Episode Transcript

Kirk:  We are Reefer Medness - The Podcast we are recorded out of Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada. My name is Kirk Nyquist. I'm a registered nurse in Manitoba.

Trevor:  I am Trevor Shewfelt, I'm the pharmacist.

Kirk:  Trevor, How are you?

Trevor:  Kirk I'm good. How would everybody out there. We are coming for our first ever live to tape from Hempfest in Saskatoon. Can we hear the audience? That is an enormous audience, audience of thousands,.

Kirk:  Thousands. I can't even see the guys in the back row.

Trevor:  It's kind of like our first stadium show.

Kirk:  Yeah. So what time did you get up this morning?

Trevor:  Five thirty.

Kirk:  We drove here from Manitoba, and we I don't think we even put the radio on. We should have recorded it.

Trevor:  It was just you rambling. Really.

Kirk:  Sure. We're going to do a Q&A.  Today, we're going to interview Jacqui Childs, Jacqui Childs is a cannabis influencer. She's going to help us understand what that means and how she works with cannabis in her life.

Trevor:  And Jacqui has had cannabis in her life for quite a while and will sort of tell you how it has made her life better and how she's basically trying to make other people and specifically women's life better through the use of cannabis.

Kirk:  And at the end of it, there'll be a Q&A if you want to ask questions. Again, Trevor is a pharmacist and I'm a nurse. And we're looking at cannabis from the perspective of Reefer Madness Reefer Mellow and Reefer Medicine. So we're trying to look at it from all ends.

Trevor:  Without further ado, I see you, Jacqui is looking at us, so that's good. So I'm going to bring up Jacqui Childs and I'm going to leave the stage and she's going to chat with Kirk.

Kirk:  Hey Jacqui,.

Jacqui:  Hello. Hi, guys. Hi, everybody. 

Kirk:  So Trevor, Trevor has left the stage. Trevor has left the stage, leaving Jacqui Childs and myself. How are you?

Jacqui:  Great. Thank you for having me. Thank you. Saskatoon How's Hempfest?

Kirk:  So we've known each other online for about a year.

Jacqui:  Yeah, it's just maybe just over a year now. No.

Kirk:  Yeah, yeah. Jackie is one of our first, I guess, supporters that.

Jacqui:  Shared my cannabis journey with you.

Kirk:  We have in our podcast, we have my cannabis stories. We also have another person in the audience that shared a My Cannabis Story.

Jacqui:  Sue.

Kirk:  Ya Sue.

Jacqui:  She is a Lyme Warrior.

Kirk:  Yeah. Jackie, you are a cannabis influencer.

Jacqui:  Yes.

Kirk:  What is a cannabis influencer?

Jacqui:  OK, first of all, influencer. Yuck. That's a gross word. I have over two million followers on Facebook and I'm an international best-selling author and speaker. I started using social media just like everyone else did with pictures of my cat and my food and how great my kid is. And that following grew and now I'm into the millions. And I started recently, just over two years ago, sharing my journey with cannabis because, I suffer from anxiety and debilitating anxiety and depression. And I have Crohn's disease, which is really isolating and embarrassing. I started sharing those journeys and it grew and grew and grew and events and speaking engagements and people started to reach out to me to come to their events. Now, when we say the word influencer, you see the girls getting their free stuff and taking pictures that wherever they are with their little whatever, that's a little that is an influencer, right? That's a micro influencer. I am an incorporated brand and business, and I'm sharing everything as openly and authentically as I can and putting myself out there for real. I'm not just, yes, I have some of the pictures I modeled most of my life on and off. I've sort of aged out of that. I'm now forty-six years old.

Kirk:  You just you just have to be yourself.

Jacqui:  Which. Exactly. Which is the type of influencer I am. If you want to believe me and my brand and my story, I have to share everything as openly and honestly as possible, which also brands sponsors. You can't just come to me and offer me a bag of money and say, here's what you're sharing now. You can for the influence of other influencers in the world. You can't for me, my part of being healthy and being well and using cannabis is honesty and empathy, being as honest in all parts and all aspects of my social media, and to get well and to heal. That's part of my journey.

