Episode Transcript

Trevor: Kirk. We're back.

Kirk: Hey Trevor, how's it going?

Trevor: Good. Last time I saw you, you were half naked with your wife and there was some sharp bits of metal around.

Kirk: Now. Now this is how rumors get started. I had my sleeves rolled up. That's not half naked.

Trevor: Fine Fine, I exaggerated a little bit.

Kirk: You gave us a flu shot today. Thank you.

Trevor: I did. And no one cried. So, we'll call it successful. And the nurse didn't complain about my technique. So, you know, double successful.

Kirk: No But here's a story. When you when you jabbed me and I said ouch, Michelle got worried and she gave me shit for saying ouch, because you are painless. It was an easy it didn't hurt at all. So she was all worried about it and it turned out to be nothing at all.

Trevor: Good. Good. So today we are going to revisit a friend of the show, Rahim Dhalla, and his pharmacy Hybrid farm in Ottawa. So, you listen to the conversation. What did you what did you think?

Kirk: Well, he was he was part of Episode - 34. Right. So if our viewers listeners want to go back, that's where we first heard his voice on our podcast. I listened to the interview, Trevor. And I guess the question I have for you is, what's the story here with this with this cannabis pharmacist?

Trevor: Well, I like I just like talking to Rahim. He's doing some interesting stuff. But what what made me reach out to him again is on Twitter, people were getting excited that you could go into Rahim pharmacy and buy cannabis, you know, kind of. Well, that was the question. Is this like a non-medicinal dispensary? Can you just go in and say, yeah, I've got a headache? I'd like, you know, the 1:20 CBD:THC or, you know, how's this work? So, I thought we'd better call them up and ask. So, Rahim, how's this work? And so, what did we learn? Of course, like everything else and bureaucracy, we're not quite as easy as it should be. He has got and he'll say it properly in the interview. I'll see if I get it right. He's got a license. He's licensed to sell medicinally. I'm not getting into the exact wording. Right. But he's licensed to sell medicinally. But it's still like a licensed seller. Medicinal cannabis is still not a bricks and mortar thing, but what's always been in the Act is so normally it medicinal cannabis you get a medical document and that gets sent to the licensed producer licensed seller. And then the licensed seller sends it to you, most often by mail. That's how most people in the medicinal cannabis world get their cannabis. They don't walk into a store. The product is mailed to them. But there's always been this thing in there that said you can have it shipped instead to your prescriber. When I asked that true or not, the explanation I got was it's so you don't.. If someone didn't have an address, if somebody was homeless, there's still a way for them to get medical cannabis. Now, most people, you included, don't have their cannabis shipped to their prescriber. So, I put you on the spot here a little bit. When you get medicinal cannabis, how does it get to you?

Kirk: Medicinal cannabis is ordered online and it comes directly to the house.

Trevor: And it's just never even come up. I'm assuming that, you know, and we'll put her on the spot that Dr. Shelly Turner said, hey, you know, why don't you get it shipped directly to my office and you drive down to Gimli and pick that up? I assume that was never discussed, right, because frankly, it'd be inconvenient for both you and her.

Kirk: Yeah, no, that wasn't discussed. The way I was looking at it. The Shoppers Drug Mark model. They are a drug store and Hybrid Pharmacy is also a drug store. And you clarify that during your discussion with him. When I go on his website, he has a very comprehensive cannabis program. He has consultants, he has prescribers. And they have a they have a menu and they pretty much step it. I mean, we've got Hybridpharm.com but nowhere in here to say that I can access my cannabis from his pharmacy.

Trevor: And that's because you don't really and you know what? This might end up being a follow up email to Rahim to make sure I'm getting this exactly right. But my understanding is, So let's say you came in off the street, you avail yourself of Hybrid Pharm's cannabis consulting services. They determine what's right for you. And then you sit down with one of their prescribers and they go through everything. Yep, yep. It's good. The prescriber writes the medical document because it's not a prescription. And that document then gets, quote unquote, sent to Hybrid Pharmacy. And I literally walked over across the hall. Now, Hybrid Pharm can sell it a be the same as if your medical document got faxed into Cannamed or Cannabis by Shoppers or whoever. But instead of mailing it out to you, they are now sending it to your prescriber who is in the same building, and then you can pick it up from your prescriber. So that's my understanding. And like I said, maybe this is worth one more email to Rahim to make sure I've got this right in my mind. But I can see why he wouldn't have on his website saying you can pick it up in a pharmacy because it's still not legal to pick up in a pharmacy, but it is legal to pick up from your prescriber. But in this case, are prescribers in the same building?

