Episode Transcript

Trevor: Kirk, we’re back

Kirk: hey, Trevor.

Trevor: And you've been everywhere. Like the song said, you've been everywhere, man.

Kirk:  Well, you know it's another Road Story for you. As many of our listeners would know, Michelle and I have Van Hoot and we travel around the prairies. We've gone out to the coast a few times as we travel around and I love to stop in at cannabis stores. So, I'm bringing you a whole bunch of stories from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba where Michelle and I are traveling around. You know, I spent two decades traveling highway 16. Going back and forth between Manitoba and Alberta to see family. You know the smalltown Alberta, people will know that I've been there. I've done stories there. Well in the last couple of years, we have taken our time and we've taken every highway but, most highways except highway 16. So, as I go through small towns with Michelle, we've got our bicycles strapped to the back of the van. We've got the canoes strapped to the top of the van. We usually go to thrift shops. We usually go to cannabis shops and I just go to talk with them. We sort of have a routine. And so I gather stories and you know Trevor, people talk to me and I love sitting in a recreational store and talking to people about their experiences. And So what I've done is I've brought you some of those stories.

Trevor: You are memorable. This is a complete aside, my neighbor at the lake, former Dauphinite, now Texan, comes up every summer. You know, I was seeing him and he said, so I met some guy in Dauphin with a with a big beard, he says. He says he knows you. And it didn't take very long to figure out what that was. You, you and Michelle. Yeah, when people run into Kirk, they talk to him and he's quite Memorable

Kirk: Anyways, doesn't matter, but yes, I tend to be a talker. I like to talk to people. So yeah, I got I got road stories.

Trevor: OK. You got road stories, so I'm gonna lead you into the first couple. So, you were in Saskatchewan. You've mentioned a couple of times you start falling in love with northern Saskatchewan.

Kirk: I'm going to start out in Cold Lake.

Trevor: Ok, start me off in Cold Lake.

Kirk: None of these are really in order because it's sort of a collection of stories over the summer. Right. So, Michelle and I are heading out of Alberta. We're on the northern highways. Going through Cold Lake. Cold Lake is a beautiful, beautiful little town or city, I guess now, It's considered the Tri-city. They have a Canna Cabana in Cold Lake and you might remember that we had a Canna Cabana story back I think it was Episode 75 from Edmonton. That was the young lady that greened out an Ant. That story.

Trevor: But I remember greening out in an insect.

Kirk: Yes, yes. So that was from Episode 79 and her name was Kelsey, we met her. Well, I'm in Cana Cabana and I walk in and I meet Sherry and Ashley. And they're both medical patients and how they use cannabis and how they help people who use cannabis medicinally. This is what they told me.

Sherry Reed: Hi, I'm Sherry Reed.

Ashley Dangler: Hi, I'm Ashley Dangler,

Sherry Reed: and we work at Canna Cabana in Cold Lake. So I'd just like to tell you about the medicinal purposes of CBD. We sell a lot of oil and a lot of capsules here. It definitely helps customers with their pain, with their anxiety and stress levels. Medi-Farm is the best one that I've found for the CBD 50.

Ashley Dangler: We also have a lot of customers that come in and want CBD and CBN and they need that to relax, to go to sleep, and that is one of our most popular edibles that we sell as the CBN edibles.

Kirk: So as bud tenders, you're not allowed to give medical advice. So how do you get around that?

Sherry Reed: We you we use stories from customers or for our own personal experiences. So, we don't tell them that this is going to do this medically for them, but from my experience it's helped me. I can pass that on to other customers.

Ashley Dangler: Yeah. Or another customer story, you know. I say ohh, I have a customer has the same issues and she comes in and this is what works for her. It might not work for you, but it's worth a shot. Yeah, yeah, just to avoid that medical advice. But we do, we do just from experience.

Kirk: yeah. Fantastic. Thank you very much.

Trevor: So, and this is going to be recurring theme, I'm always interested in how because it comes up on our podcast a lot. How do you talk about medical cannabis use in a rec store? Because no matter what way you slice it, whether you're for or against it, whichever. It's going to come up. And they seem to lead in with stories.

Kirk: Well and this is one of the reasons why I visit Bud Tenders is that we know that people are going to rec stores from medicinal cannabis. So, I want to find out how they're doing it and this is how they do it. They share their personal stories. They were very welcoming to me. They were very excited about our podcast and once we launch this episode, I'll be contacting them and maybe e-mailing them a poster to put up in their in their shop. So, as we're traveling across Saskatchewan, we stumbled into a place called Tisdale and they used to be known as the Land of Rape and honey. Yes and yes, that they were famous for that. They've now since changed their moto.

