Episode Transcript

Trevor:  Kirk, we're back.

Kirk:  Hey Trevor, how's it going?

Trevor:  I am well. I'm a little unshaven because I'm out at the lake. Let's talk about this a little now. I had to do a little bit of sandbagging out here but since we were last talking to people, Dauphin, goodly chunks of Dauphin went underwater.

Kirk:  Yeah, yeah, so I was going to ask you how is the lake? The lake must be, it must be high.

Trevor: The lake is high but it's nowhere near the damage we had in town for those of you not from around here. Our hospital got wiped out like literally five feet of water into the basement.

Kirk:  It's a regional referral center too, so the whole region is without a hospital.

Trevor: Yeah and a major highway between us and sort of the next big town north Swan River got wiped out and it's almost re-repaired and yeah oh i got a impromptu personal meeting with the health minister Uzoma Asagwara was in Dauphin to do a virtual town hall but before that happened to be hanging around the pharmacy recording something came in and said hi which You know, we appreciate. But yeah, Dauphin went, starting July 1st, had a whack of water in many, many people's basements, many, many businesses. You and I were unaffected ourselves, but we know lots of people who were very affected.

Kirk:  Yeah, yeah, it's sort of survivor's guilt here. But yet, you know, this part of the province was underwater a month ago, and now you know what other parts of the province is burning. So we've got the, we've got floods and fires. But hey, you know, we should be talking about cannabis.

Trevor: Sure, let's go for a happy thing, 420. So those of you who don't know, April 20th is sort of a traditional day to we'll say celebrate all things cannabis. Kirk, you were one province over in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan on 420, what are we doing there and who are you talking to?

Kirk:  Yes, I think we've mentioned this in the more recent past episodes is I took a road trip in April and gathered a whole lot of stories. And this is me now taking what we have on the shelf and putting it together. So today, in transparency, Trevor and I are going to record three episodes today. So this is the start of a series of episodes. So I might as well start this now, for all three of the coming episodes. What we're doing is we're reviewing an archive of conversations I've had. These are cold calls. And when I walk into these cold calls, I walk in the businesses, dispensaries and I identify myself as a registered nurse collecting stories for our podcast. As soon as I introduce myself as registered nurse, I make myself vulnerable and I also make the guest vulnerable because I have to start following my professional code of ethics about how we gather stories and then how we publish the stories, right? So I'm saying this because there's an implied consent, an actual consent when I ask somebody to record a story, I put my phone in front of them, they talk and then I hand them my phone and I get them to sign their name or put their name on the title of the recording. So I mean I don't have them signing any forms but there's an implied consent. But there's also an implied consents that some of these stories I will not tell. So I'm going to tell the audience that we have gathered stories from my trip but there are stories that will not be told today for a whole lot of reasons. One of my goals, Trevor, is I want to create theater of the mind. I want people to be listening to these stories in their cars, at home, and they can hear the ambient noise. So there's a lot of ambient noise in these stories. And I want the stories to be relevant. So unlike what we've done in the past, where I sort of gathered a whole bunch of stories as I'm going down one highway, these next three episodes are going to be a blending of a bunch of the stories from the trip. So there's no chronological order of when I did it. They're just themed, right? So the first theme, as you say, is 420. Kirk is leaving Dauphin on 420 and hitting every dispensary I can on the way to Moose Jaw from Dauphin. So it's about a five hour, six hour trip in Van Houtte. I make it into a 10 hour trip. And I ironically could not gather a story from any dispensary between here and Moose Jaw. I walked in, they said, Hello, happy 420. Can you give me a story? No. So I got no stories. But I end up in Moose Jaw, I'm at the 420 celebration, Trevor, and this is the only advertised 420 event that I could find on my route of travel. So who do we meet? We meet the organizer of the Moose Jaw 420 Event, and we're going to talk to him, and we are going to another individual I met at the event, and then we're gonna jump to Alberta and go into Diamond Valley. So that's the story.

Trevor: Nope that sounds good so let's start with someone you said had an interesting name for the the organizer of 420 in Moose Jaw and what was his name again?

Kirk:  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sean Francis Drake, he is a performer, a DJ, and he goes by the name of Kurd Cobain. Now I could find Sean Francis Drakes Facebook page, so I will link you to his Facebook page but I could not find Kurd Cobain. Anyways, this is him talking about 420, how he organized this event, and some of his thoughts about consuming cannabis in public. And, yeah, let's just go to a story and listen to it.

Trevor: All right, let's listen to Kurd Cobain.

Shaun Francis Drake: Hi, my name is Sean Francis Drake, a.k.a. Kurd Cobain. My music is on all major streaming platforms worldwide, by the way. But, yeah, 420 is always great for me, always.

Kirk:  But you organized this event, Moose Jaw. You were part of it?