Kirk: Well, so maybe this is a little mystery because as I was listening to him speak as well, that was my thought. But I'm thinking, well, he goes to the prescriber, the prescriber, since they talk about the illness and what they're going to do for them and how cannabis will help and they can access the cannabis from the pharmacy. So I'm it's kind of it's not like the Shoppers Drug Mart model where you can and we did this in the episode with HelloMD, and they work with Shoppers Drug Mart and direct you there. If you go on the Shoppers Drug Mart cannabis program web pages, you can actually order your cannabis on the Shoppers Drug Mart page. But when you receive your cannabis, it's coming from the LP, it's coming from licensed producer. During your discussion with Hybrid Pharms, I didn't get there. There that key thing missing, Trevor.  And I hope I hope that you can get a hold of him so that we can at the end of this at the end of your discussion with him, we can have it piped in. Sort of, yes. This is how they do it, because I'm hypothesizing here and I'm thinking that let's say let's say I like Broken Coast sativa tips and I use and I use that for, not that we're promoting Broken Coast, but just for an example, let's say I want the sativa tips and I'm going to bake with them. I think that's pretty much what the tips are for. If I have my medical document that allows so many grams a day, you can pretty much figure out how much you're going to have and when you do need to reorder. So I'm wondering and again, this is hypothesizing if Hybrid Pharms thinks ahead and somehow in the documentation, you give them permission to order for you that when you do go to him, he has it ready for you. But I don't think we're buying the cannabis from him. I think there is sort of a middle man and providing it your prescription for you through them. I'd like that clarified. I think that's a critical part of the story missing.

Trevor: OK, sure. I'm just to see if I'm right, I'll throw in what I think happens. And I think this is whether it's Cannabis by Shoppers or Hybrid Pharm or any other medical license seller. I think I've got the wording right now. They are they're kind of like back to what pharmacies are now. Like, you don't buy your cholesterol pill directly from Pfizer, you buy it from a pharmacy. So the pharmacy gets the prescription, the pharmacy orders in Lipitor from Pfizer and then the pharmacy, more complicated, this is basically a reseller of Lipitor to you. I think a medical license seller is like that, a reseller or a wholesaler of the medicinal cannabis. And yeah, it comes from the licensed producer to you, the patient. But it's whether physically going through because Rahim did say he has a physical room now with cannabis in it.

Kirk: A locked room. Yeah.

Trevor: That's whether it's physically going into Hybrid Pharm or virtually going through a Hybrid Pharm. That's my two cents of how I think that works. But you know what? I'll send Rahim an email and at the end of this, hopefully will we'll get some clarification.

Kirk: So let's listen to the story and we will hopefully answer our own question at the end also.

Trevor: All right, let's go Rahim.  Rahim, you've been on the podcast before, but there has been some interesting upgrades going on at Hybrid Pharm. What is going on there cannabis wise?

Rahim: Absolutely. Thanks for having me back. I love your podcast. I've listened to it all the time here. Just ever since we last spoke. I believe we were still in the application process of getting our LP license for medical sales. So that came through in March, took about a solid year to get that to go through with Health Canada. But since then, yeah, we had we do have cannabis onsite in our secure room in our pharmacy, and we are now distributing to our patients who have about authorizations. So.

Trevor: All right. So first, obvious question. So, let's say I've got a I've got a medical authorization from my nurse practitioner in my hand. Can I physically walk up to your counter head to you and get cannabis handed back?

Rahim: There's a little bit of a process and there's a little bit more paperwork. But so it's not as streamlined as that as we wish it would be. But there are so there are a couple of things that we would have to fill out and the doctor may have to fill out as well. But that's essentially the idea. And that's kind of where we're driving to go to. We really want to make it easier for patients to be able to access cannabis instead of the mail order system instead of going through all the different loopholes and things like that. So that's the reason why we kind of set up this kind of program here at Hybrid Pharm. So if you were coming with a prescription outside of our own prescribers and things like that, it would be a little more complicated. We would deliver to your house.