Trevor: Funny that.

Kirk: I went into their store and I met up with Dev Culver. He's the manager of the store and he's a very nice man and I also met up with Mackenzie Burger, who happens to be a brand new Bud Tender. I think she's about a year, she said. And so, I might as well bundle these two together. This is the Canna Cabana store in Tisdale. Where they have a giant bee, the second largest road attraction bumblebee or honeybee in the world, so Tisdale Saskatchewan.

Dev Culver: Hi I'm Dev Culver, manager at Canna Cabana in Tisdale, Saskatchewan. I've been a medical user for just a little over 2 years.  So, I got my prescription roughly 2 years ago. I guess you could say I've been using medically for much longer than that, but that was all on my own. Since getting the prescription, I have found that unfortunately for me to go through the websites that are provided to me medically, it is more expensive than if I just utilize the stores, especially with my staff discount. But sometimes even without a discount it can still be found cheaper through the stores. I find that ironic because the stores are technically for recreational use. They are not medical stores, especially not the one I work with. We are actually instructed to not even speak to people about medical sides of this due to the fact that we don't have the proper training. We're not doctors, so we're not supposed to be giving that type of advice that in a sense is tough for me too, because as a medical user myself, I do have some knowledge. I'm still no trained professional, by any means, but I feel that I could further help some of our clients in, you know, guiding them towards the right thing. But we have to really step around how we phrase things, how we instruct them, what they might want to use to help with their ailments.

Kirk: So, if I was to come up to you and say I'm having difficulty sleeping, I understand that cannabis can help. My friends are doing it. How can you help me?

Dev Culver: The best thing is, especially with that kind of an introduction, I can say things like hey, here's some of the products that maybe your friends are finding helpful. These are the components of the products that your friends are using and this is maybe why they're finding that’s helpful for them. Maybe it'll work for you too. See, we have to use a lot of maybes and it works for your friend and we cannot be very direct. I can't say it's going to help, I can't help instruct you with dosing. I have to let you figure that out on your own and things which a lot of customers struggle with and it can cost them money there too. If they're playing with these things, you know, a bottle of oil per say, cost a person $40 to $50 and then they don't even know how much to take when they get home. That's unreasonable in a lot of ways.

Kirk: So how do you how do you address them? Do you guide them? Do you give them resources? Do you say I? Learn this way or.

Dev Culver: I certainly can point them towards talking to either a physician. However, especially where we're located, you're not going to find many that will be terribly helpful. So normally I will turn them towards online. I will tell them that they have been multiple people who are using this and are posting about their experiences down to what exactly they're using on dosages and things. So that's the best way for our customers to be able to research those things.

McKenzie Burger Demers: My name is Mackenzie Burger Demers. I work in Tisdale’s Canna, Cabana, Saskatchewan. I am a Bud Tender.

Kirk: You are a new Bud Tender. How new is new?

McKenzie Burger Demers: My family smokes quite a bit of weed. My mom is a very heavy smoker, but I just recently started smoking this past year. So, I grew up with it all around my life, but I never even really tried it until I started working here and that's where I kind of started learning more about the recreational side and then the medical side as well.

Kirk: That's very unusual. So, you came to the rec side as a Bud Tender and discovered cannabis that way?  Interesting. So what's the most remarkable thing you've learned as a Bud Tender

McKenzie Burger Demers: Honestly the fact that weed gets such a bad rap. It's considered such a hard drug.  It is even considered up there with meth and cocaine sometimes the way I hear customers talking about it. It's upsetting to hear it talked about that way when it is used so widely in the medical system. I know I use it medically. I use it mainly to sleep, but I help it with anxiety and depression as well and I find it is great. It works wonders, It’s amazing.

Kirk: Fantastic. How long you been Bud Tender.

McKenzie Burger Demers: I've been a Bud Tender for about a year now. Just a little over a I started. Last May here in Tisdale.

Kirk: OK, so as a new consumer of cannabis how do you use it. Do you smoke? How? Do you congest it. Do you ingest it?

McKenzie Burger Demers: Honestly, I love trying it lots of different ways. I haven't experimented with the concentrates that much yet. I'm more of a bong smoker. I love the flower, so I like to grind up and smoke in the bong. But I also like edibles. We actually sell tea bags here ourselves so I use the tea bags before bed. They help me sleep at night. Yeah, I like to experiment with all of it. Pre rolls and huge pre roll. Live resin. Hash. Edibles. Chocolate hot chocolate. Crazy amounts.