Kirk:  OK, so you started using you started using cannabis, but you were already had your social media followers. So you came out?

Jacqui:  Yes, I came out on social media. I think I posted a picture that's probably really graphic, like I was on the toilet or something.

Kirk:   I remember that one.

Jacqui:  Get a lot it got a lot of likes.

Rene:  So that was the sound of the microphone falling off the speaker. We had put the microphone on the speaker to record all this for the podcast. And of course, the microphone fell off. So there's a bit of audio here. I'm just disclaiming this a bit of audio that's going to sound a little bit hollow. But then Trevor comes to the rescue in a couple of minutes and gets us back on track, so I just wanted to disclaim that, so let's carry on back to Jacqui Childs, Trevor and Kirk.

Kirk:  I think that was the one that got me going what the hell? and I hit follow.

Jacqui:  I said, this is this is real. This is raw. And this is this is not new. This is what we all do. And I am suffering here. And this is where you find me most days when I'm liking your pictures and I'm when I'm sharing your stories because of my Crohn's, anxiety, and depression.  Which I had been medicated for the last several, several years. And I started to abuse the pharmaceuticals. I am brand new to cannabis. Just over two years. I never used. I mean, I tried it in high school. I didn't inhale. I don't know. I did a hot knife with someone once. There you go. So starting sharing my real stories, am my real, like what's happening with cannabis in my life is how this has really taken off and has become. This is my full time. This isn't my side thing. This is twenty four seven.

Kirk:  So you are paid. To be an influencer.

Jacqui:  I am a paid influencer. Jacqui Childs is an incorporated brand. I won the O'Cannabis Influencer of the Year which is presented by Ricki Lake and Montel Williams. And there was a little bit of sort of a setback, sort of an issue that I won't touch on, but with that whole thing. So I didn't promote it.  There was something that had happened that I was a little uncomfortable with or embarrassed about and to show real influence in the space. So I didn't promote it. I didn't targeted insured. And I won that award. And when I when I found out I won the award, I was at our newest dispensary talking to brain injury, people with brain injuries, epilepsy, Lyme disease, cancer. And that's where I was the night my award was awarded by Montel Williams and Ricki Lake to a massive audience. I me not there.

Kirk:  Well, that's cool. But now you can tag yourself as the winner.  It's obviously sent your career into orbit.

Jacqui:  Yeah, I it's been pretty interesting. I'm in Saskatoon, so it's been pretty crazy. So that was just a few months ago. And now I'm speaking several times a week, up to several times a week. Smaller groups.  With indigenous communities.  With homeless youth.  With moms trying to end the stigma so they can use cannabis medicinally like I do. That's really where my real passion and I earn a living by doing that. So it is really great. But, the years before it became a cannabis influencer, I was influencing in the music and sort of fashion and beauty space. And I lost almost all. I've got a few music festivals still, but all my mainstream sponsors, as soon as I came out using cannabis. I lost all those sponsors.

Kirk:  Was that before legalization.

Jacqui:  No, no, some before. Right. Because it was just right before legalization that I came out. But after legalization, I'm in an influencer all over the world. And a lot of like Mexican, Spanish companies in Mexico and Spain.  I was just down there and I was just in Jamaica at a music festival, too. So they decided that I was too risqué with my cannabis use and consumption and that it went against their festival.

Kirk:  You are a medicinal user. You're a card carrying medicinal user.

Jacqui:  Yes. Yes. I also grow my own.

Kirk:  You're allowed to in your province.

Jacqui:  Yes. In Ontario, we're allowed to grow four legal plants.

Kirk:  In Manitoba, they're saving the children by not letting us grow cannabis. We'll figure that out. So let's talk about cannabis as medicine. OK, so tell me about that experience. How does cannabis work for you? Do you have special cultivars strains that you use?