Trevor: OK, so let's say I walk in and I need medical cannabis. What? And I'm a new patient. What would you do? How would that work?

Rahim: We would set you up with an appointment with our prescriber. Once we go through the consultation process, they would authorize a prescription and then we'd be able to actually deliver the cannabis to the health care provider.

Trevor: OK, since your health care providers in the building, you could see he or she could then literally hand it to you.

Rahim: Yeah,.

Trevor: Cool.

Rahim: Interesting eh.

Trevor: Yeah, No, that's completely different than other setups and way better for patients. So that's, that's great. How, how a patient's been liking this.

Rahim: I think they actually love it. They love the consultation process. They love the idea of coming into a pharmacy.  They're used to that. Right. Like a lot of the patients, most patients who are using medical cannabis are over the age of 50 on multiple medications. So, they do want to have that conversation with the pharmacist to be able to help them guide in their dosing, help guide them with their titration, making sure they're not using it inappropriately or not interacting with the medication. So, they do like that process. I feel like the retention and the ordering rates a little bit higher than most patients are going through. As we know, like we've seen Health Canada recently, see the numbers of registrants across the country has dropped about like seven to eight percent since last March. And I think the reason is because most of them are accessing it through the recreational channels and or black market. So, I think this type of model is definitely necessary in the long run to really help patients come back towards the medical side and actually get proper consultatively proper advice. I have friends at the dispensaries right now are they say one in like three one four patients walking in, that’s our clients walking into a recreational dispensary are asking medical questions. So, there is a big gap in the level of education and knowledge that is out there in the market. And I think that's what we're really trying to hone in on and really try to provide.

Trevor: Yeah, and without saying bad things about people in the dispensary, the we'll call it the recreational system or the non-medical system. How appropriate do you think it is that, you know, a bud tender is being asked medical questions?

Rahim: It's yeah, it's obviously not appropriate because they do not have medical training. But it's expected because this is the most patients want things yesterday. I mean, you're a pharmacist. You know, they're saying they want their medication yesterday. You have to sit there and compound it and it takes like twenty-four to forty-eight hours. Right. It's and that's what we're seeing now. We're seeing all these elderly patients walking into dispensaries and asking about fibromyalgia and arthritis and most budtenders, I hear from them. They say, I'm sorry, we can't talk about medical. We do have a lot of dispensaries around Ottawa actually referring to us. So, patients do call or come in after going through the recreational system. So, it's good in that sense. But I think there's a big oversight. When they first launched this and the first launched the medical system and launched the recreational system, there's still there's still a huge gap and that's to look to the future of this industry. I think that's where we need to really start focusing in on patients and focusing on their accessibility.

Trevor: Oh, that's that's really good, since both you and I do some compounding. Compounding with cannabis, is that is that a thing at Hybrid Pharm?

Rahim: No, it's not a thing at Hybrid Pharm. Remember before we were talking about that we were doing that, and we were helping patients using alternate dosage forms. I had this time, it's not available anymore. I think that when it does become available, I think it's when the legislation gets the revision. And if pharmacies are unable to dispense medical cannabis, then compounding will come back into the mix. I think it's a big problem, an oversight on our part, on the boards' part, on just our industry in general, because there are a lot of patients that really need individualized medication. I truly, this is a harm reduction approach to, well, why give someone.

Trevor: Absolutely.

Rahim: When they can take it, you know vaginally or topically or retro and have more targeted therapy. But again, yeah, I think we have to wait until enabling legislation allows us to do so.

Trevor: Yeah, we were talking to Dr. Mohan Cooray a few episodes ago and he's with Catalogue well, doing a bunch of other things, he started out being a gastroenterologist. So, he said, well, of course, I would love to have a cannabis suppository when they become available. So, the need is out there.

Rahim: Absolutely there is. I mean, we're talking with a lot of gynecologists. There's a lot of females using suppositories and a lot of them are making them at home using like cocoa butter or whatever they can find, whatever recipe they can find, using it from endometriosis, vulvodynia, like dyspareunia. So, I mean, it is a big niche and I think we should be focusing more on medical based products.  Instead of just growing flour and making oils like those two have been done and done and done. Let's start moving on to more innovation and more development in the medical stream.