Shaun Francis Drake: Indeed, yeah. We've been organizing and doing this event now. I think this is the 16th year. That we've been doing it here, and it's been going pretty good.

Kirk:  OK, good, and you're expecting more people later in the evening?

Shaun Francis Drake: I'm hoping that more people come in the evening, yeah. It's not a bad turnout so far, though. We've had constant people throughout the whole day in and out, so that's a great thing, definitely.

Kirk:  Yeah, yeah, so is this organized as 420 Moose Jaw? Do you have an organization behind you or are you just doing it?

Shaun Francis Drake: Just 420. We've just been doing it for like I say 16 years and it's just me and a couple buddies. We decided hey Let's put on the show and play some music and this is what it's growing into.

Kirk:  So what does it take for Moose Jaw? Do you have to get a park permit? Yeah.

Shaun Francis Drake: Yep, definitely. You gotta get your permits, you gotta get the insurance, you gotta get all your I's dotted and your T's crossed and make sure that everything's good. Like I say, 16 years ago we'd go in, pay $25, they'd give us the key and that was that. Now... You pay the $25 for the key, plus $250 for the rental, plus $500 for the event insurance. It's a lot more.

Kirk:  Oh, yeah. So how do you finance it?

Shaun Francis Drake: We were sponsored by many other people before in the past. Right. And our one sponsorship who sponsored us for seven years. Up until the last minute they said they were going to sponsor this year and then they backed out that was Spirit Leaf of Moose Jaw and they usually sponsor us but they backed out last minute.

Kirk:  So talking about 420 right. You've been doing this for 16 years when why when you started it what was the reasons for starting 420 the first place that's 16 years ago what was the reason

Shaun Francis Drake: The reasons were to protest the prohibition laws on the cannabis. I've been medical for about 14 years, and that gave me some freedom, but I know a lot of my friends didn't have that kind of freedom until the dispensaries opened, and really it's not really much freedom even with them dispensary because there's a whole lack of new laws. But yeah, back then it was all about the protest and trying to keep the plant free, You know?

Kirk:  What's it about now?

Shaun Francis Drake: Now it's about peace and love and let them know that we're still here and we don't agree with a lot of the laws that they've got on this plant now. Because there's like 50 some laws and stuff you can get charged with now. Before it was like possession. That was it. Or possession for the purpose. But now they got a whole window of things they can charge you with.

Kirk:  Right? Right. So more laws to make, irony is that they made more laws to legalize it.

Shaun Francis Drake: Yeah, and I was a member of the Saskatchewan Green Party and we always wanted to decriminalize it, just take the criminal aspect out of it and leave it the way it was, right? Let all the law and props in the business, keep running the business. But this is, the way I see the business it was a takeover, a very... Evil takeover as well. All the people in high school that were telling you, no drugs are bad, you can't smoke this, don't smoke cannabis, drugs are bad. Now they're like, drugs are good, but you can only buy them from us, man. Nobody else, nobody else.

Kirk:  Okay, so is 420 representing the freedom of the plant then?

Shaun Francis Drake: It definitely represents freedom of choice. Like, I'm glad that we are allowed to grow it as well, like we have the four plant, if you're a... Normal citizen. I'm allowed to grow 110, but I'm glad that I can and I'm glad that they let everybody else grow too. Because Canada it's not too bad really. The only thing I don't like is all the other laws that came with it.

Kirk:  Tell me a little bit about Saskatchewan. I'm from Manitoba, and in Manitoba they legalized cannabis in 2018, but they only legalized it for domicile consumption. And only if you owned a domiciled, or if the renter gave you permission for the domiciles. So you're not allowed to consume cannabis in any public place in the entire province, right? So in Saskatchewan and what is the consumption laws?

Shaun Francis Drake: I think the consumption laws are probably the same. That's why I don't partake in 420 ever since the legalization of it because in my mind they're waiting for me up the hill for me to be driving while intoxicated, right? Right. Okay. So yeah, that's why I don't partake it anymore. I wait till I get home to indulge. A lot of people here indulge in it and I haven't seen any tickets given out ever and we've had cops down here always like I say they were down here today too.

Kirk:  In Saskatchewan, you're not allowed to consume cannabis outdoors?

Shaun Francis Drake: I'm not 100% sure. I'm pretty sure that you're not allowed to, but on 420, they just look via, you know.

Kirk:  But you think you're being watched right now?

Shaun Francis Drake: Well they definitely were here in the morning for sure. They might be watching right now too. One second, I just gotta put this track on.

Kirk:  Day so he's walking back to the keyboards and he's changing the track for the young men yeah so there's about what 75 maybe 100 people here we're in a natural amphitheater in um in downtown Moose Jaw uh hey what's the name of this Park?