Trevor: All right, I feel the need, in case people just glossed over what do they mean by Rape and Honey? So just cause. If you're not from around here, canola, as in canola oil and you know it's in many, many things, but the most maintenance thing is Oil.  That is now the short of Canadian something oil and it, a while ago used to be called Rapeseed. So, they grew a lot of what is now called canola and produced a lot of honey. So, you know, they could now be the land of Canola and Honey and no one would be excited. But you know the plant was previously Rape Seed and that's where Rape and Honey came from. It is not nearly as terrible sounds.

Kirk: I used to have a friend. I still have a friend, from Alberta and he used to laugh that he was from the Land of Rape and Honey. But I digress. Now just for a little plug out to Canna Cabana. That's one of the biggest resale stores in Canada. They have stores in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. So, a shout out to the Canna Cabana and they seem to be really lively people and thank you for the stories.

Trevor: And I just want to circle back to Dev. I like you know and as again he said, it's comes up often. He is a medical user and working in a Canna Cabana, not a surprise, but I think, if he wasn't the only one, I like that he touched on price because this has come up before. That, as a medical user, even without his store discount, he can often get what he needs cheaper through a rec store than medicinally. And you know there's lots of reasons why this happens. Taxation and a bunch of other silliness. But you know, as a medical professional. That is so silly. Like what? Why is it that way around. Yeah. You know, we've heard the reasons, but they and they're big and complex and whatnot, but just as from a high level thing we could do better

Kirk: Yeah, we could do better with the whole medical program. No question. We're on record for that. I've written about it in our blog, and I plan to do a couple of rants on it in the near future. So a little plug on future social media. Kirk's going to be doing some more rants on just that issue.

Trevor: I want McKenzie because she was interesting. You know, they like interesting that you know you never want to do what your parents are doing. And her parents were really into pot. So, you know, didn't touch any of it as sort of, you know, a child, teenager, young person and then, it wasn't until she started being employed at a cannabis shop that she thought she tried out and seems like, you know, as a parent, seems like maybe her parents were on to something I do find that interesting.

Kirk:  Yeah, I do I find that interesting that she became a consumer of cannabis after working as a as a Bud Tender. Yeah, that, that that was a cool story too.  I get some really cool stories, you know? And like I said, not all of them do I put on Reefer Medness on and it's for many reasons. But let's move on to Saint Rose de Luc, which is.

Trevor: And for those who don't know where that is, where is Saint Rose?

Kirk: It's just down the road here, about 40 minutes down the road east of us. There's the Vault. The Vault is another privately owned business. They have stores in Ashern, Arborg and Saint Rose de Luc, and that's where I met Maddox Lloyd. We'll get into his story, but he is, he's very proud of being a certified Bud Tender. He taught me something.  I'll talk about it after we listen to him. But I did not know that there was a certification program and I say that as we talked to him. So, let's go into him. And listen to him. And then we can talk about him after we get out about the story told.

Maddox Lloyd: My name is Maddox Lloyd and I work at The Vault Cannabis. Bud Tender. The process for getting here was pretty nice. I just shopped here and was pretty nice. I helped around if I ever saw anything out of thing and I just when it came to when I was looking for a new job because my last job wasn't too great. Didn't pay well. Wasn't nice people. Just didn't like it. When it did become like a possibility to work here, they just told me in the store and I'm pretty lazy. So, I didn't really get my resume up or anything and I feel they knew that so they messaged me and they were like, hey, just come in and just we'll see what's going on. We'll set up a plan and I ended up taking a course that was to certify myself to be behind here and work here. And it wasn't too bad, I think. I think I aced it.

Kirk: It was it, an online course?

Maddox Lloyd: It wasn't really a course but it was a test.

Kirk: Was it a Vault test for the Vault, or was it a generic test?

Maddox Lloyd: It was a generic test to be a Bud Tender. To be licensed to be behind here. Cause you need to be certified to be behind the counter.

Kirk: From the government.

Maddox Lloyd: So yes, I'm certified.

Kirk: Certified by the Government.

Maddox Lloyd: I'm certified, Bud Tender.

Kirk: I didn't know that. I didn't know there was. I know that there's a certification for when you bartend, right?  I'm certified as a Bar Tender. I didn't know I could be certified as a Bud Tender.

Maddox Lloyd: I didn't know either until I came here.

