Episode Transcript

Trevor:   Kirk, we're back and you brought us a rock star.

Kirk:  Literally a rock star. Punk star. You know, Trevor, you last year, you encouraged people to give us one and a half, two to 3 minutes. My Cannabis Stories.

Trevor:  Yeah, you got one from a kind of a famous person.

Kirk:  We did and it is a 45-minute conversation with Ms. BIF Naked.

Trevor:  And for those who don't know where else we'll start right now, we mentioned it many, many times. She's from Dauphin. We own her.

Kirk:  Yeah. Yeah. Well, she spent her formative years in Dauphin and she spoke very favorably of our community. And you're gonna have to listen to the episode now. Let's introduce BIF naked. She was born in India.  She spent some time in Kentucky and she spent time in The Pas, and she spent time in Dauphin.

Trevor:  Best time of her life.

Kirk:  Yes, her influences were in Dauphin. Also, she spent time in Winnipeg, got her university education in Winnipeg became a rock star to the point that she holds with her song "I Love Myself Today," which we showcased in our Boss Ladies episode. That song is 88 in the top one hundred and fifty Canadian Air played songs. She also is labeled as 104 out of the top 150 of the best-selling Canadian artists. So, she, like she is.

Trevor:  A legit Boss Lady of rock,.

Kirk:  Of rock and punk. Yeah. So she talked to us. It was a wonderful, wonderful interview. I really enjoyed it. And I think you could hear me in the interview.

Trevor:  I a little bit of fan boys.

Kirk:  Just a little bit. What song were you singing today?

Trevor:  All morning through my head. It's "I'm just a girl." But, you know, it's a hard thing for a 40 something year old pharmacist. But, you know.

Kirk:  Can you hum it?

Trevor:  Very badly. I'm just a girl in the world and that's all that I'll ever be. Yeah.

Kirk:  OK, well, I'm glad that you're in touch with your sexuality.

Trevor:  Something.

Kirk:  OK, you know what? Let's get into it. Let's get into this "My Cannabis Story" of Bif Naked. Thank you again Bif, for this. Let's enjoy this interview.

Bif:  Good afternoon. My name is Bif Naked and I am a recording artist and Renaissance woman.

Kirk:  What, you don't hear that word? I consider myself a Renaissance man.

Bif:  Fantastic.

Kirk:  Very cool. So, you've been in the music industry, now what, it's got to be, I don't want to out you, but twenty-five years.

Bif:  Longer than that. And so, I my very first performance professionally was 1989 and my first tour was 1990 and I never looked back. I left university in my first year at the University of Winnipeg and I had every intention of going back to my theater school. I was into theater and also musical theater and I didn't intend to be a vocalist. I really thought I was going to be in comedy or something along those lines, I suppose. And it was just a good fit. And of course, you know, back in the day punk rock, I didn't actually have to have any training to sing.

Kirk:  Right, right. Well, you started the year my first son was born, so that's how old I am.

Bif:  Fantastic.

Kirk:  Your music is very autobiographical. That's the word. So, I've been on all things Bif the last two weeks, since you agreed to this interview. So Chotee, Love Myself Today, which we showcased in one of our podcasts, by the way.

Bif:  Very cool.

Kirk:  Everything the whole album, The Promise. Do you want to talk a little bit about the how you personalize your music?

Bif:  Oh, well, I guess, you know, the things that inspire my writing are just kind of stuff from my lived experience. I mean, you know, from time to time, I'm going to write a song that's going to be all from my imagination, like, you know. Sophia was about a little dog and there was a song called Honeybee, which was about me being in prison and being haunted by a bee that I had swatting, you know, kind of thing. But mostly it's all stuff that I've kind of lived through and everyone can relate to it. We love. We are heartbroken. We feel vengeful, you know, all the same emotions, I guess all the time permeate our life story.

Kirk:  And we're saying before we started the interview that I moved to Dauphin about twenty years ago, my wife and I are very involved with the art scene. I was on your wiki page. I've been researching the last two weeks. And it's interesting your Dauphin connection, when you glance on, it comes up the Watson Art Centre, do you remember the Watson Art Centre?

Bif:  Oh, interesting, so funny. Well with, Dauphin, you know, I moved there from Kentucky when I was entering junior high and went to McKenzie Junior High for my entire middle school career. I'm very proud of it. I came of age really in Dauphin and I still have dear friends that I know from those days. And, you know, thanks in-part to Facebook, of course, nowadays we can all keep in touch and check up on each other. But, you know, it's very serendipitous the memories that I have of Dauphin in particularly the first concert I saw, I think was at the Dauphin Arena. I saw a band called the Straw Dogs.  And I think that they were actually like a side project of the guys from the Queen City Kids or something like I can't really remember, but I definitely had my first beer while watching a Dauphin Kings game.