Trevor: So and not that we can't swing back to this, but I know you've been doing a few other things in the cannabis world. Kirk ended up on a national nursing body to do with cannabis education, and your name came up. So what other sort of areas of cannabis and cannabis education have you been up to lately?

Rahim: Yeah, we are. We're doing a lot. We're trying to dip into the research side a lot. And we are actually working with at the CHEO Children's Hospital in Ontario to study the use of cannabis in ASD patients, which is fantastic. We've had a lot of positive results coming out of that.

Trevor: So let's back up a bit. What's an ASD patient?

Rahim: An ASD is autism spectrum disorder. So a lot of these patients, this is specifically for patients under the age of 17 using cannabinoids as their primary therapy. So we're just it's more of an observational trial, not actually a placebo or a randomized controlled trial. Observational for patients using medical cannabis under the supervision of a health care professional. But just from experience in before this even started with our ASD patients, it's been fabulous. It's been working very well. And a lot of a lot of the parents, are just. I've had some parents come crying, going like, I can't believe how well this works. I can't believe this has been illegal for so long that they it's really changed their lives. And so that's one fascinating aspect. We're also with CHEO as well, we're doing a retrospective review of our insomnia patients and looking at those that are using cannabinoids for sleep disorders. And so these studies will be coming out in the next couple months. I'd say the ASD will take a little bit longer.

Trevor:  Sorry, it's a little bit more on the insomnia one. It's was it's kind of all over the place or these patients mostly smoke it, mostly using oils or how are people treating their insomnia with cannabis?

Rahim: Most of our patients, I would say about 90% of them are oil/capsule, spray based, non-inhalant based. So most of them are using capsules or oils for their insomnia and just doing pretty well. Actually, a lot of patients actually start for pain or some other indication, but then they start noticing that this has helped me sleep better. So, you know, and as we know, like in the cannabis industry, especially in the medical side, we're starting to notice trends of like three main reasons why people are using medical cannabis, Pain, Anxiety and Sleep. So, we decided to look at our charts at the pharmacy here and just kind of go over the efficacy and look at the improvements that patients have seen so far.

Trevor: And education wise, you're getting involved with some national boards.

Rahim: Yeah. So, CNA reached out and asked to help with some expert opinions in regards to their program and their education, so that's probably how my name came up when Kirk was discussing that. So, we are getting involved in education and things like that. We're bringing in, especially in the Hybrid Pharm side of things. And just a little bit of education around the store is Cannabis Education Guild is helping us with using some educational materials, really patient focused, patient based to really help drive education and drive explanations of on a really basic level; entry level to really help, you know, help with education, kind of repeating myself there.

Trevor: But no, no, that that's that sounds great.

Rahim: I think that feeling like people don't really understand this or but we're still really at a really nascent stage where patients still don't really understand the differences between the cannabinoids. So even the dosage forms, I get a lot of patients coming in. I don't want to smoke and they think that's the only way to consume cannabis. So there's still a lot of education that still needs to be done. And I think this is a primary role as health care providers and pharmacists.

Trevor: Well, and I think a lot of prescribers are a little nervous because they don't know how to prescribe it. I know I've got that question several times. So in case we've got any prescribers listening to this episode, let's pick insomnia since we're talking about it. If I'm a insomniac, come to talk to you and your prescriber. And I said, you know, I can't sleep. What should I do? Do a quick walk through of what I'd be asked and what sort of doses and types I would be started with.