Shaun Francis Drake: The name of this park is Crescent Park.

Kirk:  It's a beautiful amphitheater. It's beautiful amphitheater. Is it used lots?

Shaun Francis Drake: It's used quite a bit. Not as much as I'd like to see it being used, but it is used quite.

Kirk:  Okay, is there anything about 420 I should have asked you and other questions you want?

Shaun Francis Drake: No but more like a statement. 420 is kind of like bringing people together we have alcohol which takes people apart you know causes fights and disruptions when you go out to a bar we want togetherness we want to show people that you can come out and have a good time not have fights not have any you know and if we do have a small disruption people are going to just leave and walk away. They're not going to have a flight. You know, so that's what I like to see

Trevor: So, you know, you can't go wrong with, I was a big Kurt Cobain fan back in the day, so I appreciate the Kurd Cobain reference, but he wasn't the only one you were talking to at 420 in Moose Jaw. Where are we going next?

Kirk:  Yeah, I gathered a few stories. The one I'm pulling out is now Angel. Angel was on top of the amphitheater. This particular theater is in a sort of a valley. And in the seats up the top, so I'm up the top I'm meeting people, I'm talking to people, and I meet this group of people and there's a little intimidation because they, you know, they're all sitting around in the gather and they they may or may not been consuming their medicine and I wander and go hi I'm a nurse I got to want to tell a story. Angel, a couple of people in the group told me to just flip off. Angel actually drew me in, yeah good enough, fair enough, you know what the hell, but Angel drew me in. And I find her story really compelling, Trevor, because she speaks about being a medicinal user of cannabis shopping at rec shops. So let's, let's hear her now.

Trevor: near and dear to our hearts. Let's let's listen.

Kirk:  Yeah, but again, as a registered nurse, you'll hear me ask her if I can go deeper into it. So yeah, anyway, so this is another story I gathered on 420 and Moose Jaw. Please introduce yourself and tell me a cannabis story.

Angel: My name is Angel and I have been smoking weed for 20 years due to back pain, body pain, possibly having lupus for the last 20 years that I didn't even know I had. I had to end up spending eight years in a walker, unable to walk due to bad doctoring in this town, which is the terrible part. They made me live six and a half years with my hip dislocated.

Kirk:  So are you saying that cannabis helped you.

Angel: It helped me in many ways because all the other opiates and everything that they gave you i was on everything okay under the moon i quit six years ago only been smoking weed.

Kirk:  How did you guide yourself through that? Who did that for you? Did somebody.

Angel: Me and myself.

Kirk:  So you just.

Angel: I just started smoking weed.

Kirk:  And you dumped all the pharmaceuticals.

Angel: Yeah,.

Kirk:  So when did you start getting used to your limbs?

Angel: Um, I started getting used after a year and a half of just being on the weed.

Kirk:  Really? Yeah, that's a cool story Are you using a practitioner or just self self-managing?

So I was medicated and given a prescription in the doctor's office I'm to do two grams a day.

Kirk:  Okay, so this.

Angel: I get my weed at the pot shops.

Kirk:  But you talked to a doctor that's familiar with cannabis and he gave you he gave she they gave you a prescription for cannabis okay thank you um and if they ask have you have you told them about what you told me. what i go through yeah

Angel: What I go through? This is my life.

Kirk:  But the doctors know it.

Angel: Nobody else, the doctors know about my whole life.

Kirk:  Cool.

Angel: And it has been terrible. As a bigger person, you automatically get labeled as obese and that’s not fair.

Kirk:  Yeah, this is a good new story for me, because what you're telling me is that you are using the medical cannabis system, but you're buying it from the recreational stores, but you are a medicinal user, you have a license. That's it. Thank you for that story.

Trevor: So Kirk, like you said, you talk to a lot of people, but the last story you're gonna share from 420 in Moose Jaw, well, not technically in Moose Jaw, last 420 story, where Grace from Mountain Aire and Duncan from Organigram, and you asked them what they thought about 420 and they gave you some differing opinions.

Kirk:  Yeah, yeah, I actually made the wrong turn. I'm trying to get in. I'm tryin' to follow the, to get to Crows Nest Pass. And I turned right, I ended up in Diamond Valley. Beautiful little community, beautiful Alberta mountain cattle country, right? This is where I'm getting stopped and being asked to sign petitions for the referendum that's happening in Alberta. So this is definitely deep south Alberta country. And I'm in Mountain Air dispensary I'm talking to the manager of the shop, the dispensary, and also Duncan who happens to be a rep, a cannabis rep, and you named the business there. So yeah, I like how we move the conversation of the importance of 420. I'm just going to leave it for the listeners to listen.

Trevor: Sounds good.

Grace: I'm Grace, I'm the manager, I've been working in the industry for five years now. I think there's a cool day to celebrate it, and some people celebrate it in a better way than others.