Jacqui:  OK, well, my so my cannabis, like how it came into my life. My In-laws are in their 70s and they're constantly trying to get me to use CBD, CBD oils. To check-out CBD.  Research CBD. It'll help your Crohn's and they would say it'll cure you, it'll cure you. Now I am not cured of anything. I'm still and I'm not an expert. What I do is share my journey. And I stopped my pharmaceuticals cold turkey, which I don't suggest either.

Kirk:  And I don't think the pharmacist would agree either.

Jacqui:  Sorry and started using CBD in in replace of my pharmaceuticals, I would take three use oils. I also started juicing the raw, the raw cannabis plants and I noticed that I was better and I was keeping it a secret too.

Kirk:  How. How were you better.

Jacqui:  So I hadn't had any flare ups. I was. So when I say it, I also blow it off like everybody has anxiety. When I say have anxiety, it is like I'm soaked, I barely like and I'm in a room more than 10 people, I am a mess. Well, I started being able to do that. And when I was actually out, I would go, oh, my God, I'm out. Like, and what is different in my life is I've added cannabis. So that's and while I was celebrating my cannabis use, I started, I noticed, of course, this is I'm my own worst enemy. I started to drink a little more because I was out and I was socializing and I was living my best life. So then I started to add THC to the mix. I started eating edibles and I would vape and I would get low dose and micro-dose. And I just was telling someone I just got back a week and a half ago, two weeks ago from Jamaica. And it was the first time that I saw Sunrise and Sunset. I am no longer, I might have, I buy a bottle of wine, it might last me a month. And that is completely different. And I didn't take some, I'm not in some course or class or I didn't. I added cannabis to my life.

Kirk:  So. So cannabis has helped you with your anxieties? But you also have Crohn’s. Have you found an improvement in your Crohn’s.

Jacqui:  So I as much as I go around and I tell you, no, let's do cannabis. I had a flare up a few weeks ago and I was really uncomfortable and I went on this way for about 20 hours. My husband came home and he said, Can you have a dab? I'm like, I don't do dab. So I don't want a dab. And he's like, I think you need a dab. And he's like, it'll help you. Well, forty minutes after my dab, my CBD dab, I was in, I was completely relieved, completely what had been going on for almost 24 hours.

Rene:  At this point in the interview that Trevor realized what had happened and reached over.

Jacqui:  And I was better. I was. And I'm still as much as I'm writing it and talking and going around, I still, you know, OK, I'm great today. Maybe tomorrow I'll fall back into the old. Now, I'm great. And it's cannabis is the only difference.

Kirk:  So this has been self-medicated. You have a spiritual guide, a medical a medical doctor. You have somebody is following you through this.

Jacqui:  No, actually, I don't. I am lucky because of my influence, my social influence, that I have access to some of the best within the cannabis space, some of the best doctors, and a lot of LPs have reached out. A lot of craft growers have come and said, I'm dealing with anxiety, depression, or my wife has Crohn's and this is what we use. It's actually been all over Ontario. The indigenous communities have welcomed my husband and I up and said this is what we've been doing for thousands of years or for generations and generations come and see that it's been pretty amazing. I lived privately and quietly a long time suffering as with addictions and with my anxiety, and that now when I'm sharing this journey, it has become quite a spiritual journey. It's been a beautiful community to be a part of a community that I was I was the anti-drug. I grew up with Nancy Reagan. Say no to drugs. This is your brain on drugs in the frying pan. That's how I raised my children. Drugs are bad. All drugs like you don't even go to the doctor. Like I didn't want them to ever. You know, you're fine unless your guts are falling out, you're not going and now to have had this happen and I'm, you know, completely different.

Kirk:  But yet you had a bag of pharmaceuticals.

Jacqui:  Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's. Yeah, exactly. I.

Kirk:  Anti-drug, but you have a bag of pharmaceuticals.

