Episode Transcript

Trevor: You're back from another road trip.

Kirk: Yeah, how's it going?

Trevor: I'm doing very well uh summer is kind of sort of starting here and in the Dauphin so uh

Kirk: In the Dauphin yeah I guess so. It's been warm been short weather we've been wearing short since we last talked so.

Trevor: Yes.

Kirk: This episode obviously is another road story so those that are listening to this on audio podcast will get the stories those that our watching us on YouTube on the video you're gonna have to go to the audio to get the story they're just gonna hear us chat so I'm gonna put this up as a video but just us chatting. So I did a road.

Trevor: Okay, and Go ahead.

Kirk: Yeah. Yeah, so I did a road trip. And those active listeners, those people that listen to us are often will know that I have a I have family in small town Alberta and northern Northeastern Alberta. And sad, my mother in law has passed. And so I was going back and forth.

Trevor: I'm sorry to hear that.

Kirk: And so lots of back and forth, right? Michelle has been in Small Town, Alberta, Lac La Biche for about, I don't know, seven, eight weeks, and I've been going back and fourth. So on my way back and I stopped at rec stores, like I like to do. And in the last several months, Trevor, you and I have been really seeing to get a lot of stories and a lot of collaborative knowledge about seniors and people going to rec shops, they get their medicine.

Trevor: Yes, that has come up a few times.

Kirk: Yeah, so I figured I'd make some cold calls and stop in and ask Rec stories if this is happening. So I got some cool stories from them. So again, this is, these are budtenders. These are cold calls. Me and River, my dog River, we walk in the store and these are the stories.

Trevor: Alright, so the start of our story is Colby in Humboldt, Saskatchewan and something about little old ladies being afraid of THC.

Kirk: Yeah, yeah, Highway 5. I'm traveling westward on Highway 5 through northern Saskatchewan, and I come into Humboldt, Saskatchewan, and I'm at Saska Buds. So yeah, let's hear Cody.

Kolby Stratton: I'm Kolby Stratton. I currently am a bud tender at Saska Buds Cannabis. I do deal with quite a bit of older ladies.

Kirk: And we're in Humboldt, Saskatchewan.

Kolby Stratton: Humboldt Saskatchewan, yeah, absolutely. So yeah, we usually have customers that come in looking for like medical things. They have issues with their back, can't sleep, sciatica, a lot of that stuff. Usually just tell them, first of all, that I'm not a medical professional and I can't tell you everything like that for certain, but we usually just kind of show them the CBN, CBD type of thing. Give them an explanation about how that works. Generally speaking, they don't know a lot and they're really scared of the THC word.

Kirk: So how do you get them around the fear?

Kolby Stratton: So I have my grandmother usually that I usually reference because she is a very older lady. The same thing had a very bad idea of what cannabis is. She started using CBD products to help her with her back and to go to sleep and it worked incredibly So that's usually what I go with.

Kirk: So you share a story of course.

Kolby Stratton: Yeah, okay. No names No, obviously for obvious reasons, but yeah, absolutely.

Kirk: And you say they're afraid of the THC thing. What do you think they're a afraid of?

Kolby Stratton: I think it's just because of like how a negative it was for the longest period of time before it was legal right, like stoners are Evil like kind of thing. Yeah, like can't ya

Kirk: Okay, cool. Thank you, sir. Of course. I appreciate that story.

Trevor: Kirk, that was that was another interesting one. And he's not wrong about we both hear outside of the podcast about older people. So well, quote unquote little ladies being interested in cannabis, but being afraid of the getting high. And it's nice that he's, you know, trying to alleviate some of those fears.

Kirk: For me, what popped out was pain and sleep. Customers come in for pain and sleep. This is over and over and over again.

Trevor: Yeah, we hear. Yeah, we hear about the big three, pain, sleep, and anxiety.

Yeah, and in the next little while, we're going to have several stories on this. I just interviewed a young lady from Florida. Who's doing her Ph.D. And on just this, seniors getting benefit from cannabis for sleep, pain, and anxiety. So again, it's happening. It's there. And I figured we heard it from the horse's mouth, I guess.