Rahim: Yeah, that's a really common question. First of all, I think a lot of doctors are still very confused. I think we all are very confused by the grams per day. A lot of doctors don't understand that grams per day does not mean that's how much they consume. It means how much they have access to. And again, I think that's kind of a moot point, to be honest. It doesn't really make sense. That doesn't really have any bearing on what their dosage is, what they're how much they're actually using. So it is a grams per day for X amount of time. So if a patient were to come in for insomnia, there's a couple of things you have to ask, too. Are you having sleep latency? Like are you having problems getting to sleep or staying asleep? And those that can be two different types of forms where patients can be can be using. You also ask I mean, as a pharmacist, I always ask, what have you tried in the past? What are you currently using in terms of medication? And kind of go back to our study. We've noticed a lot of patients have dropped off on their sleep medications. So, again, there's a pill swearing effect with cannabinoids that we have come to know and learn about from their it's about selecting the proper dosage form, especially in cannabis naïve patients. You definitely want to start with something more CBD heavy than you would with THC and more on the oil based or capsule based for more sleep latency. But then again, there's more experienced users. They may introduce THC after a certain period of time to increase more sedative effects. And we're also noticing, too, like I mean, with THC, you can be a double-edged sword. You can you can see small amounts, small dosages, great for sleep, high dosages. It can actually be more activating. And we've had a lot of patients come and be like, yeah, I was wired. I took this amount and I was wired. I'm like, you got to start lower. So there is there is a consultative process of escalation and dosing on that side.

Trevor: OK, and again, assuming I was I was cannabinoid naive, oils... I assume they are easier to start out with because they're easier to titrate. Do ya want to talk a little bit about that in case, again, prescribers never used one before.

Rahim: Yeah, absolutely. Oils are definitely much more easier to titrate. They're actually a little bit more cost effective than the capsules. So, when you when you starting on a patient on an oil, you start on a lower dose. We're noticing anywhere between like five to ten milligrams CBD and then you titrate upwards pretty rapidly for insomnia because you don't want them to titrate over a period of three to four weeks. That's you want them to sleep pretty rapidly. So, a titration on that side would do wonders. And again, I'm noticing a lot, too, like a lot of people think you need to THC to sleep. And that's not true. A lot of patients have more anxiety related disorders which help them, which inhibit them from sleeping properly. So, their mind's going they can't shut the brain down there just kind of all wound up at night. And the CBD alone can actually be a little more effective than even the combination. But that's why I like, again, cannabis naïve patients generally start them on more of a CBD dominant type of oil and then slowly titrate them up over the course of a week or so.

Trevor: Not that that. Is really good. Anything else cannabis related going on at Hybrid Pharm, do you think our listeners need to know about?

Rahim: Yeah, no, we're just we're trucking along with our new model and kind of getting patients used to this new storefront medical model. I mean, we do have expansion plans across the country as we are talking with many different pharmacies and many different clinic owners and really trying to evolve the space into a more patient friendly atmosphere. I think also to going down the path of even speaking with CFFAM or now Medical Cannabis Canada in regards to patient affordability and tax reduction, things like that. I think our big plays in the medical market that we should be really discussing and really advocating and pushing for. And in this type of model, I think it can make more sense for the taxes to be wiped out. And I think that would be a really big help for these patients.

Trevor: Absolutely. Now, business wise, you are talking about expanding Hybrid Pharm what across Ontario, across Canada, how far is the empire going to stretch.

Rahim: Across Canada, at least to start? I mean, a lot of people are talking to some people on my team or even saying this could be a global model. I want to focus in on Canada first because we have legalized it. And I think there's a lot of changes that should be made and need to be made in order to increase the accessibility. And honestly at the end of the day, this is about normalization. This is why I put it in a pharmacy, because now you see the dispensaries, you see them opening up left and right, and it's solely cannabis. You're still putting cannabis in a box outside the Realm Society. But we know this is a medicine. We've seen it. Medical professionals have seen it. It's time to really just integrate this into our pharmacopeia like we did in 1918. I do have a book, by the way, in my pharmacy that has everything from the 1918 Pharmacopeia.

Trevor:  oh, Kirk would love that.

Rahim: And that's the model. And that's why I really want pharmacies to get more involved in this. I want them to start being able to distribute, dispense and counsel and discuss cannabis with their patients.

Trevor: So just in case people missed it, you are not just a quote unquote cannabis pharmacy. Like if I need my antibiotic and my blood pressure pill filled the idea, it's all done in Hybrid Pharm, right?

Rahim: Absolutely. That's a big it's a big part of the model, too, is having all your medications in one spot because we have noticed we are reducing medications, we are de-prescribing patients, we are helping them come off their opioids or SSRI or benzodiazepines, even some of the anti-inflammatories that have burned holes in their stomach and they're no longer able to use those. So we are kind of shifting it right. It's a shift in the evolution of pharmacy, and it's that's a big part of it. And that's why we do want to have control over all the different medications that they are using so we can properly monitor and dose titrate.