Jacqui:  And my nightstand was covered. Something to sleep with, something to wake up, something to go out in public, something for your cramps, something for your headache, something for your annoying husband.

Kirk:  He's around here someplace.

Jacqui:  Well I've since remarried. It was the ex.

Kirk:  You dumped the annoying husband and found cannabis. Is there a strain for that?

Jacqui:   There should be, we should start It.

Kirk:  The annoying husband strain.

[00:14:05] A bunch of women should get together and think.

Kirk:  And come up with Strain, I was high on this Strain when I told the bastard. Sorry, can we say, bastard, I guess we can.

Jacqui:  We're in Saskatoon. Can't we.

Kirk:  You're using cannabis, you self-medicating. How do you track your medications.

Jacqui:  I journal my own and my, husband also he numbers this thing. He knows how much, you know what milligrams of what and what I've taken and what works best and what I should do next. I also have a massive fan and I like to talk in public about this because it is uncomfortable, but I love to talk about suppositories and that's an amazing way to get the cannabis right where you need it.

Kirk:  So the spasming to spasming colon, The suppository goes right to the spot.

Jacqui:  Yes, exactly. If that's where the trouble is and that's where the inflammation is, then why wouldn't you.

Kirk:  How did you learn that?

Jacqui:  How did I learn it? Because of influencing and I do a lot of research in the space myself and I came across a pharmacist's a company in Ottawa and Ottawa, Canada, and they compound.  I say witchdoctors, they're doing all kinds of great things with plant-based medicine. And they were actually the ones who said, have you tried this? And I said, well I've read it and they are like, I think you should try it, and I think this will end.  Exactly you also because it doesn't pass your kidney. It doesn't go through the kidney.

Kirk:  The liver.

Jacqui:  The Liver. Doesn't go through the liver. So you don't get high from it. The inflammation subsides and the pain but you're not high. So it's not even I can take up to 400 milligrams that way. And I was like, but aren't you high? No, it doesn't do that.

Kirk:  400 milligrams.

Jacqui:  And that's what I need there. And if I was to ingest that or smoke that or eat that, or I would be a mess.

Kirk:  That's compounded by a pharmacist for you.

Jacqui:  Yes Compounded suppository.

Kirk:  You know that we have a sponsor.

Jacqui:  Strainprint.

Kirk:  So, do you, do use Strainprint as your journal.

Jacqui:  So no, I use Strainprint as far as to research and I like they're the stuff they're doing. And I mean I go, I check out their stuff but I'm not be more my husband that doesn't like I'm just sort of, you know, he's the actual the numbers and doing the facts. But Strainprint is a great resource.

Kirk:  Strainprint.ca They support Reefer Medness. If you are using cannabis and you want to have a log of cannabis, Strainprint.ca is a fantastic tool.

Jacqui:  Definitely. And I mean they're growing and bigger and bigger and they find women are their number one users and women over 40 sharing like journaling what they're using and what higher levels of CBD and if they're using the oils instead of vaping. And it's really cool. It's a very I mean, since legalization, we have all this, you know, where we have a lot available to us now. And part of what I share as well is hoping to end the stigma here is just this basic housewife. This you know, I've got kids. I've got a husband.

Kirk:  I don't think you're a basic housewife.

Jacqui:  I'm just your every day, mom.

Kirk:  My mom's a cannabis influencer.

Jacqui:  And so I'm still me. I wanted to go back to influencing for a second because I thought I should touch base on when we all have a cell phone and we use Instagram and Twitter and Facebook. The difference is I study algorithms, the colorings to post the time to post what hashtags are trending, which had hashtags best suit my story, which best hashtags will, you know, draw in people. And so, I mean, we're going to have to after Hempfest, I'm going to change my I'm not just going to be a cannabis influence or maybe it'll be a cannabis.

Kirk:  Housewife.

Jacqui:  Cannabis housewife, I don't know. So and I and I am like I said, I I've lost a lot of the mainstream sponsors and everything because of my passion and what I am sharing through my influencing. It's been it's been interesting. I mean, it's been a major positive. And I'm living thanks to cannabis. I mean, I don't know where I would be.

