife, dragged into the class and he was like, I've been growing cannabis for 30 years. My wife dragged me to the class and I didn't think that you would be able to teach me anything. And he's like, I had to bite my tongue because there's a lot I didn't know. And so, yes, we're expert consumers, but we're not expert. We stopped learning like as the research has been developing, the consumers have not been continuing to learn about all the new cannabinoids, all the new methods of intake, the combinations of ratios like all of this science stuff hasn't been kept up with it. So there's this yes, people in the industry for sure. They're educated, but the consumers not so much. But think that they are. Think that they are because they've been puffing for a long, long time.
Kirk: Well, yeah, I must admit. I mean, I, I go back with cannabis. As a young youth. So when it was legalized, I figured I knew stuff. I know nothing. And we started this podcast up and it's been a learning experience the entire trip. And it's ironic. I started the podcast being the guy who understood cannabis and my pharmacist friend who is self-declared conservative man. Puffed it occasionally, but really was more of a drinker. He's actually become more of a cannabis advocate than I am. I'm starting to see that that cannabis is not all good. Whereas, you know, Trevor is starting to see now cannabis has gotten a lot of good. So it's interesting how the more of the education. I'm interested in how you're being perceived by the health system. Are you involved at all or are you are you trying to dig in to that or are you trying to go into doctor's offices? Or how does that work for you?
Terese Bowors: Yeah, and I haven't. I've had a little bit of pushback from the medical community, and so I've kind of steered around just because I don't have the I, I just don't have the energy to push there. I have excellent relationships with pharmacists in our community, and that's what I refer people to. If they if they have questions about interactions or things like that. Our pharmacists are way more educated and way more open to talking to people. And then the alternative health, like our massage therapists and physiotherapists, osteo. Those practitioners are awesome. They've been really helpful, really open as well. But I get this kind of hard stop with doctors and I just don't have it in me to push. But I do have a lot of other colleagues who do, and so I kind of leave it to them to to kind of to kind of push that.
Kirk: So where do you find your customers? Where do you find your cohort? Where do you push?
Terese Bowors: Through seniors for sure. So I do a lot of educating, group educating through seniors like elders' colleges and learning in retirement and organizations like that because they recognize that seniors are looking into cannabis and they want them to have safe and effective information. So I have a lot of clients from that. Also through I do a lot of markets and I do a lot of publicity locally as well. So people coming up to my booth and just asking questions and then saying, yeah, there's more here that I don't know about. Marketing social media. I bet through that Friends referrals, those are really big as well. So I'll have a really good experience with a client and then they'll share the information as well.
Kirk: word of mouth.
Terese Bowors: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's largely yeah, that's largely where my clients come from.
Kirk: Very cool. So do you, are you again. I can only I can only think about how I see myself. As a nurse, I've got so many restrictions. If I was to go into cannabis coaching as a nurse, I'd have to keep medical records for up to seven years. That's very prohibited. So do you keep do you keep medical records? Are you do belong to an association of cannabis coaches. What are the standards that you are held to?
Terese Bowors: I do belong to an association for cannabis coaches. It's called EduCanNation, and it started out in Ontario. And the purpose of EduCanNation was to to bring our coaches and educators together to build a standard practice within Canada and internationally. So we want to be looked at by Health Canada as the go to for cannabis education. So we have had lawyer consults with through EduCanNation, recordkeeping through them. And so they're kind of like that's who I go to if I have any of those kind of business or health questions. We take an intake form, which I do keep records of. So I try to keep those in a secure way. And as far as going the seven years, I'm not sure because I'm not a registered practitioner like I don't have I don't I don't have a dissertation to my name and I don't answer to anyone. EudCanNation is voluntary, of course, as a member, yes, we have a code of conduct and I do follow that, but it's not as much yeah, it's not as much about the recordkeeping aspect of it.
Kirk: Okay, so in five years from now where were your business be?
Terese Bowors: That's a really good question. I would like to be speaking on stage educating masses of people and not just one on one because one on one is a slow go. And so yeah, give me a stage and let me share my story and how cannabis can be a tool for all aspects of our wellbeing. That's really where I want to go.
Kirk: That's very cool. And you've been doing this now for seven years.
Terese Bowors: Four years?
Kirk: Four years. Okay. All right. I don't have much time left with you, but I guess what question did I not ask? What is it something you would want our audience to know about your Skill set.
Terese Bowors: I really. So one of the things that, as I was saying about the spiritual aspect of cannabis is, is bringing the mindfulness in. So I hear this a lot from people who have been consuming for a long, long time is that maybe they're not happy with their relationship with cannabis or they reached out to cannabis to check out and they're just wanting the pain to go or wanting the stress to go or just wanting to leave. And my invitation is to use cannabis to check in. So when you're reaching for that dose, what is it that you want cannabis to do for you and what growth and development do you want to experience? And that can be just through a simple breath, noticing your feet on the floor before you take that first puff and noticing how that feels as it infuses through your cells and over your being and express gratitude. And when we and when we bring that mindfulness and gratitude and intention into our consumption, it changes our relationship with cannabis.