Trevor: Absolutely. So a little bit further down the road we have a duo now in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan. We have Tristen and Candice and we hear some stories about childhood epilepsy and an adult with MS.

Kirk: Yeah, but you know what we need to, what we needed to talk about here is that Meadow Lake, the corner of Highway 55 and Highway 4 in Saskatchewan, I'm getting more west, northwest Saskatchewan, we've been here before. This is where we met, this is where met Payson Marie. In episode 113 Road Stories and to quote Peyton Marie is bubble bath for your brain.

Peyton Marie: We love CBG. In my world, I call it a bubble bath for your brain.

Trevor: So we just have to keep going back to Meadow Lake again and again and get more quotes, I guess, is what the story is.

Kirk: I think so we get good stories from them and so this is a story and again Tristen he updated me on Payton and I'll tell you at the end of this. But yeah these are two stories, a rec shop guy talking about how people use his service and behind me in the line up was a woman who has a medical license for cannabis Buying a rickshaw, so let's hear this

Tristen Sabados: Hello, my name is Tristen Sabados. I am a key lead here at Tokyo Smoked Cannabis in Meadow Lake. And a story I like to put out is we had a lady come in once and she couldn't get CBD oil for her daughter that had epilepsy fast enough. She is medically prescribed cannabis for her daughter. And she came in here wanting cannabis oil and we had it. We had it in stock, and she was so happy, and she left with a big smile, and that also left a big smiling on my face knowing that somebody got the medicine that they needed to help their daughter out.

Kirk: That's very cool. Does she now come back here regularly?

Tristen Sabados: Yes, yes.

Kirk: Okay, did you did you happen to see the prescription? Did she bring the prescription in?

Tristen Sabados: Uh, she didn't. She didn't bring it in to show me, which is okay. I mean, that's personal, right? You don't need to bring it.

Kirk: No, and that's fair, but I guess as a nurse, my question then is how did she ensure she got the proper oils? She was just looking for CBD oils straight up?

Tristen Sabados: Yeah, she was looking for a certain milligram and we had that.

Kirk: And you had it.

Tristen Sabados: Okay. Yes, he was certain for a certain milligram dosage and there's a certain one that needs to be. Okay. We had that in stock.

Kirk: Fantastic. Does that happen often? Do people come in and get their medicine here often?

Tristen Sabados: They do. They do because they find it difficult to get it online because of how long, how long in also Canada.

Candace Lebedoff: That's very good because that's actually why I'm here. I have MS and I come here to get cannabis.

Kirk: I'm actually recording this for a podcast. Are you okay with that?

Candace Lebedoff: Oh, yes, absolutely.

Kirk: Do you want to introduce yourself to the podcast?

Candace Lebedoff: My name is Candace Lebedoff and I was diagnosed with MS four years ago and I use a lot of the THC and the CBD to help with spasticity and the pain that I have with my MS.

Kirk: And you get your medicine from the rec store.

Candace Lebedoff: yup, I think I can order online. I do have a prescription for it, but again, because you can come in by yourself and I know exactly what I want, I know what I need, and I just come to the easiest place because I can get it right now instead of waiting a week for it to come in.

Kirk: Okay, now I've just met you. I'm a registered nurse.

Candace Lebedoff: ya I heards that.

Kirk: Okay. Okay, so you don't mind me asking some questions. I mean, I'm asking for consent, right?

Candace Lebedoff: Oh, yes. and I do give my consent for this.

Kirk: Okay Okay, fantastic. So, did you ever go get a medical prescription or paper? So, and do you have it now? Do you have a medical document now?

Candace Lebedoff: Not with me, on me, but I did get it from Revenue Canada, it does come from Health Canada, the prescription.

Kirk: Okay, so a doctor has given it to you, now you have to renew it every year, and so yours is up to date. But yet you still come to a rec shop to get your medicine.

Candace Lebedoff: Yes, because you can get it faster, and I can actually see it, feel it, smell it, and before I buy it.

Kirk: Interesting. Okay, and well, that's cool. Is there anything else either of you would like to add to this conversation in regards to getting medicine?

Tristen Sabados: Um, anything I'd like to add is just, um, just that I'm just happy that I am able to help people that are in need of the help and need the medicine, that's it. I'll just leave it at that.