Kirk:  Oh. So is it safe to say that maybe your start in the music industry started in the artful town of Dauphin?

Bif:  Oh, yes, indeed. You know, I discovered that I loved theater and I love taking drama class and in Dauphin also very, very proud to be involved in reader's theater.  To go to the school and also spoken poetry, French spoken poetry and all of the variety of arts competitions that they had.

Kirk:  Well, that's very cool. I think you'll be impressed with some of the renovations that they've done at the Watson Art Centre. Maybe we can entice you to come by and do some spoken word for us or a concert.

Bif:  Oh, from your mouth to God's ears. Wouldn't that be amazing?

Kirk:  Well, I'll gladly host it. So, let's plan it after we get off air.  We will plan a Bif Naked concert and Trevor and I'll host it.

Bif:  Oh, that's fantastic. That would be fantastic.

Kirk:  Well, thank you for the kind words. We both Trevor and I like living in Dauphin. We think this podcast kind of promotes it a little bit. But let's talk a little bit about you and your experiences now. Again, a brief overview of your life story. You've had some hardships in your life and some very public health problems. Would you like to speak to some of that?

Bif:  Oh, sure. You know, I don't think that my story is any different from anybody else's story. And certainly, in Dauphin, I'm not the only girl from my junior high to experience breast cancer. But what I was young when I was diagnosed. I was only thirty six years old. And at that time there was no Instagram. You know, it was it was kind of rare for anybody to really talk about it too much or blog about it or have a Facebook page. And so it was, I guess, in a way, a novelty for a lot of people because I had an image of being very healthy and very active. We played two hundred and sixty-five shows a year, probably for I'm going to see like 18 years. And for me to be diagnosed was a bit of a shock to everyone. And of course, truthfully, I think people really thought I was going to croak. You know, people are very afraid of cancer, especially ten years ago. You know, women particularly were petrified of breast cancer. I think now it's a little different. Now the survival rates are improving. It can be managed a little bit more easily. And, you know, oncology has come a long way as it does every year. And they can, you know, kind of cater a bit to each patient, specifically to her needs with breast cancer. And so for me, I had just gotten married at the time that I was diagnosed, and it definitely played a big role in the deterioration in my marriage, I would say. And I think that a lot of people can relate to that because, you know, the things that do help our families bond or fall apart are usually a crisis. And definitely it's a health crisis when you have a cancer diagnosis in the family. And I learned a lot. I learned so much, discovered I was a science geek, discovered that I like the hospital setting and was comfortable. I started volunteering as a medical chaperon. When I was still in chemo for some of the chemo patients I met that we're not comfortable seeing their doctor or having some of the variety of treatments or even screening. And then, you know, again, quite by accident, kind of fell into palliative care volunteering. And realized it was my calling. I mean, who knew? You know, you kind of don't know until you're in it. And I've been doing it ever since. So in a way, I'm really grateful that I was diagnosed. And then I did go through my own surgery and treatment and radiation so that I can better speak to it when I am volunteering. And I can be a better, better volunteer. Really?

Kirk:  Oh, that's fantastic. I love hearing that. I'm a proponent of volunteering and giving back to the community. I think it offers a better balance to your life.

Bif:  I love it. Like, honestly, if I if I could choose only one job to do, it would definitely be just doing the medical chaperoning, volunteering.

Kirk:  Let's move on a little bit to your relationship with cannabis, with the hardships that you've talked about. Is there any correlation to your relationship with cannabis?

Bif:  Oh, definitely. You know, a lot of people know I was became a straight edge when I was in my mid 20s. And prior to that and I can thank Dauphin.  I was kind of a normal prairie girl in a way, and, you know, drink beer like anybody else. And I didn't have a lot of experience with cannabis. That, of course, was happily introduced to it in Dauphin, I will tell you that. So I went through my adult life being a straight edge person, meaning I didn't participate in drug use or alcohol. And that was primarily because I was on tour and we did so many shows and had to I had to function on very little sleep for decades. And I just I was never very good at it drinking beer. I was the girl that got drunk on a tablespoon so I would essentially talk too much and lose my voice. So it had to leave my life. But as far as cannabis goes, and particularly when I was in chemotherapy and in cancer care, a lot of the girls who I was in the chemo wards with were also supplementing with either cannabis or CBD oil, with and without THC in them.  It was remarkable how supportive they felt with these products in their lives and how supported their treatment was because of it. So that's really was my introduction into it. And, you know, over the years, as it grew in popularity, obviously, you know, that was always; it's on everyone's radar, really. If you're in fitness or in health and nutrition, you know, everyone started picking coconut oil one year and the next year we're on Tamarac. And, you know, so it's kind of being up on the trends was something that came naturally to me. And then the opportunity came for me to really explore how we can kind of promote and find a product, make a product that is isolette that is non-THC, because a lot of the patients were basically afraid of it. You know, a lot of people are still afraid of THC. And as our population is aging, more and more people need and can benefit from CBD oil. Emphasizing the non-THC is important for us.