Kirk: Well, guess I’m going to take a test.

Maddox Lloyd: It was so cool. I was just like, it was definitely a bragging point because I was just like. Certified Bud Tender.

Kirk: I got it on the wall.

Maddox Lloyd: I do have it on the wall, I just gotta hung up there like. Certified Bud Tender.

Kirk: Cool. Good for you. Congratulations.

Maddox Lloyd: Thank you. And honestly. It's really nice. It's rather slow on the weekends, but other than that, it's good work meet a lot of people and it's really nice people here and for stuff when it comes to like, people coming in for pain, it's mostly like older people that just come in. Either they have a picture of, like, something that they've seen on a store on our website and they'll be like, I got like back pain and you know, I don't like smoking weed.

Kirk: But they're coming for their edible.

Maddox Lloyd: They'll come in for the edibles a lot, and they'll just they usually don't know what they're doing, so they usually ask us.

Kirk: And what do you tell them?

Maddox Lloyd: We usually just show them a list and we're like, OK, this one does have more CBD more this. Will point them to ones with higher, like CBD than THC, and there is like ones without any THC for like the picky ones. And it's pretty great. Let's see. Monjour. that's a good one because.

Kirk: Very, very good day. CBD gummies. OK.

Maddox Lloyd: Yep. So CBD stuff that like. Tranquility, I think there's like night ones.

Kirk: Ohh tranquility yes. OK twilight tranquility. So that's obviously going to be helping somebody to sleep. So that's probably got high CBN's probably.

Maddox Lloyd: Yeah, they it's just something you take before sleep, yeah.

Kirk: Yeah, 5 milligram CBN. Look at that. Yeah. Yeah. So I see. So you guys actually tracked THC, CBD, CBN and CBG's. Those are the four cannabinoids that they're tracking.

Maddox Lloyd: We it's mostly just for our edibles because other than that, there's not too much information like we don't display how many are in there. Like for instance, these shredhems usually come in packs of four or two, but the Monjour they come in containers of like packs of 30. So ,they're more long lasting than the other ones that are just for like yum yum.

Trevor: So, Kirk, like you said, this is a young man who is very excited to have his bud tender certification, literally has it on his wall. Well, that segues nicely into Kirk well, hey, what have you learned lately about Bud tender certification.

Kirk: I took that ignorance I took that ignorance on my part and I enrolled. There's a little bit of a story here. Both Michelle and I volunteer at the Watson Arts Center. I've often talked about it. And we do bartending there. So, we upgraded our Smart Choice bartending certificate.

Trevor: And something put on by the province for people to bar tend.

Kirk: Yeah, yeah, yeah, 

it's a provincial program to teach people that serve alcohol all the things you need to know about alcohol. But I mean, it's a long course. I won't get into it. It's quite disappointing. But however, I digress. We got certified, we can now volunteer and serve alcohol. But after that I did the cannabis certification course and I'm now a certified Manitoba Bud Tender. 

Trevor: Congratulations. You and Maddox. 

Kirk: Me and him. Yeah. And I'm sure there's others. Again. Again, ignorance is curable. I went out and cured my ignorance, and I took the course. You know, it was an interesting course. It's a little frustrating, of course. And again, I've been outspoken about this and that the recreational cannabis system is all about the bad things about cannabis, right? The Cannabis Act is teaching us and regulates us to protect our children, ourselves from this substance, called cannabis. Well taking the certification course, is very, very much on that point. It's to teach Bud Tenders how to be responsible when selling a substance that can be misused. There's a lot of myths in the program that's built around the recreational program, so I think that's enough, said it was, it was a good course. I'm glad I took it. It gave me some insights to the Recreational System. It's just a shame. It's just a shame that it's not recognized for its medicinal qualities. But having said that, going back to my premise of visiting, you can hear me flipping through pages cause Maddox gave me a book that basically has their inventory, and if someone comes in with back pain. He can go to the book and find cannabis by name so you know he listed some of the names that would indicate that this might help the person and then they have all those cannabis listed by CBN. THC, CBD and I think CBG's I think. He can recommend people cannabis that way. So again, people come in and say I got back pain, he flips through the page and said well, this one seems to be something that might work for back pain so. Again it's that fudge area that Bud Tenders have to work with.

Trevor: No, I enjoyed talking to Maddox. You know, it's a little outside. I knew Maddox when he was a little kid in Dauphin. He played for a year or two, he was on the same hockey team as my daughter. So, you know you tease me, you tease me on being the youngest old guy around, but I feel like an old guy that you know, I know these kids when they know they're seven or eight and now they're off in the world. Doing stuff. Yeah, yeah, I know it. 