Trevor: As usual, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. And we're always excited to see where Hybrid Pharm is going next. So, you know, maybe the next one is we'll talk to you and as your new grand opening in Edmonton or something. So that's fantastic. We hear your Ottawa is also super busy right now with Covid. So we'll let you go back to Covid testing. Anything else.

Rahim: We do Covid testing here, too. Off business hours. But it's quite interesting. But, yeah, just obviously we're here to help the community. Right. We're trying to integrate ourselves as a community pharmacy and not be outcasted as a cannabis pharmacy. So that's it's important. And I think we have to step up to the plate when a pandemic occurs and this is what we are doing.

Trevor: So, yeah, no good. Good for you guys. I think Ottawa is lucky to have you, Rahim. That was great. Looking forward to talking to you next time.

Rahim: Thanks Trevor appreciate it. I Appreciate it always great time on Reefer Medness.

Rene: All right. That was great. It's rainy here, the producer of the show. And so there was an unanswered question that we after the interview got back in touch with Rahim about, and he E-mailed us an answer. So I'm going to interject here and offer that answer. It was about some clarification on the process of purchasing. So Rahim writes, After a prescription is authorized, patients are registered on the spot with Hybrid Pharm as a licensed producer. Once registered, we pharmacists and or clinicians recommend specific products and educate patients on how to use them. Patients can then order their medicine and have it delivered to them directly in the pharmacy, all within the same consultation. Patients order cannabis from the website, which is Hybridpharm.com and pharm is P-H-A-R-M. Patients pay online. With a credit card or debit card and there you go, that's the process. And now back to Trevor and Kirk.

Trevor: So, Kirk, aside from Rahim answering that question for us, he's involved. He's got his fingers in a lot of stuff. We talked about insomnia. We talked about autism. He's doing some research projects with CHO, the Children's Health of Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. There's a lot going on. And yeah, I, I'm just excited to see where Hybrid Pharm is going.

Kirk: Yeah, it is quite exciting. He is he is out and about. I'm involved with the Canadian Nursing Association and I know he's with the cannabis program and I know he's involved with that too, because I've seen him in some future videos that are coming out. So, yeah, he's a busy man. I have a I have a sense we're going to be talking to him again.

Trevor: I do, too. And I liked how when he walked through. Let's see if I get this right. So he was saying three of the things that I like that he keyed on was people seem to come in with Pain, with Anxiety and with Sleep. And we talked a little bit about sleep because I made him do it. But I just thought it was an interesting Segway that often he says they'll come in with like a pain issue. They'll get the cannabis stuff sorted out and then two sort of useful side effects is they end up on literally less pills overall and they start sleeping better.

Kirk: Imagine that

Trevor: So it's just yeah, it's now, you know, because they comes up all the time. No, cannabis is not a miracle cure for everything all the time. But it is, on the other hand, really interesting, all the little things that keeps falling into place.

Kirk: Over fifty five episodes and we, you know, what have we keep stumbling into how cannabis helps people. Right. And it just helps people. And also the more we talk to educated cannabis people, the more they say to us, the studies are there, you know. So again, I think we're starting this project at an exciting time for us Trevor. I think there's going to be so many stories for us in the future about cannabis because it's helping people. And it's helped me for the same reason. Sleep huge, you know, and I would like to explore that a little bit more. Is it is it the CBD or is it actually the CBN that are helping people sleep? You know, so there's so much more to learn about cannabis. And these fellows, this this group at Hybrid Pharms, I hope to stay in contact with them.

Trevor: Me too. So, Kirk, do.

Kirk: What about My Cannabis Stories? You know what? I keep trying to get two minute My Cannabis Stories from people.

Trevor: So, yes, if you have a My Cannabis Story, it's really easy. Record about two minutes of audio on your phone. This is "I like cannabis it helped me. I hate cannabis, it didn't help me. It helped my mom." You know, just something about how cannabis is being involved in your life. It's really easy. Recorded on the voice memo on your phone and then email it to us.

Kirk: Will you please email it to us? This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Trevor: Yes. And we would love to play it at the end of one of our episodes. Everybody loves them and it inspires other people to get involved with cannabis.