Kirk:  So that was back in 2008. You were you were diagnosed with breast cancer. Is that when you got into volunteerism? And the reason why I'm asking is that the early days of legal medicinal cannabis. So the people, the people that you were working with in those days, were they using cannabis medicinally, legally, or were they using it medicinally without their doctors knowing? And I'm asking you...

Bif:  I'm sure both to be honest with you. And the same is true today as many people know and a lot of people do appreciate so much, the Canadian government really making just massive strides for everyone. But at the same time, there are people who really bemoan the products that are available and the process and the cost. And, you know, the black market is thriving. Of course it is. It always will be. And that's the thing. It's very, very complicated, you know, to legalize this incredible plant. You know, it's complicated and it's not going to be perfect. It's going to have they're going to stumble, of course, to try and get it right. And in the meantime, people are still going to utilize the black market.

Kirk:  Yeah, I know. It's interesting you say that when we first started this podcast, I shared with Trevor that I had a very dear friend of mine in the early aughts. It was 2003, 2005, he was from Alberta on cancer treatment, experimental cancer treatment, and he was selfmedicating with cannabis and I would visit him and I said, where are you talking to doctors about this? I mean, you're on an experimental routine here with your medicines, and you need to tell them that using cannabis. And his comment back to me was, well, they say if they need to know, they'll ask. And so I'm wondering, this is why I'm sort of hovering around 2008. Were you in that experience? Because cannabis is certainly changed and we're going to get into your business in a couple minutes. But have you noticed a change from those days that the patients are were very reluctant to tell the doctors about the cannabis use?

Bif:  Oh, 100 percent. 100 percent. You nailed it. And not only that, the doctors didn't know anything about it like nothing. And that's still true today with a lot of GPs, you know.  Oncology, perhaps it's different in some of the very specialized arms of medicine where they are dealing with chronic pain and patients who do have chronic pain management issues. And, yes, absolutely, in the cancer community, it has been widely utilized for a long time with and without doctor’s knowledge and with and without doctor's approval. And I don't think that's necessarily going to change, although now it's legal. So it's easier in many ways for a patient to find out information. But, of course, you know, is as you know, the Internet always trumps everybody. You know, it's right there at your fingertips. And so people can find what they're looking for whenever they want to, wherever they are. But again, a lot of people who are going through different programs across the country, in Manitoba and everywhere, Canada, you know, they want to follow their doctor's orders and they want to follow the correct treatment protocols because they want the best outcome. And most people who are, you know, really following that regimen to the letter want to go the legal routes and they want to go to the doctor to obtain cannabis.

Kirk:  I agree. And, you know, I think the times are a changing. And one of the themes of our podcast is we truly ask people that listen, if you are using cannabis as medicine, please inform your medical practitioner, your nurse practitioner, and your nurse, your doctor, whoever you go to, your massage therapist, for that matter, let them know you're using cannabis. This is a wonderful segue to your relationship to cannabis. So you obviously are no longer a recreational user of cannabis, correct? You are now a medicinal user. Cannabis?

Bif:  Well, honestly, I don't think I've used cannabis since I was in the 10th grade. You know, so for me and utilizing cannabidiol oils, that's only really, I only really started personally utilizing the CBD oil, when I was confident that it was an isolate, when I was confident about the carrier oil, you know, like, like anything, it can be so many different things. There's nobody really validating the claims that any company on the Internet is able to make. So for me, even though I have not personally, you know, smoked a joint or, you know, rolled a blunt in a number of years, everyone around me does. And not only that, I think it was important for me to always speak up about legalization. And then I you know, it was very much in favor of it and promoted it, you know, and I still do and I still will. So even though I can sit here and go, I'm not in the pot business, you know, I'm in the hemp business, I'm not in the getting high business. I'm in the getting healed business. You know, for me, it's really that black and white. But for everyone I work with and also within the Mona Lisa Healing Company, I mean, you know, the it's a wide range. It's a variety of different people in different age groups that use cannabis differently.