Kirk: It's interesting when age comes into play, but I when I introduced myself to him, I had no clue and as I was walking away afterwards, going Maddox Lloyd, Maddox Lloyd, why does that name seem familiar? And it ends up. Yeah, I also know his father. So yeah, small town. And I didn't go in there knowing that was going to happen, but thank you Maddox for the story. It's kind of cool. Moving along. Where are we at?

Trevor: So where are we? Where are we? Where are we off to next? Yeah, I think you're taking us back to Saskatchewan.

Kirk: At we're going to be. yeah, we're going back to Saskatchewan, we're going back to now these are stores that are in the northeastern part of Saskatchewan. Now on the map, it's more mid Saskatchewan but in the sense of population base, it's northeast and it's a series of stores owned by one guy, and they're all called by the name of the community. So, there's Canora Cannabis. There's the Preeceville Cannabis, there's the Kamsack Cannabis, there's Norquay Cannabis, Langan Cannabis. These are all small towns with the name cannabis on it. So, and they're all owned by their fellow named Michael. I went to each of the stores I got a story from the Preeceville Cannabis Shop which we meet the manager and she can tell us her story. But these are all stories from one owner. And again, it has to do with medicinal cannabis and how these Bud Tenders deal with medicinal cannabis issues. So let's hear them. 

Michael: Yeah, I've seen. A lot of good results lately. With the CBG. We have some drops called Calm Drops and they're pure CBG, straight from the plant. We had one kid come. In he was on meth. And he was having some real problems but decided he was when his change, his life, he came and asked to talk to us about it. What we did was put him on the CBG drops and two weeks later he came back. He was straightened up, hair cooked and getting his GED done. He realized. Because what he was was, he was taking Meth because of his stress levels and he couldn't deal with the stress. CBG was calm and it calmed him right down and allowed him to get his life back so for me that was the most impressive thing I've seen.

Kirk: Yeah, that's very cool. So.

Michael: I use a CBG drops anytime I have anyone who's actually got too much stress and they can't deal with it and it's made a real difference in a lot of customers lives.

Danity Nelson: I'm Danity Nelson. I'm from Preeceville Saskatchewan. I joined the industry about a year ago. I was a stay at home Mom who just needed to get out. I used cannabis recreationally and medicinally. I can't be medicated pharmaceutically, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I have borderline personality disorder, which nine out of 10 times cannot be medicated pharmaceutically. So, I find relief through cannabis, the Sativa's on the good days and the Indica's on the bad days. I find it helps parent better with borderline personality disorder. It's an emotional irregularities. So the sativa you know, in the good days is it's helpful to get out and do things with the family and to come on the bad days is kind of just to help relax and take a nap and then refresh and rejuvenate. I enjoy edibles on the rare occasion when my other medical issues allow for it. I can't consume it, ingest it very often because I have stomach issues, but that is another way that I have found relief through it. Menstrual cramps especially. With the CBG and the CBD and the edibles, and I guess that would be my story.

Kirk: What do you think? 

Trevor: Yeah, so well. CBG, Michael, obviously a big fan, talking about someone coming off of Meth, using CBG, talking about recommending it for stress relief.

Kirk: The girls in Code Lake? Yeah, we're. Talking about CBG. Everyone this trip, it seems like CBG's the new CBN.

Trevor: Yeah. No, I I agree. And I'm. Because you know, as a pharmacist, I'm the professional wet blanket. I really, really hope the gentleman who took CBG and came off of meth is, you know, life is going well, but I just want to throw it out there, that addictions are hard and they're lifelong and you know, one triumph once doesn't, you know, it's not the movies where you have you hit rock bottom and you know my problems with substance use are over. It's a lifelong thing. And I hope you know he's going well. But yeah, just you don't whatever magic it is, CBG or others, it is very rare for you to take one thing for one period of time and you know all my problems are over.