Trevor: So Kirk we're only two stories in and sure kind of sounds like your thesis is coming true about you know people are now you did specifically ask them about that so you didn't ask you know what is the highest THC and how stoned are people getting or you might have got different answers but right it is not hard not hard to find people in a rec store talking about looking for having something to do with medicinal cannabis.

Kirk: Exactly. And the goal here is, yeah, from a research perspective, I could be leading the people on, but I just want to find out what's happening, if it's happening. And it is. But as I'm having this conversation, I get interrupted by someone who's doing it literally.

Trevor: you know, it sounded like Candace was a plant.

Trevor: Yeah, yeah. And she wasn't. No, but thank you. And you can see I got consent. I mean, I always get consent. It's not always heard on the podcast, but I always get consent and yeah. Oh, and update our friend Peyton. She's working at the local golf course for the summer.

Trevor; Okay.

Kirk: And Tristan was going to tell her that I dropped in to say hello.

Trevor: Excellent excellent. Yeah tell her we have made you got lots of mileage out for a bubble bath for your brain quote

Kirk: Oh yeah, we've been doing it a lot, yes ma'am. Okay, so from there, I'm in Lac La Biche.

Trevor: I've got Lac La Bich and Al is talking about some, I thought, interesting handouts, sort of really basic info handouts on cannabinoids and also literally something I have not heard of before. So as a pharmacist, it's becoming more and more popular for people to get little nicotine pouches and shove them in their lip to help them quit smoking. That's a thing. Um honestly phenomenally popular in Dauphin anyway. I had not heard of a a cannabis/THC pouch so those that was a that was a new one for me

Kirk: That was definitely a new one. We met Al Webster back in episode 139. I dropped in and saw him and we had a conversation then. So I dropped and saw them again. So, yeah, he can talk about what they're doing in Equilibrium. So this is the third story I think we've talked with Equilibrium.

Al Webster: Hi, Al Webster working at Equilibrium Cannabis in Lac La Biche, Alberta.

Kirk: And we were just talking about what your service, what Equilibrium does when people walk in here and self-identify as someone who might be looking for medical cannabis at a rec shop. How does your business deal with that?

Al Webster: Basically, we have to let the customer know that we are by no means any kind of medical experts or anything like that. We go by what we've heard from other customers and what the customers may have heard from their relatives or friends about how to take care of the situation. Basically we just we work together to try to get something that works and sometimes it doesn't work and sometimes It does because cannabis there's so many how different cannabis is and different manufacturers may be better for them or not work for them. It's just a crap shoot and just you just have to keep trying till you find something that works for you and that may be not taking anything at all and just maybe you have to go back to your doctor for something.

Kirk: So you obviously have people that are returned customers. So they'll come in and say X brand didn't work. Can you suggest something else.

Al Webster: Or something of the same category, but maybe we'll change the intensity or maybe try a little bit more. Maybe try a little bit less. Did it make you feel uncomfortable? There's so many questions and it's just to ask the right ones and do what you can. But basically the final decision has to be up to the customer.

Kirk: Yeah, so you have handouts that you give them.

Al Webster: If they're a little bit interested in knowing about it, I try to get the simplest, and this seems to be the simplest, I don't know where we found this, this was probably supplied by AGLC. Just basic information and give them a direction, maybe they can try it out.

Kirk: So this is, this is CBD, CBG, CBN, CBC explained. So it's just basically a photocopied piece of paper. Is there any references on it to where the.

Al Webster: Where the information was. Yeah, there's no where the information was, you can Google it. But Google takes you in so many different directions. And, and basically, this is just is broken down as simple. This is what you could possibly expect from this but everybody's different.

Kirk: Sure, sure.

Al Webster: Like a sativa doesn't wake some people up, it gives them anxiety. Then and then they don't like that but then they have to maybe they'll try an indica and then that's that will calm them down but to the point where well that i can't do nothing so it's a.

Kirk: In the couch.

Al Webster: It's just a crap shoot on what you want. What works best for you. Maybe not the best but as good as you can get.

Kirk: Okay.