Kirk:  OK, again, wonderful segue. You've done this before. I guess you've been interviewed. You give me some wonderful lead in questions, good answers. But I got to I'm going to break here just for a second. I'd be remiss if I didn't say this. I've been talking to people that we're going to have this interview and one of one of the people that I'm a fan of and we've interviewed her, and that's Dr. Shelly Turner, you will find her, is one of our podcast as she she's under Healing Communities Part Two. She is a huge fan of yours. And she said to me, you make sure you tell her Kirk that she's one of those early risers and she's one of the first Twitter feeds I go to in the morning. So one of the people I'm a fan of, who listens to us, is a fan of yours. So, I needed to say that before I forgot.

Bif:  That is very kind of you to tell me.

Kirk:  So let's move on to Mona Lisa. Now, this is how we discovered you outside the music, of course. And you're being an ex Dauphinite but from the cannabis business, let's talk about Mona Lisa. What is your relationship with Mona Lisa Healing?

Bif:  I am one of the people that is behind the brand. So basically, you know, Mona Lisa is a business that I wanted to be involved in, really because I was so impressed with what they were doing and the integrity that they were doing it with. So, again it's like, you know, on one hand, with Canada, the industry is exploding. It's exploding, you know, but people are getting blindsided. Like, if you're a chemo patient who is 75-years-old, you don't know where to go. You just Google it. You want edibles or you want somebody to send you five joints or, you know, if you are not comfortable leaving your home and going down to your local government store, for example, and say you don't have a dealer so you don't even know anybody, you can order it off the Internet, you know, whether it's legal or not, you can still get it and you don't know what you're getting and you can be getting, you know, anything in the whole world. You know, people can be getting CBD oil for their pet, for example. There's lots of websites that that have pet CBD, but you don't know the carrier oil. They can tell you what it is. But do you really know? You know, is it tested? Is it verified? And this was the thing that really bothered me about it, because I hate seeing people get taken advantage of, particularly in cancer care. That type of tomfoolery is rampant. Really, it is work. And I saw it firsthand.

Kirk:  What is the business? This is a hemp oil business that you're that you're a spokesperson for and endorsing Mona Lisa Healing.

Bif:  Yeah. So Mona Lisa Healing is in the healing business. So basically what it is, is a CBD hemp base, organic hemp from B.C. It's an isolate. So there's lots of different cannabidiol oil. There's a broad spectrum and there's blends and there's isolate. And our oil that we're use is MCT coconut oil, which is really pure vegan, you know, easy to digest, very bioavailable stuff, a lot of different brands, these grapeseed oil, all of these other things which are, you know, fantastic, I'm sure. But they're not necessarily great for pets. And some people have allergies and whatnot. This does seem to be the best route I found anyway in my own small, small experience in the world. And my friends were already developing it. And once I started seeing the difference.  My sister started taking the CBD oils and my sister does not you know, she's a single mom. She works full time in Winnipeg, but she has knee problems. She's in her 40s and started taking the CBD oil as a tincture under her tongue. And within a week, she saw a difference in her mobility. And she is the biggest skeptic in the world.  The biggest. And so she started saying, this is amazing, the difference for me. And then I started giving it to my husband. He was notoriously grouchy and sleepless. He has a lot of sleep disordered type of evenings where he is up and down in the night and can't get back to sleep. And it was really disruptive for him and for his wellbeing. And he started taking some of this CBD oil. And then I was told once, once it was OK for him, then I then I couldn't believe it.

Kirk:  It's very interesting. Now, the product, Mona Lisa Healing, has three products, the 750 milligram organic hemp CBD, the 1500 milligram organic hemp CBD and the 3000 mg hemp CBD. Where is, the hemp is grown in British Columbia. Where about in British Columbia. Now you're going to give me an opportunity to plug Dauphin, but I'm going to let you offer the answer to that. Where is the hemp grown in British Columbia?

Bif:  Well, in the most-sunny, most beautiful area in the province, of course, which is the Okanagan. And, you know, B.C., like Washington State, like a lot of places, is quite famous for their beautiful leafy cannabis. Kind of notorious in a way. But, you know, I think that gave a lot of people basically a good feeling too. And it was important to us because it is a Canadian company. And we wanted to kind of reassure everybody that everything about us is Canadian, not just the people behind it, but also the healthy plants.

Kirk:  I can get behind that. I can definitely get behind that, we are all Canadian. In regards to the Okanogan, is it is the Hemp coming from one producer? Are there are multiple Hemp producers out there that are producing the products.

Bif:  Just one, just one producer of the hemp.

Kirk:  So that that adds to the quality of your product. You can go to that one field and ensure what you're getting.

Bif:  That's exactly right. And we're you know, we're confident about the growers and we're confident about the way that they grow their product.