Kirk: That's very interesting. That actually reminds me of another question on your, your garden that you're growing, you're using that, your four plants, however you use it, you're using your, you're using your homegrown cannabis as part of your thing. Have you had your homegrown cannabis tested? So you know what the THC is and CBD are and, and how you use it and you And then do you perpetuate that strain in your garden?
Terese Bowors: I have had a 1, one year I had when I was growing tested and it was surprising how it came back. And no, I don't. I do have someone some that I like my CBD, I have my tried and true CBD 1 to 20 and 1 to 1, and those are the ones I really like. But for THC I'm kind of all over the place. I like to try different, different strains and to have different experiences. I do have a little tester as well. It's called a T test. T gosh, I might have to look that for you. And it tests the percentage of THC, so at least I have that information. But otherwise it's a bit cost prohibitive to every year to be testing every strain that I grow. So it's more through experience. And, and also I took the entrepreneur course so I can use my nose to pick out the different terpenes. I'm really good at that too.
Kirk: Very cool. Very cool. It was it was. It was nice chatting with there. Hopefully we'll meet sometime.
Terese Bowors: Sounds good. All right. Take care.
Kirk: Okay, so there's a couple of things before we start. Just the eclipse in Vancouver was 2017, so I was out a decade.
Trevor: Okay,.
Kirk: Funny how time is. But that's about 2017 when I. When I got to explore and this is just before we started the podcast, when I was able to see how that medicinal side of cannabis was happening in Vancouver. So what do you think?
Trevor: What add to add to the quiz for those playing along at home? She was she was teaching first parents and then instructors, how to do baby sign language way before everybody else. So I just thought that was a cool little diversion there.
Kirk: Side note, and you know what, I wanted to talk to her more about that because I find that fascinating. How do you teach infant sign language? And I wanted to go deep into that, but I had to pivot back to cannabis, I found it very interesting lady, as I said to her during the interview, boy, I just there's so much I could talk to you about, even like her son, an adolescent with Lyme disease. oh my stinking lord, you know, there's a there's an episode.
Trevor: That really that really does sound like that should be a separate episode don't it/
Kirk: It does because Lyme disease is a terrible, terrible disease and and how we just don't look for back in the day I think it's more prevalent now. People are looking for it, but it's still hard to get people to understand that these ticks are not good. So yeah, that's another story I like talking to her about.
Trevor: And I just want to quickly on to her daughter. So her daughter with type one diabetes and those not in the medical field, that is the diabetes where you have to inject insulin or your die and it was she wasn't treating her daughter with cannabis. But I just thought because, you know, you think about it after the fact, all that makes sense. Well parents, especially of young children and it's all over the place. But you know, you could get a two year old diagnosed with type one diabetes. Well, now you have to run around after a two year old and constantly check their blood sugar and see if it's too high to low and then chase them with a needle to give them insulin or not. Like it's a it's a full time job, especially with the younger children seeing what their sugar are. Giving them insulin. Did they eat that cookie? Did they not eat that cookie Like it's there's a lot going on. So I never thought about that. But her treating yourself for the let's get some sleep when we can, when I'm when I'm worried about you know is my daughter's sugar going too low. I hadn't thought of that that is but that's sort of where one of the places she started.
Kirk: I think as I said one of our just our last episode when we were talking about the Buddhist spirituality. We live in very interesting times. And I am one of my. One of my most recent rants. As you know, I will stand up on a pulpit and start ranting about something that that disrupts my world. But I'm just so disappointed in a society that we have that we're medicating our adolescents because their anxieties are so bad that they need to have better lives through chemistry, which is good for business, I guess, for pharmacists. But for me, I just don't understand what we're teaching our adolescents. That a pill well will help you cope with anxieties. It just kills me. However, I respect the fact that that that is a diagnosis and that is medical treatment. But we're also so that generation is having difficulties coping. We've got parents that are actually asking for days off now. There's actually a group of people, of parents, that are advocating that there should be weekends for parents, like because there's so stressedout raising families. And then you've got our generation who aren't sleeping. How many people that you talked about? More than I do, probably. How many of us in our 50s, 60s and 70s aren't sleeping. So we've got multi generation stress happening in our worlds. And one of the reasons why I find cannabis so fascinating is how many times we stumble into a situation where cannabis is helping, you know, and here's a cannabis coach. She's got years of education. It's an unregulated profession. Now, what does that mean? An unregulated profession essentially gives you much more latitude in what you can do, but much less credibility in what you're doing. Would that make sense?
Trevor: Sure. There's no there's no regulatory body looking over your shoulder ready to discipline you if you do something wrong.
Kirk: Yeah. Yeah. And those that are in health professions will understand this. We have associations and we have colleges. Our colleges, our professional body and the whole purpose of a professional body is to protect the public.