Kirk:  Okay . Well, what are we celebrating in 420?

Grace: I think celebrating just cannabis, the freedom of cannabis, yeah.

Duncan: And your name? I'm Duncan with Organogram. I think the importance of 420 has changed. Over the last since legalization it's shifted because now anybody can step in any day of the week to go through and pick up what they want. However back when 420 was first around it was more about being rebellious, it was more about celebrating the plant. Now it's more about just a day to celebrate with your friends. I think it's a very important day still, but do I think we need the whole hoopla of it anymore? Not any more.

Kirk:  So 420, some people say 420 is most important now because the medical cannabis program seems to be, the Health Canada seems to ignoring the medical cannabis side of things. And 420. 420 needed to remind people that cannabis is a medicine opposed to a substance of misuse.

Duncan: I think that's a very interesting conversation, because you're right, we're coming from a recreational point of view, I don't think you're correct, I think there's a lot of stigma and misinformation and not as much light on the medical side of things. So I think from a medical point, yes 420 would be very important to still continue to talk about and continue to celebrate, but how do you do that?

Kirk:  How do you do that? As the manager of a rec shop, how many medical people come here for the medical cannabis?

Grace: Not many.

Kirk:  No!

Grace: No. And the couple who do only come if their medical cannabis didn't come in time and they're just finding something to substitute it between when they're out. It's really hard to find them something because it's not the same on the recreational market as it is on the medical market.

Kirk:  What isn't the same?

Grace: Like strains that they're able to get on the medical market they are coming in with strain specific things and like not all the recreational companies have that um even the ratios of CBD to THC in the capsules and oils they're having very specific ratios and we have a much like smaller scale of what different ratios we can have.

Duncan: Well, and especially on the recreational side things have changed now you can't especially in Alberta You can't necessarily find your low THC.

Grace: Yeah.

Kirk:  Everyone wants the infused pre-rolls.

It's your biggest bang for your buck. The most THC you can get. Your McDonald's shoppers as I kind of like to go through and call them. So unfortunately in the recreational market that has changed where you're not getting that lower dose or that White Widow Cross where you could get something a little bit lower THC and more of a blend. So that's still very important for the medical side of things.

Kirk:  Yeah, isn't that interesting you this is the first time in eight years that I've gone to a dispensary and you've and they've said that. Because what's happened what I am finding is that most doctors are just people my age, the silver-haired crowd, they are going to the doctor saying I'm interested in cannabis and they're saying go to the rec store.

Grace: Yeah.

Kirk:  Right. So they're coming to the rec store interested in getting cannabis for medicinal purposes but they're come in here because their doctors are ignoring them.

Grace: Yeah!

Duncan: Yeah, go ahead.

Grace: There are a lot of people who come here with struggles and they're wanting to talk about it and they are like, I've been recommended to try cannabis, and like I try my hardest to find them options in what we have, but it's very much people who haven't tried it before and it is hard because we don't have as much low THC stuff.

Duncan: Or you're not allowed to have that conversation.

Grace: Yeah, you have to be very particular about what you can talk about.

Duncan: In rec you need to be very careful and choose your words correctly and guide without guiding.

Kirk:  Yeah yeah.

Duncan: Because of course you can't go through and say yes this will do this yes this will be there for you. So unfortunately when the prescribing doctor does that it puts staff it puts budtenders, managers in a pretty precarious spot.

Kirk:  Yeah yeah.

Duncan: Because now you're they're expecting you to go through it have a conversation medically when your not allowed.

Grace: yeah.

Kirk:  Interesting..

Trevor: Kirk, I like your 420 tour. We got lots of interesting people from a couple different places. Yeah, that was a cool little road trip you took us on.

Kirk:  Yeah, I think 420, I mean, I've been talking about 420 that whole trip. There's little bits of me talking about 420 for our avid listeners that have gone through the last few episodes and the one coming, you're going to hear me discuss 420 because it was a common theme, because of course I left home on 420. So, you know, Ted Smith discussed a little bit about 420 with me and there it is. So yeah, so okay people, this is the end of, I guess. I guess part one of Kirk's Road Trip and we'll go into part two next?

Trevor: Yeah, that sounds good. So because we forget it all the time.

Kirk:  Oh, we didn't introduce ourselves.

Trevor: I'm Trevor Shewfelt. I'm the pharmacist. Who are you?

Kirk:  We got to remember to do this, man. I'm Kirk Nyquist. I'm a Registered Nurse, and this is Reefer Medness The Podcast.

Trevor: Find everything Reefer med at ReeferMed.ca or on all those socials at at Reefer Medness was another good one.

Kirk:  And there's going to be pictures.

Trevor: And pictures of Kirk all across Western Canada. We'll talk to everyone soon.