Kirk:  That's very cool. So just to put a plug in to Dauphin, you may I don't know if you know this, but Dauphin was one of the first, if not the first place in Canada to grow hemp industrially.

Bif:  And I'm not surprised at all.

Kirk:  Yeah, it's about 20 years Dauphin has been growing hemp. So we actually to get the plug Reefer Medness, we have an episode on that to another one for you to listen to.

Bif:  Oh, fantastic. Fantastic.

Kirk:  So the goal of your company is to share stories and experiences. So I notice there's lots of endorsements on the Webpage. You want to share some of those endorsements you've had?

Bif:  Oh, sure. You know, like, for example, we have one of the ladies that we know is 83 and she has a lot of anxiety. She's actually schizophrenic. And the Mona Lisa has really enabled her to kind of have a bit of a second life. In a way, she has felt, you know, lessened anxiety and her anxiety is not like ours. You know, it's different and it's very malleable and it varies. And she just feels that the Mona Lisa has really balanced her in her life and it doesn't interfere with her medications. Another example is another gentleman we know who is 66-years-old, had terrible sciatica, just excruciating. And there was nothing that could be done. And for months, he had gone from doctor to doctor and they kept telling him that he had to have surgery to alleviate his pain. And there was nothing that they could do for him other than that. And I don't know if they were talking about, you know, his vertebras or what they were saying. But once he started, at the urging of his wife, he started a CBD oil regimen. And literally it's like his sciatica simply disappeared. So, I mean, stories like this for me really made me sit up and take notice because I just thought there has to be it has to be something else like really like is it really true? Can it really be true? And the more I experienced my own self with my own workouts and my joints and from yoga and from, you know, ballet training for 30 years and everything, it just again, it was like it was just unexpected, really. It was unexpected. I'm not a skeptic, but I'm very realistic and very pragmatic person, and I just couldn't believe it.

Kirk:  No, that's wonderful. One of the things I noticed about your Web page is you're the company, Mona Lisa Healing seems to be very in touch with their customers. It seems that's a very important part of the business.

Bif:  Oh, we have to be. I mean, we have to be. And again, partly like we were talking about, people just, you know, they're curious for sure. But a lot of people just don't really understand. And again, not necessarily our generation of people, but older than us, they are really afraid of THC. You know, they're afraid of it being in the product. Even though I'm sure that they would be pleasantly fine. But they're afraid of it. And it's an issue for them. So for them to have access to us and be able to just ask us any question and go through it with them, whether it's dosing or whether it is, you know, time of day or anything, whether it's going to interact, you know, obviously we always say that they need to consult their medical professional or please, you know, ask your doctor first. But at the same time, being able to talk to everybody has really made all the difference for people and for us.

Kirk:  Well, it's interesting, going back to Dr. Shelly Turner. She calls CBD, she says it's Vitamin CBD. Canadians should take their vitamin D and Canadians should take their vitamin CBD. So she endorses CBD hugely.

Bif:  And that's fantastic.

Kirk:  So going back to your business, you've made contact with your customers. You you've got the products out there. What is it do you hope to do with this product? Where is the business going to go? Here's an interview Bif Naked: five years from now, Where will Mona Lisa Healing be?

Bif:  Oh, gosh, I don't even know. You know, if there's part of me that thinks that the sky's the limit. I wish that Mona Lisa was in every hospital. I wish it was in I wish they had it at Costco so everybody can have it. I wish that they could have it in shelters, you know, where people are at the most vulnerable. And who could probably benefit from it the most. If I could have my dreams for Mona Lisa, it would always have a charity component where a person purchasing a bottle of Mona Lisa could pay it forward and would be able to earmark funds towards a charity or towards, you know, veterinarians who can then give it to emergency patients or to hospitals or just anything. You know, I just think that the sky's the limit. It's not just CBD, but with the right brands of CBD, with the right type of CBD. Again, I can't emphasize enough how the market is kind of flooded with products that may or may not actually help people. And also, there's a lot of price gouging in the market today where it's so it's so expensive and people can't. But I guess we're just we're just going to try and do what we can. We're going to be like I said, we're going to implement some special pricing and have some discounts for veterans, maybe even people with disabilities.

Kirk:  Okay. Do you foresee getting more than just three products? I mean, for now, you have you have vials of oil that people use and drop under their tongue. You're advocating sublingual route. Are you looking at going into capsules later? You're looking at introducing new products in the future?

Bif:  Well, you know, all we really need are tinctures, You know, there's a lot of different companies. They have lots, especially in beauty. They have creams. They have just everything, body lotions, you know, antiaging. They have a lot of different products. And we always maintain that, you know, our product is pure. Add it to your lotions.