Trevor: From me.
Kirk: From, from. Yeah. So. So, you know, I'm a member of the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba because I have to be to be a registered nurse. But they're not my advocates. They're actually, they're not there to protect me in my profession. They're there to represent my profession. Associations, professional associations are the advocates. Now, when I first started nursing, the college was the association. Right. So but things have changed now with the Health Professions Act. So as a nurse and as and you've talked about this as a pharmacist, we've thought of going into a senior citizens home and make them cookies and teach them how to dose cookies properly, which is something I could probably learn from. And we're reluctant to do that because our professional colleges tell us that we shouldn't. I was told by my professional college that if I was going to teach people how to make cannabis cookies, I should use parsley and measure parsley. And it's like, are we living in the 70s again? So we are limited by our colleges and what we can do to help people understand cannabis, which is very frustrating. When I talk to somebody like Terese, it's like it's almost liberating. Do I give up my registration to be a cannabis coach?
Trevor: Yeah, no big, big decisions. Some of the other just things that. So I was surprise not surprised. I found it interesting when she was talking about the different health care professions she deals with. Like as an advocate, she finds it easy to deal with pharmacists because of course we're great and massage therapists and physiotherapists and osteopaths. But and again, I'm not beating up on the docs. I know lots of docs who are open minded people, but she had a hard time dealing with the doctors. And we've come across this again and again this the stigma part and I don't know, not give doctors their due. A lot of them have told me what they're terrified of is, you know, we had this big opioid crisis, which was basically doctors over prescribing something that seemed like a good idea at the time. And, you know, now that cannabis is, quote unquote, new on the scene, are we going to get ourselves in trouble by jumping headlong into this? So that's at least a reason. But yet, whatever the reason, she has a harder time with with physicians than other health care professions.
Kirk: Well, it's interesting that you use those that the doctor you talked to used the parable of the opioid crisis. But what what we felt we have to remember is the first of all, the doctors were lied to. And the studies that the pharmaceutical companies put out were corrupted studies. So the doctors aren't totally to blame except the fact that as practitioners, they should they should have known. Right. Because I think I've told the story that back in the 80s, I went to a conference and back in there they offered the pain scale is a vital sign. And the whole premise of the conference was no one should live with pain. And I looked around to my personal doctor, who was also my medical director at the time because I was working at a college with paramedics. I said to him does that mean that everyone gets opium now? Is that what this means. And he just said. And of course, he just smiled at me because he couldn't answer the question. But I think cannabis is a little different because what we do know about cannabis, it's not going to do the same harm. Right.
Trevor: No.
Kirk: But it is it is so misunderstood. And, you know, I just like the fact that she's I like the fact that I talked to her about the medical cannabis. She grows her own medical cannabis. Yeah. And of course, the small print as a medical cannabis grower is you cannot share your cannabis, right? It is growing for your own medical purposes. And the small print on the application. And it literally is very small print that reminds you can't share it. So when I called her on that, she caught me again because.
Trevor: She and she had a really good and.
Kirk: Very good answer. And again, showing the differences in the country that we live in, because as a Manitoban, I didn't even think about the four plants, didn't even, because we can't grow our four plants.
Trevor: Just review for people who are not following what you're talking about. What do you mean by the four plant?
Kirk: You're allowed to grow four plants legally according to the Cannabis Act nationally, but the province's.
Trevor: Recreational and anybody in Canada should be able to go in their backyard, plant four plants. And the way you go. Except.
Kirk: well, anybody that's an adult, it's not near a daycare. And yeah, you can grow your four plants inside outside. And she's done that. That's fantastic in Manitoba. And Nunavut of it you cannot grow your four plants. And Quebec. Quebec.
Trevor: And Quebec.
Kirk: Yeah, they lost They lost their bet on this Supreme Court in Manitoba Web has said he's going to change that. So I don't think anybody cares in Manitoba anymore. But but it was funny. So, yeah, she can give that away. And I thought, good for you. Good catch. Because how often have we been in situations where people are consuming cannabis and you go, Can you do that? And, you know, conferences and stuff. So yeah, B.C. different place. I'd like to go out and do more stories up in British Columbia.
Trevor: Absolutely. So I really like this episode. Anything else?
Kirk: Yeah, no, it was a good story. I enjoyed talking to her. I think I'd like to get back to her and talk to her about her son. So, Terese, if you're listening to this.
Trevor: I would love that.
Kirk: Expect another follow up from me. Cannabis coaching man. I really believe there is a need for it.
Trevor: Well, there's definitely a need.
Kirk: Definitely need.
Trevor: Definitely a need
Kirk: Okay. So I'm Kirk Nyquist. I'm the registered nurse.
Kirk: I'm Trevor Shewfelt I'm the pharmacist. You can find us at Reefermed.ca. Most social media is it @reefermedness. We're Reefer Medness - The Podcast