Al Webster: And most of it don't know this is all all of this stuff is for it's for entertainment value

Kirk: Yeah, this is recreation.

Al Webster: It's recreational smoking just like drinking could be recreation just like anything else.

Kirk: Sure sure.

Al Webster: And should be treated you know very carefully because you know you can yeah you're you're not yourself when when you're on any of it so

Kirk: So, summers, right? Couple summers ago, CDG's was a big thing, right. Last summer, infused p[re rolls was big.

Al Webster: Anything that's new that's out there is going to be having what's new with shining.

Kirk: What's the new this year.

Al Webster: Well we got these little pockets, like little chews you put in your lip that's.

Kirk: Chews

Al Webster: Well it's not a chew but it's a little pouch that you put in your lips.

Kirk: Oh. Really.

Al Webster: It's like snuff yeah.

Kirk: Its like snuff.

Al Webster: Like snuff.

Kirk: THC pockets.

Al Webster: THC and then we can get.

Kirk: Pouches okay.

Al Webster: Pouches, is you can get the coffee pouches with whatever's in coffee that keeps you awake. I don't drink coffee. It's amazing.

Kirk: And now its in THC

Al Webster: pouches.

Kirk: Interesting. Now these pouches, this is the first time I've heard about these, what's the route of absorption under the tongue, mucous membranes, how is that being absorbed?

Trevor: These are good questions and honestly, without doing some blood tests, I don't think we really know. I know earlier on because people have been putting cannabis under their tongue in tinctures for a while. This is that part's not new. So this is in the same zone. And when we asked more sciency people about it, they said it was a it was frankly hard to tell whether some of that was getting absorbed in the saliva and getting into through the stomach. Or some of it was the fancy medical term is buccaly, between the cheek and the gum because that is a really good place to absorb stuff like that is how

Kirk: well nitroglycerin, nitro is absorbed there.

Trevor: Well, that's technically sublingually under the tongue, but buccal between the cheek and the gum is where these pouches go, but we know, well that's how nicotine gum works. Like if you use nicotine gun properly, you chew it a few times and then you stuff it between your cheek and your gum and it gets absorbed there. And I am imagining again, without doing proper pharmacogenic testing, it would be hard to tell, but I imagine there's got to be at least some... Buccal absorption or so going straight to the bloodstreams, skipping the liver and probably getting in faster but short answer is I don't know but I was fascinated to hear that that's a thing.

Kirk: That's the thing, that's basically, that was a revelation for me as well. So then, of course, coming my way back through northern Saskatchewan, I'm really enjoying that trip. It's so much nicer than going through the Yellowhead, for those that know the highways. So yeah, so I ended up in Cold Lake and meet another individual that we met also in Episode 113 and that was Ashly.

Trevor: Actually surprised me by talking about capsules because capsules are not new. I'm a pharmacist that's literally what I make my living on but I'd always thought of capsules in cannabis land as being sort of a strictly medicinal thing like no one takes capsules just to get high do they? And.

Kirk: Apparently they do in Cold Lake

Ashly: Hi, I'm Ashly. Lately we've had people turn from edibles to capsules because the capsules are more cost effective. There's no sugar in them and you can get more in a container than you can with the edibles, like a lot more.

Kirk: So there's been a move from that people when cannabis 2.0 became legal.

Ashly: Yeah.

Kirk: People are flocking to it.

Ashly: Yeah.

Kirk: And now they're going to the capsules?

Ashly: Yeah, they are, yeah.

Kirk: Do you find that the people who are going to capsules are using it for medicine? Do you get that?

Ashly: Not even necessarily, they just use it, they don't want to put something in their lungs, they don't want the sugar, a lot of health-wise decisions are made taking capsules instead.

Kirk: Okay. Yeah. How about vaporizers? Do people buy vaporizers

Ashly: We buy vaporized cartridges but not vaporizers themselves.

Kirk: Not for flower, not a lot, eh? But the cartridge is.

Ashly: Yup, yup.