Kirk:  And living in the sense that you have a life. It has given your life.

Jacqui:  For real. I'm actually like so I can tell quickly, um, I had been diagnosed with something like something was up and I had had a bunch of tests and things done and I had to go to an oncologist. And I shared this story once before that it was a beautiful sunny day and it's all windows in the front and I'll open. And I went into the line and everyone was in their late seventies and eighties and they looked miserable and they looked uncomfortable and they were something was up. I waited in that line a little longer and it was a really nice day. And I kept thinking, what am I doing here? And I left and I never went back. Now, not to take my advice on that, but maybe we're not all supposed to live to one hundred and three, so maybe I will only live to sixty-five. But thanks to cannabis and being pharma-free free, the switch is a journey. I'm well I'm up for the challenge. And I get emotional because much like a lot of the boards and people I speak with in the panels I'm on, they're represented and they work for a brand or product or service or they've been to school. So their lawyer, doctor or whatever I am sharing me. So I'm that's why I think I get so passionate and I get so emotional about it. And when I have Q and A's, I get all worked up because I really believe that I'm living my best life.

Kirk:  And you showed yourself on the toilet that we were showing you.

Jacqui:  It happens if you have Crohn, I mean, if you're human, you've been there.

Kirk:  Open up to the floor. Does anybody have a question for Jacqui. Sue.

Sue:  Good acoustics in here.  And so Jacqui, you said that you just recently started using THC and could you tell us why.

Jacqui:  OK, so I was using just CBD and getting positive effects. Now I'm not a scientist and but I truly believe adding the THC just a little bit, micro-dose, helped with my sleep much better.  Put me in a just it was working better. I don't know how it was working better or why it was working better, but I threw myself into it. I experiment just by adding low dose, small amounts of THC with my CBD started to help. I started to cook not just with CBD. I started add THC and I found relief that way. Sleep is really important for all of us. It's really important for moms too to get their sleep and adding small amounts of THC. I mean, when I say small amounts, a micro dose like, I don't know, less than two milligrams. Now, this is so my this just started two years ago. But because I'm doing what I do for a living and I go around, I probably consume 250 milligrams, 300 milligrams. And it's just like the old, when I just started micro-dosing. And you know, we talk CBD, CBD, CBD, because, OK, it's you know, your grandmas are having it. And your kids.  You're giving it to your pets. You're doing whatever... Really, really, really, really helps with a tiny bit of THC. I think you get much more out of it.

Kirk:  We're also learning from the science that THC helps the CBD be less harmful to the body as well.

Jacqui:  When I first started with CBD, I still even though, I would get stomach aches, like if I took too much and I get a weird headache, I don't get that with the THC, the micro-dose of THC added to it. I don't get the headaches, I don't get the dizziness and I don't get any sort of stomach cramping.

Kirk:  OK, any other questions?

Audience:  More of a comment, really. I have a daughter who has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Anyway, it ended up with an infection in her bones, in her S.I. joint that turned septic and she ended up on life support. And when she was in the hospital, they'd given her fentanyl and morphine. And when we left the hospital, they gave us bottles and bottles of hydromorphone, which is nicknamed hospital heroin. And I was expected to give this to her. And so  just to ask for oils and stuff like that to give her so we could give her something better that was going to affect her stomach. It was almost impossible. So, um, so what you're doing right now is awesome. Thank you.

Kirk:  That's a deep one.

Trevor:  Thank you very much for sharing.

Kirk:  Yes, certainly.