Kirk: Yeah. No, and I don't want to. I don't want to make this. I don't want to. What's the word? It's not. I want. I don't want to make this less than it is. You know, sometimes I walk into these stores and it's sort of like it's sort of like Danity you know, how she explained to us that she uses it for her personality disorder. You know, after she I recorded that I shut the my machine off and I said do you want to share that? That was quite a personal story and she said yes, she does, and that's why I'm including it. I said up front there are several stories I don't put on because sometimes I hear some stuff that I don't frankly believe, or I don't think I want my audience, our audience, to hear it and it's not that I'm screening, I guess I'm screening. I get there, it's just it's just. Sometimes you know I'm a nurse and sometimes I get myself in the conversations. It's like, ohh goodness, how did I get into this conversation? And ohh goodness, the recorder is going, I should really do something about this cause it's getting personal, but I think it's important that people realize and also for my license. I'm getting consent when we do these stories. I'm getting consent from people, and sometimes I ensure that they give us consent. So, in those in those stories and the and the next one coming is also a personal story about mental health and cannabis. I get their consent, Trevor, to make sure that they understand what we're what we're after here, and I'm just after a story about how Bud Tenders use cannabis. Sell cannabis to medicinal people. And like I say, they're selling it because they use it themselves.

Trevor: And I want to just circle back to Danity because so just thank you for sharing that story. And you know, neither of us are mental health experts, but just for the general public, like borderline personality disorder, this is a, it's definitely a non trivial, mental health illness that you know best of our knowledge is going to be with somebody for the rest of their life that you, comes and things come and go and things get better and worse, but it's something that, you know, people with borderline personality disorder have to deal with kind of the rest of your life. And it's not, sometimes it's really not easy and

Kirk: And and always. The caveat is I'm always hoping people are dealing with a health professional when they're using cannabis medicinally. Unfortunately, it's not always the case and it's always tough to be at the guy on the microphone going. Ohh man, could you not tell me that you're seeing a

cannabis doctor or prescriber please? You know? But I guess you're not. And that's as much as the fault of the of the healthcare system as it is the. Clients, right?

Trevor: Well and the way I like to justify it in my brain is you're right, we're always trying to get people inside the circle of care with their Healthcare. There is a lot of the reasons these patients who are using cannabis for, for or with we will throw mental health and illness. The reason their healthcare provider isn't in there is because of stigma. Sometimes the stigma from the healthcare professionals point of view. Sometimes it's fear from the patient. So, I'm always kind of hoping when we do stuff like this, it will make it a little less scary the next time with will say someone borderline personality disorder says I wonder if I should bring up my cannabis use with my nurse practitioner, and I'm hoping, you know, maybe if you hear a few of these stories, maybe it is now less scary for you to bring it up the. Next time you're chatting with them.

Kirk: Yeah, yeah. No, it's important that people include their prescribers in this or at least have a prescriber because I think way back when I can't remember which it was a pharmacist that we interviewed, gosh, several years ago, that pretty much said if you're taking cannabis as medicine, you're not getting high.

Trevor: Yeah, I think that think that was Michael Boylan, yes.

Kirk: Yeah, you're not getting high. You are using it as medicine. Now there are people that get high as medicine, but that's for different reasons, but let's move on to Tokyo Smoke. I'm going back

I'm going back west into Saskatchewan and I'm in a small town called Meadow Lake, a beautiful little town. It has a Central Park area, ball diamond, camping area, bike tracks all around it. It's a nice place. We go in and I meet a young lady, Peyton Marie, and she gives us her kind of a story,

which is a fantastic little story and how she uses it for her mental health. So here's her story.

Peyton Marie: Hello, my name is Peyton. I am the shop manager here in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan. I am a born raised British Columbian, so cannabis has always been a part of my life. For example, when I was told to water the garden as a teenager I was also watering the pot plants, which is quite funny. Cannabis has always just been a part of my life, so when I became a shop manager it was quite interesting to actually learn so much about it. Growing up with old school stoners for a mother, I was just raised with zigzags and rolling joints. So, it's definitely cool to step into the world of cannabis and see what the recreational industry has to offer. I've been loving it since. I've educated myself on the medicinal side of things as well, so I've gotten myself off of pharmaceutical medication and I just use cannabis now, so I use CBN for sleep and CBD for anxiety. I've also tripped in the other cannabinoids. Such as CBG, we love CBG. It's in my, in my world, I call it a bubble bath for your brain. So many cannabinoids out there. Yeah, that's pretty much the gist of my story, I suppose.

Kirk: Fantastic. What brought you to Meadow Lake?

Peyton Marie: Family actually came here for Toco, where I'm from in BC the Toco shut down and we got sent over here. 

Trevor: So Industry

Peyton Marie: Industry wise, for sure. I started out at shitty extra foods here in Meadow Lake. And I started as a tweed tender. So I've worked my way up from the bottom here to the top in the last three years of my career.