Kirk: Okay, so from there, I'm heading back and my goal was to stop every so often, but it was cold, it was miserable, it wet, and I had a tailwind. And for those that know my van, having a tail wind means that I can spend less money on gas. So I just hit the road and basically camped at Canora Co-op cardlock that night. So I got in the Canora about seven o'clock in the evening and River and I went for a walk and I was just too tired to visit any of the stores. We got up early in the morning with the sun. I was back and Dauphin before people were going to work. So I figured I'd take a walk locally and I hit Payson’s Joint.

Trevor: So yeah, Payson's Joint, and we've talked about them before, and frankly, I think we're gonna be talking more about them in the future, but Ashlyn was very interesting, lots of good things to say, but the one that really stood out for me was her lessons about what was on a cannabis label.

Trevor: Yeah, this is a little bit of local patting ourselves in the back. Payson's Joint, we met them in Episode 111, and we also met them in Episode 75, and in this episode, they raised another one of our friends from Dauphin that we heard about in Episode 55, Episode 81, in Episode 126, and Trevor, who might that be?

Trevor: It might be Eric Greening from Greencraft Cannabis.

Kirk: Yeah, so let's hear this story.

Ashlyn: My name is Ashlyn, I'm from the Payson's Joint in Dauphin. The customers here really seem to enjoy Greencraft, it's locally grown.

Kirk: Green Crafts?

Ashlyn: Greencraft.

Kirk: That's the locally grown, that's just out of town. And so they're under their own label now?

Ashlyn: They are, so it's just, it is just Greencraft Cannabis. That's how they just send it to us, that's how it's labeled. Their packaging's really nice, it's in a black jar, that's glass.

Kirk: Okay. Oh, it's in a jar.

Ashlyn: Yeah, so you can reuse it if you want to.

Kirk: Can I have a look at it? We're going to walk down the aisle here and have a look at Greencraft's packaging, local cannabis shop.

Ashlyn: So I actually picked up the Death Bubba here the other day, very green, has nice crystals on it too.

Kirk: oh, nice.

Ashlyn: One thing that I really like about the Greencraft Cannabis on the listing, it will tell you the turp percentage.

Kirk: oh neat.

Ashlyn: And it will show you what it's crossed with. So it's cross Bubba Kush with Death Star of course. It's at 27% which is always nice to see. A lot of people here in town like the higher percent, it's usually above 25%.

Kirk: Okay.

Ashlyn: Anything else, it'll tell you information. You can always email them a number to reach out to, which is always nice.

Kirk: Fantastic.

Ashlyn: Tells you when it was packaged.

Kirk: Okay, not harvested, it's still just packaged.

Ashlyn: Just packaged right now.

Kirk: Okay, so that's still pretty new. That's less than a month old.

Ashlyn: Another nice thing here is it'll tell you it's 5% sativa and then 95% indica. I haven't seen a brand do this yet, which is nice.

Kirk: Cool! Good for Eric. Fantastic. Well, thank you. That's fantastic. Now you also said to me there's a trend, you're noticing what's coming up, more people are smoking what now?

Ashlyn: Smoking vaporizers, so that's more considered 510 cartridges. You place that on a little battery and you smoke it by holding the button. Most people find it's like a faster way to hit you. Maybe it doesn't last as long, but it's more of a cerebral high. You feel it tangle down your body pretty fast.

Kirk: Okay, so what what so that's is it full spectrum or the people?

Ashlyn: Definitely. You can have distillate, you can have liquid diamond, there's live resin, full spectrum.

Kirk: Okay.

Ashlyn: I've seen even rosin cards. Like there's some that are mixed with the CBG we're talking about. There's even some with CBN which is a drowsy time cannaboy which is nice.

Kirk: Nice, yeah. Well, thank you for that. That's very cool.

Ashlyn: Any information I can give you.

Kirk: What I really liked about this story, Trevor, is that in Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada, we got a licensed producer that truly cares about his product.

Trevor: Yeah um Ashlyn was excited and you were you guys were about several things but uh glass jars that's uh that's good and yeah things like literally listing on the label Terpenes and uh more for growers like you to be interested in percentages from different what do we call it call it breeds or strains. Strains in the in the current one so people who know know their sativas and their Babba Kushs and their to know sort of how this was this was mixed so that that was again didn't know that you could spit that all onto a label.