Jacqui:  Oh, thank you so much for sharing with us. And I'm sorry. And I hope that what I'm doing can help people long after I'm gone and I will use everything I have as far social media I built to do better and to help change the face of cannabis. I hate when they say I'm the new face of cannabis. I'm just a different face. And there's people, generations and generations, there's moms losing their children to our opioid crisis and to cancer. And I believe we have something that can help. Exactly, exactly. I just had a full hysterectomy and we filled out forms. No, the pharmaceuticals that we didn't want. And they actually well, I was half asleep, came in with a handful of Percocet, Percocet, and my husband stood up and said, what’s going on. And the nurse was insisting that I take them and I needed them and that I must take them. I know they're doing the best they can with what they know or what they're allowed. We need to we need to do things sooner than later.

Trevor:  Yes. Thank you very much.

Kirk:  Well, thank you, Jacqui. That was this was marvelous. Thank you very much.

Trevor:  Thank you, Jacqui. That was fantastic.

Kirk:  Yeah. All right, guys. Jacqui Childs. Thank you.

Trevor:  Thanks again for Jacqui Childs. The other thing I have to thank Jacqui for is she started talking about suppositories.

Kirk:  Yeah, go for it.

Trevor:  I really like suppositories. So I'm a pharmacist. I compound stuff. But the interesting part is legally, cannabis isn't supposed to come into the pharmacy. So it's really a weird little gray zone that even though that as a compounding pharmacists, I make all sorts of suppositories for all sorts of different conditions, I'm not legally allowed to make a cannabis suppository for somebody. And in fact, when you went out to B.C., you found people who were teaching people at home to make suppositories.

Kirk:  Well, we did an episode in the Victoria Cannabis Passion Club, and I was going to talk about that. We've done an episode on just the issue that the member of the audience raised about hospital heroin and addictions to opiates. We did we did a podcast that we call Healing Communities. And we went back and we went to Nanaimo and talked to addicts and the people in the Nanaimo who were helping addicts. And we went to the Victoria Compassion Club. We talked to them and we also talked to a doctor and in Gimli, Manitoba, who's helping people with cannabis. It is an astounding medicine and it should be treated as such and it is helping people get off opiates. So it's something to consider. So, where we at we're summing up.

Trevor:  Yeah, we're getting close to the end. So for all of you out there with a beverage in your hand, we've created a drinking game at this point of the podcast, as I usually say something along the lines of "it's been another good one.".

Kirk:  "Another good one." And you're supposed to drink, of course, is supposed to be drinking responsibly.

Trevor:  Everything, cannabis and all other things responsibly.

Kirk:  So once again, my name is Kirk Nyquist I am a registered nurse.

Trevor:  I am Trevor Shewfelt, I'm the pharmacist.

Kirk:  And our podcast is completely unscripted. So when you download the podcast at reefermed.ca you're getting us as who we are and there's no script. We're just talking to each other about cannabis and.

Trevor:  We're learning from really, really smart people like Jacqui Childs.

Kirk:  Yeah. And we talked to endocannabinoid scientists, we talked to addiction specialists. We go out and talk to experts about cannabis. And if you listen to us, that's one more. A little bell goes off and I get wings. And if you tell one more person, then we've got two more people listening. So have a listen to Reefer Medness - The Podcast. I think you'll enjoy it.

Trevor:  Thank you very much, everybody. We are at Hempfest in Saskatoon.

Kirk:  Yeah, and we're back here tomorrow, so come back tomorrow. Thanks, Hempfest, for inviting us here.

Trevor:  Thanks very much.

Rene:  All right. That was another good one. Trevor and Kirk and Hempfest in Saskatoon. That was the Saturday on stage interview. And we'll have another podcast coming up soon, where we'll be highlighting the Sunday performance of Trevor and Kirk on stage.  In keeping, though, with the tradition of playing local music at the end of every show. This is a bit of a stretch. But today we have a song by Burton Cummings of the Guest Who, who is living in Saskatchewan these days, but is from Winnipeg, which is Manitoba. But he also was here performing in Dauphin at the opening of our rec facility. So that is how I have localized this and the song by the Guest Who is running back to Saskatoon. So there you go. Stay tuned. We'll have another podcast, the Sunday performance of Trevor and Kirk at Hempfest in Saskatoon.