Kirk:  You use it under the tongue.

Bif:  You can it to your lotions, you can add it to your food, to your smoothie.

Kirk:  You use it topical as well.

Bif:  Exactly. 100 percent. It's more bioavailable in this form. Like sublingual. It's just it's bioavailable. Like eating an apple.

Kirk:  Yeah. I agree with you. My partner Trevor walked in about halfway through. I'm going to surrender the microphone. I think he has a few questions for you also.

Trevor:  Hi Bif this is Trevor again, thanks so much for taking our call. We're huge fans.

Bif:  Oh. So I'm so happy it worked out. I'm so happy that I could.

Trevor:  And so you've covered most of it. So I've got I'll call two and a half questions first. I really like what you're saying about affordability for the poor and, you know, maybe down the road, even happening in shelters in a place like that. That's a fantastic goal. And other than having maybe some we'll call it compassionate pricing, is there anything that your company is doing now for people who can't afford CBD or is that something you're kind of working for in the future?

Bif:  No, we're definitely implementing it now. So we do discount pricing and we do special pricing. We're going to be rolling out in the next couple of weeks. We're going to start earmarking specific charities where they're going to use a code that they can have a discounted price and that we donate directly to that charity.

Trevor:  That's fantastic. Really socially responsible of you good on the company.

Bif:  Well, I hope so, again, because we're just starting I'm still learning, you know, I'm learning how to better do that because I mean, it's not just about Price Equity, it's more about social justice.

Trevor:  That's great, and another thing I read in a previous interview is the company you and the team are really interested in trying to stamp out, stamp out the black market. How do you think Mona Lisa's doing on that or any sort of plans down the road for how that's going to work?

Bif:  Well, I don't think we can stamp out the black market, number one.  I don't want to stamp out the black market, you know, because I mean, a lot of people really don't like the pot that the government provides. However, when it comes to CBD oil particularly, I think that there, it's not that it's the black market per say that I have a problem with it, it's the lousy product and the price gouging. So, hey, I'm all for the black market. But if someone's going to be a dick, then I have a problem with it. And what I mean by that is if someone is going to charge vulnerable people a lot of money for a shit product. Yeah. I want to shut them down.

Kirk:  So how do you really feel?

Bif:  In a nice way?

Trevor:  No, no, that's a very nice way. My last question is just about the name Mona Lisa. How did you and the team come up with that? Is it the painting and is it Leonardo...

Bif:  It's everything? The name Mona Lisa makes everybody smile. It really does, because we can all visualize that little that little smirk. And it just kept coming up for us. My partners are massive art collectors and art fans, and they love I guess. Yeah, they love the Renaissance. And it just really made a lot of sense. I mean, of course, we thought about a million different names over the past year that we've been talking about it. You know, it's not overnight and of course, you know, is it why is it healing? Why isn't it some other word, you know, what is it all about? And basically, what does it mean to us is essentially what the debate was over. In one way, with your names in a hat and in another way, it was very calculated. So, we just I guess we're just art fans and we're fans of that contented feeling and the feeling of contentment. And that's really what Mona Lisa represented to us so to name just seemed like a natural fit.

Trevor:  Thanks a lot. If I'm handing the mic back to Kirk for just a wrap up.

Kirk:  Hi. Thank you so much. This has been a pleasure. Final words.

Bif:  Well, yes. I forgot to mention that we're going to be also implementing subscription. Due to the high demand. So that will have a component, which is the auto ship and it's for, you know, repeat customers because we're starting to accumulate so many repeat customers that it's going to make sense for us to let them subscribe and then they can auto ship, which is really exciting for us. I hope that we can you know, I would love Mona Lisa to grow so that we can, you know, just sponsor different things and sponsor events and really just try and make a difference in the world, not just as a brand, but like you had mentioned as a community. You know, the cannabis community is, like you said, very kind and generous people. And even though I personally, you know, just take my you know, CBD oil, but it doesn't mean that I'm not, also still in the cannabis community. You cannot have hemp without having cannabis and you cannot have you know, you can't be involved in CBD without, you know, also being involved in cannabis. So that's something that I'm very, very proud of. And then I want to also contribute in my way and bring some honesty, awareness and integrity.

Kirk:  Fantastic. Fantastic. One of the things that I haven't yet discussed with my team yet, but I think it's a no brainer that we'd like to become part of the referral program. So we'll be touching base with you, with your people about that.

Bif:  How cool. Yeah, so cool.

Kirk:  We'll have a link. We'll have a link on our Web page that can go to your to your business.

Bif:  It's oh. Oh cool.