Kirk: Yeah, and also the fact that it was only a month, a month old. So I mean, this would be Craft. This would be what I would think we call Craft cannabis, right? Greencraft. So a little shout out to our colleagues, fellow business people in Dauphin, Manitoba.  Payson’s Joint and Greencraft Cannabis. But what also I found interesting is that vaporizers. The individual cannabinoids. That one shocked me. I'd like to have talked more about that, but she'd already given me two minutes, so I figured I was obliged to leave. But what did you think about that? Well, you can get individual cannabinoids...

Trevor: Um not surprised you're right i hadn't heard about that but not surprised because even back when we were talking to uh Dr Brent Guppy several episodes ago about what they were doing with uh uh North of 59 cannabis, Highway 59 Cannabis was um they were talking about some of their their vape cartridges some were full spectrum and some had this and some had that. So the fact that, so he didn't specifically say, hey, I've got a CBN only cartridge or whatever. But the fact that they were already looking at the different cannabinoids in a cartridge, again, I hadn't heard of this before, but it seems like an evolution that makes sense.

Kirk: Dr. Brent Guppy Episode 92 and also season 2 episode 7 is when we've talked to him but the thing that concerns me and I guess you know what concerns me about the vaporizers is the whole the whole thing the whole concern of the popcorn lung and what they put in to the to the, what do you call it, the solvent they're using to carry that.

Trevor: Yeah, the vitamin E acetate seems to be the real bad thing.

Kirk: Yeah, I'm concerned about that. I'm also concerned about the lack of the entourage or the full spectrum care. Because I do know that individuals that focus too much on THC, anxiety tends to really pop up. So again, I mean this whole episode was supposed to be road stories and we're turning it into also just giving people a heads up on, You know, the vapes may be popular, but they may not necessarily be the full cannabis.

Trevor: Yeah. And, and I know you and others get tired of people comparing alcohol to THC, but I thought, and when I've had other people describe it, I think it's just, it's a good analogy. It's not perfect, but it's to keep people's mind on it is if you were chasing just the highest THC possible, that's like going for, you know, high test vodka or high test Everclear., the most percent alcohol you can get and comparing that to to a really nice wine out of Kelowna. Now the wine out of Kelowna, it's got alcohol, it'll get you drunk, but it's got so many other things in it. It's got the tannins and the you know the different tastes and the different smells and that terroir. So there's just so much more going on in a glass of BC wine than there is in Everclear. It's not a perfect it's, not perfect, there's lots of other things going on but just you know, it's one of these, after a while, you're probably gonna stop just chasing THC and you might be looking for some other things.

Kirk: Yeah, yeah. No, I think that's not a bad analogy in a sense of the complexity of it. I mean, vodka by definition has been distilled to 90 percent and watered to 40 percent. So you've washed out pretty much any flavor from the grain that you made the product from. Now THC, THC if you just focus on THC. Yeah, I I think after a while anxiety sets in. I think there's, I think that's also where the green, where the. When you green out, you're greening out on your THC level as far as I know, it's not your CBD level, right? It's you're overdoing your THC levels. So anyways, we didn't want to get deep into that. That's a, we got to let experts talk about that, but that's Road Stories for this year. I'm on my way back to Albert in a couple of days. Depending on priorities, I think I will stop in a few more stores and try now to bring some more road stories back for later in August for you.

Trevor: That sounds great, so assuming Michelle lets you take a few more detours, we would love to hear a few more road stories.

Kirk: Yeah, I'm Kirk Nyquist, I am the registered nurse.

Trevor: I'm Trevor Shewfelt, I'm the pharmacist and this is Reefer Medness. Go to reefermed.ca and see all the work Kirk's been doing on the website. It is even more educational the last time you saw it and easier to find and easier for the search engines to find. And Kirk has also been working really hard on getting our pretty faces on there YouTube.

Kirk: Yeah, yeah, our YouTube is actually getting a lot of hits actually people are listening to podcasts on YouTube. Who knew?

Trevor: Wherever they want to listen to us, it's good by us.

Kirk: By us yeah all right man um and rest in peace Brian Wilson so

Trevor: Yeah, that just for whenever you listen to it. It just happened just happened in our time now.

Kirk: All right, man. Talk to you later.