Kirk: Nice. Do you find a lot of people come to rec stores from their medicinal cannabis?

Peyton Marie: Oh, absolutely. I'm actually the queen of CBD here because I use it for medical reasons. I can sell it in a recreational world based off of my experience with it. So it's kind of a loophole right there because we're not supposed to make medical claims. 

Kirk: Right, but that that's a personal claim for you?

Peyton Marie: Absolutely yeah. I use it daily. Everyday. It's my medicine. 

Kirk: Well, thank you. Very much.

Trevor: Kirk, can I have the quote of maybe, the whole road story? 

Kirk: Sure.

Trevor: CBG. Like a bubble bath for your brain, 

Kirk: a bubble bath for your brain. That's a good one, eh?

Trevor: It really, really is.

Kirk: Like I say, CBG was the cannabinoid of the summer. Everywhere I went, everyone's talking about CBG's, you know. Anyway, so that was Meadow Lake. So now again I'm going a little all over the place. NowI am in Biggar Saskatchewan and now gee I think this one's back from maybe even June, July, when we were doing our first trip out to Alberta. And Biggar, Saskatchewan. I'm on my way to Vegreville for the Cossack meet up and I'm sitting there and Michelle. We stop. There's no thrift store that's open, but there's a butcher shop. So, Michelle goes to the butcher shop and I go to the cannabis shop. And they didn't want to talk to me. Not interested. I'd lose my job, et cetera, et cetera. And I said no, no, no worries. No worries. No, seriously, no worries. And they were upset with me that I would think that they would talk to me and you know. Buddy, it's OK. It's alright. I walk out of the door and I'm sitting in Van Hoot and I got my dog Gin is beside me and I'm sort of watching a small town go by. And this fella goes by on his long board and he stops and says hey, cool van man, I said. Yeah, it's a cool van, and we start talking about the van. And he said. So what are you doing in town? I said. Well, I'm looking for cannabis stories, he said. Oh. Hey, I got cannabis stories. So he took me back to his flower shop and he lives upstairs in it and I and his.

Trevor: Now for the record this is like roses and orchids flowers.

Kirk: Yeah not a cannabis flowers. No, no, no. This he sells roses and flowers and he's also got a hairdressing shopping there. Really nice fella right. And we just start talking. So this his story, and again, it's not a cannabis shop, it's just a cannabis story. And I thought I'd just put it in here cause it definitely was a road story and it was a memorable moment because I'm just sitting in my van and some guy comes up and says cool van man.

Trevor: Let's listen to Ryan from Biggar.

Ryan: Yeah, yeah, we're Biggar here. My name is Ryan, I run a flower shop and a hair salon here in Biggar. And yeah, yeah. When they legalized cannabis here in Canada I was really excited to get some plants and get growing. Little bit, I'd helped other people with their grows before it was legal and that kind of thing. So I was excited to get in on that. So, I actually went to a cannabis store in the city. I phoned around. I had to actually phone around to quite a few different places to find one of them that actually had seeds, right? Because they all had, you know, edibles and flower and all this kind of stuff. But very few of them actually had seeds in stock. And there was only kind of one you could get. So, I went to that store and bought the little 4 pack of seeds. And I think it was 90 bucks or something. They were very expensive and I remember I brought the seeds home and I photocopied the receipt because those, you know, visa receipts, they tend to disappear and the packaging and everything because you can always get more seed later on. But as long as you kind of have that like proof of, you know, I didn't know, how stingy they were gonna be on the rules as to where did you get these seeds from? Right. So I made sure I kind of kept proof of, like, this is where the first seeds came from. Right. And that goes. And yeah. And I grow 4 indoors in the winter time. And then I take a little break. And then in the spring time, I get 4 seeds going outside. And yeah, I think it would be nice. If they increased the limit of plants a little bit just for us, kind of casual recreation people, just to kind of open things up for things like cloning and that kind of stuff. Because when you have four plants, you really don't have enough. You know, if I were to take one of those plants and clone it, I'm now. Ohh, now I have six, you know or whatever. So I don't want to be. You know, kind of caught and you were saying in Manitoba you can't. 

Kirk: Yeah, can't grow. 

Ryan: Can't grow them. So that's really too bad. I think. I think there needs to be a little bit of lobbying with the Manitoba, you know, because you can brew your own beer and you can make your own wine. Why can't you grow your especially your own? You know, just four plants and most people are terrible gardeners. So if anything, they're going to be spending money on growing supplies and actually not have a bugger all anyway.