Kirk:  Yeah. Thank you so much. I can't tell.

Bif:  Welcome. Thank you for including me. I really appreciate. I'm sure that you guys will get lots of different guests. I'm sure. I mean these guys are great. You're great. You're articulate, you're funny, you're generous. And the questions you ask are really, really great. They're personable and they're smart.

Kirk:  The smiles in this room right now are adding to the city of sunshine. So it's we're very happy.

Bif:  Thanks, guys. Bye.

Trevor:  We interviewed a rock star. That's fantastic. And Kirk, why should people stay to the very, very end today?

Kirk:  It's February 14th.

Trevor:  And we have a really special special gift, February 14th, Valentine's Day gift for our audience. And it is...

Kirk:  She's dropping her new single today. And our producer asked her if we could if we drop this My Cannabis Story on February 14th, would we be able to also drop her new single? And she was very gracious and said.

Trevor:  Yes.

Kirk:  Yeah, yeah.

Trevor:  Another reason, stay that very, very end.

Kirk:  Yeah, but we got to do some talking here about CBD.

Trevor:  We'll talk about CBD. Quick science recap what CBD?

Kirk:  So of course you go back into our catalog and you'll see we discussed this. But very briefly, the endocannabinoid system was discovered in the early 90s when they were trying to trace THC and they found that THC bound to CB1 receptors in this new system, the endocannabinoids system. We have an inside our body. And then you also have the discovered CB2 receptors a few years later and they discovered, my goodness, there's another cannabinoid called.

[00:41:36] Cannabidiol. And it's the reason it seems to be all over the news right now, past year or so, is it's not psychoactive. So you do not get high from CBD and it seems to be anti-inflammatory and thus it seems to be involved in lots of stuff, especially stuff where your immune system is behaving badly.

Kirk:  Yes. And I outed Dr. Shelly Turner. I mean, she legitimately believes CBD should be in our diet. She is such a proponent. And obviously BIF Naked is also a very excited proponent of CBD. And they're taking it daily and they're doing it under their tongue. Do you want to briefly just discuss about sublingual versus ingestion of CBD?

Trevor:  Sure. So we will go geeky pharmacies for a bit. So we got different ways of getting stuff into people. So we have medications just in regular pharmacy world that we put under the tongue. And the idea of putting under the tongue or sublingual is we hope it gets dissolved there and go straight into your bloodstream and avoids the liver. Orally goes through your stomach, and then the first place it goes is through the liver. Not that's bad. That's just what happens. So the thought is if you put CBDs under the tongue or any kind of cannabis liquid extract under the tongue, that it's all going to be absorbed there, avoiding the stomach. The problem is, from the reading I've done and some PhD wants to correct me, I'm more than willing to listen. Some of the studies I've said read said we're not sure. Probably some of the stuff we put under the tongue gets absorbed straight into the bloodstream and avoids the liver. Probably some of it goes through your stomach and goes into the liver. Then there is the excitement of so all the cannabinoids are fat soluble, the great big fatty molecules, which is great for absorbing through like a mucus membrane. But in your tongue you got all that saliva, all that water that kind of stops it. So how'd you get it from the watery mouth to the stuff under the tongue where you could make it into really, really small globules. And that's sort of the micro-nano-emulsions you'll read about basically making the tiny, tiny little droplets so they can go through the water and then get absorbed or you can dissolve them in something like alcohol. So tincture and pharmacy world means dissolved in alcohol and alcohol is an interesting thing that it will play nicely with water and play nicely with fat. So if you put something in a tincture, there is at least a good chance it'll go from the watery mouth, through under the tongue and straight into the bloodstream. But again, it seems to be a little bit open to debate about how much actually goes. When you put something under your tongue, how much gets absorbed there and how much just goes through your stomach. And I think that's something they've still got to figure out.

Kirk:  What I like about Mona Lisa Healing is if you go to their Web page, they're all about endorsements. And obviously they have they've had huge successes. What I know about the company, because I have to do some self-disclosure here, I was very uncomfortable at one point. As a nurse and as a pharmacist we're out here promoting CBDs. And it's not that we're promoting CBD. What we're doing is telling a story. Mona Lisa, Healing is a story. Bif Naked has had some very positive results. And there's a whole lot of endorsements of Mona Lisa Healing on their Webpage of other people who have had some positive results from some CBD ingestion. Now, that would be called an evidence-influence type practice. When a patient comes to me and says that they're getting some benefit from something, I have to take that into an account and then apply best practices to it. Right. So when I look at when I look at Mona Lisa Healing as a company, I'm really impressed Trevor, about how they have they've put up. on the Web their actual lab results. Their claims about their products. They have demonstrated that they have 99% CBD in their oils, in the oils. And they've done this because as a company, as individuals who own this company, they've all been using CBD and have been well, what did she call them?

Trevor:  She said,  don't be a dick and don't sell bad stuff to vulnerable people.

Kirk:  Exactly. So what they've done is there's a group of people as a group of kind people, they have built this company around authenticity about and what they're saying is best quality. And they're seeing triple lab tested and they are GMP, which is good marketing practices. So they've done this. They've built this company that that you can when you buy their products, they are claiming and guaranteeing that they are giving you CBD products.

Trevor:  But.

Kirk:  There's a but and this is where as a nurse, I was very uncomfortable with this at one point. So I made a phone call, I phoned Mona Lisa Healing and said, hey, guys, how are you selling CBD on the Web when it's potentially against the law? So I talked to Charles. He is the spokesperson and he's actually at the conference today where they're releasing this product at the wellness conference in Vancouver. He was really upfront with the Trevor. And it makes me more comfortable with as a nurse telling this story. What they're basically saying is that, you know, the government, and you've said you've heard this also.

Trevor:  Yeah. So what Kirk's getting to eventually is with Health Canada, as of today February 14th, 2020, it is illegal to sell CBD products outside a Licensed Producer. But Health Canada is looking at maybe making CBD like a vitamin or natural health product, which would then take it out of the Licensed Producer realm. To make easier to sell. And that's kind of what Charles was telling you.

Kirk:  Yes. Essentially how he said this is that they are ahead of the curve and they recognize it. They recognize the fact that they are selling CBD ahead of the curve. So that's what they're doing. So as a nurse, I feel comfortable saying check into Mona Lisa Healing, check out their products, look at their claims, make your own decisions. But what should they do? They need to go to their health practitioner.

Trevor:  Yeah, please. We said many times and we'll say it again, just keep your health care practitioners in the loop with what you're doing. It's just so much better. Better if everybody is on the same page, don't you know? Say Yes, doctor, yes. Nurse practitioner, I'm taking this. But when I'm actually taking that, you guys can even disagree about what you're taking. But just keep everybody in the loop about what's going on.

Kirk:  And if you are an active listener, active listener of Reefer Medness - The Podcast, you will know that we are often saying the difference between cannabis medicine is that often times, if not all the time, the patient is in control. Right. You are in control of your dosing. You are in control of how and what strains work for you over a period of time. So it's your responsibility to educate yourself when you're taking, when you're using cannabis as medicine. And we recommend you go to a health practitioner to get good medical information that relates to you right.   On Mona Lisa Healing, they do have disclaimers. They do encourage you to talk to your medical practitioner. And although there's lots of endorsements on this page about how CBD helps you, read carefully, because these are endorsements of how people have felt with using it.  The studies are happening. We are studying cannabis in Canada. I actually stumbled onto a Webpage the other day in my research. There's like one hundred and forty research projects going on right now in Canada on cannabis alone. Yeah, so that stuff's happening. So today, Trevor is all CBD day for us.

Trevor:  It is. We had this is number 2, you if you've been listening to this and in order last week you heard us talk to Hemp Sense. And this week we've got a Valentine's Day with BIF Naked. So, yeah, it's all CBD all day. All the time.

Kirk:  This is Reefer Medness - The Podcast. You know, we need your help. We need your help for endorsements. We need your help to tell us how good we are.

Trevor:  We need a couple more My Cannabis Stories like Bif.

Kirk:  We need more of My Cannabis Stories.

Trevor:  Slightly under forty five minutes.

Kirk:  Well, what if it's interesting?

Trevor:  Well, you know, OK, we'll make exceptions,.

Kirk:  But they but we also need you to to go on your podcast provider and do us a review.  Like Bif Naked review of us. That was wonderful at the end there.

Trevor:  Yeah. Bif says nice things. That's becoming my new ringtone.

Kirk:  Yeah, I think so. So if you like what we're doing and you're listening to it's on iTunes put in I put in a brief that, that people should be listening to us. And if you are a company that has a Web based presence, our podcast is heard all over the world, all through North America and every state, in every province, on every continent. We would love to support a business that supports Reefer Medness - The Podcast. So we're looking for people to help us out.

Trevor:  All our contact information is on our website www.reefermed.ca. Kirk, should we get into some special music from BIF Naked?

Kirk:  Yeah, Trevor, thanks again Bif. We do want to see you at the Watson Art Centre will host you a live show. Let's do it.

Bif:  Hi. This Bif Naked, and this is my brand new single called Jim, right here on Reefer Medness Podcast.