Kirk: OK, so that's Ryan. What did you think of that?

Trevor: Well, good, really good. Great story. I liked how he sort of struggled to find seeds in Saskatoon and we've whined about it before, but it's worth whining about again. You can grow your own plants in Saskatchewan. We can't here, little bit jealous.

Kirk: Yeah, it's a shame. So, a shout out, a shout out to five guys I met at the Five Buds at Prince Albert. You may remember back, I think it was episode 75. I met Dustin. He was a stay at home dad and a manager of a cannabis shop and he gave me a story. We were going through Prince Albert and Michelle wanted to stop at the Michaels. She wanted to get some crafts at Michaels, so we stop and just down the road it's 5 Buds I went oh God I think I got a story from them last time I was here. So I went and visited and I walked in and I go, Hey, is Dustin here? And Dustin goes. Yeah, that's me. And I said, hey, Dustin, I'm Kirk. Yeah. You're the guy with The podcast. I said yeah, I'm the guy with the podcast. Thanks for recognizing, have you listened to any of our stories? Yeah. One or two? No fantastic. Fantastic. I'm here for another story. Dead silence. But there are five guys standing there. They're all managers, really cool guys. They did actually give me a story. The sounds really bad. There's music going and one guy is across the room yelling at me and other guys over in the corner it actually might be a fit it in eventually. But not this time. I think it's a little long, but I just wanted to do a shout out to the five guys and Five Buds at Prince Albert. Maybe they're listening to this story. It was a good conversation and five managers all sitting around chatting. It was quite funny I was thinking what do you need 5-6 managers cause Dustin's the senior manager now and also he's got his job still because that's another thing. Often, I'll walk into these stores and they will educate me on the laws and how we're not allowed to advertise cannabis. How I'm going to lose my job and I get a lot of that from these Bud Tenders as well. And again, I just thank them and you know, I usually try to leave a card behind and maybe get one more listener out of them, but, Dustin didn't lose his job, now did the corporate guys know that we recorded him? I have no clue, but he's still working and he's still there and that's a couple of years ago. So. So that's my road stories.

Trevor: Again, we love your travels and all the people you meet. And thanks to everybody who. Sees Kirk and and Michelle are cool van and says, yeah, I want to talk to them?

Kirk: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm a pretty, personable guy, you know. You see me walk in and you know, it's kind of cool. I mean, and it happened, Equilibrium in Small Town Alberta. When I walked in and saw Derek and I said hi, I'm Kirk. Ya Kirk, I know you. You have a podcast. And you spent 20 years in this town. Yeah. OK, so, you know, I guess I'm a little I have a little bit of fame as I walk around. I got this little glow around me walk into the room. Hey podcaster here. Podcaster in the room.

Trevor: Podcasting Halo. So anything else from your travels that the people need to know about?

Kirk: I think we'll just tell them as we go. We're going to record in a couple of minutes here, another episode of a really cool, so I'm going to do a shout out on the next episode. I was traveling down the highway and there was a reserve that has their own cannabis store. So, Michelle and I went into a Saskatchewan reserve and met the owner there. So, a little shout out, guys. The next episode is while I'm sitting on a reserve talking to the manager of a cannabis shop in the reserve. 

Trevor: Yeah, come back for that one. 

Kirk: So, shout out to that. That was that's a cool one We're hoping to go up into the Duck Mountains on Thanksgiving weekend to do a little paddling and hang out, hang out in the trees, you know, with the trees all turn in colour. We hope to do that. 

Trevor: Sounds good.

Kirk: So yeah, so we're still using Van Hoot. Not quite putting her down for the winter yet, yeah.

Trevor: OK, songs. I interrupted you when you're talking about.

Kirk: Songs. Maybe Life is a Highway like Tom Cochrane. Why not? Let's do that one, he's a Manitobian kid. 

Trevor: He is a Manitoba kid.

Kirk: Alright and Life is a Highway.

Trevor: Well, we'll go on. Of that. So I should say I'm Trevor Shewfelt. I'm the pharmacist.

Kirk: Oh gosh, we have to introduce ourselves. I'm Kirk Nyquist. I'm the Registered Nurse and we are Reefer Medness - The Podcast. Found at Reefermed.ca. We're on social media. Yeah, guys tune in and if you like us, tell somebody because social media doesn't share our podcast on Instagram anymore. If you follow us, you get to see it but they don't share it because I guess our topic is too controversial.

Trevor: That that damn Instagram alright Kirk and till next time was another good one.