Kirk: I've got a I've got a surprise for you. I stood outside the local cannabis dispensary and started asking people, making cold calls, asking people what they thought about the two year anniversary. OK, and so I've asked Rene to put together a little montage, OK, of the responses I had. So, Rene, maybe you can fit some of those some of those comments back right no.

Streeter: So it's two years of cannabis legalization. What do you think? I think it's pretty great. I didn't think there'd be a day where I can watch my local mall come out with cannabis.

Streeter: It's made everybody happier that. Well, I mean, the government, it's made them happier. It's made people happy.

Kirk: So what do you think about two years of legalization of cannabis?

Streeter: It's good. It's good. There's nothing wrong with it.

Streeter: Well, in Manitoba, it has not made the province any richer. Definitely hasn't increased a ton of jobs in the province.

Streeter: I mean, I don't think it's done an impact on anything as far as the illegal activities with marijuana.

Streeter:  it's made no significant difference in my life.

Kirk: OK, yeah. And why is that did you smoked before hand?

Streeter: Not heavily. And I think people are still buying it more on the black market, so that's my hunch. That's what I hear on the streets.

Streeter: I think it's great. I think it's, you know, Canada has finally come around it and it's been a non-issue. The sky hasn't fallen and everything is fine, as I've seen no major news articles or anything on the news saying, you know, place are getting broken into or major catastrophes associated with the smoking of pot or the legalization of cannabis. It's been a total non-issue.

Streeter: No, and I think a lot of more people who had anxiety and other problems like that are also able to come out and talk about it a lot more, actually, because it's now more in the face of everybody. It's not so hidden.

Streeter: I think it's been just a fantastic two years and I'm looking forward to see what else comes into the store.

Kirk: Do you mind me asking you, do you do you consume cannabis before this, before two years before legalization?

Streeter: I have tried, yes, but I find that the legal stuff is way better. Way better.

Kirk: So, the fact it is now legal. Has that influenced your use of it and use it more often or less often?

Streeter: No, I think it's about the same, but I definitely it's it's a lot less stressful I find.

Streeter: If I have had a medical license for years because I had a spinal problem, spinal stenosis, hip replacements, and, you know, waiting for surgery it took so long, the doctors had me on hydromorphone. And you know what that stuff is? It will freaking could kill you. So after that, the only solution was to go on medical herb and everything, and it's the only thing that kept me from freaking wanting to shoot myself, I was in so much pain. So thank God that the government got on board with this and instead of the black market making billions of dollars, we could put it more into taxes.

Kirk: So Trevor what do you think of that?

Trevor: Wow. You know, you would think that people would maybe stop. Be that cannabis would be so normal now that they are not talking about it anymore. No, they're still talking.

Kirk: Well, no, but what's interesting is I got some people that just didn't care. I got some people that had the whole back story behind where all the money is going. I had I had a lot of different stories, and I hope that we're able to get them. I, I even. I know. You know, I have my stupid little bicycle dayglo dayglo green bicycle helmet on.  I recognized afterwards that I was wearing my dayglo green jacket and I didn't really dawn on me and I had this fire mask on. I was alive. I was basically glowing in the mall and I didn't really realize it till I got home. And I took a selfie actually of myself went, oh, my God. I walked up to people with a helmet on a mask and saying, hey, talk to me about cannabis. And I got some good responses. And doing it in front of the liquor store was the most fun because people actually scurried away from me.

Trevor: Get away from this guy.

Kirk: No one seemed to care. Two years after legalization, the sky did not fall. Now, the other thing I would like to encourage our listeners, Trevor, is for four, for Pete's sake, for crying cannabis out loud. Come on, guys, give us a rating on podcast. We've got lots of listeners out there. I know you're a tight crowd. I know that you're a good community. We're building. But give us some feedback, how about that.

Trevor: Show us some love.

Kirk: Show us some cannabis love. Yeah. Now you can segway into music that's 40-years old.

Trevor: I don't know if you've been well, you're our Instagram guy, so maybe you did see it there. There is an Aboriginal guy in Northern California who decided to go on a skateboard ride with a camera and a bottle of Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry while lip synching along to Dreams. Yeah, it's kind of been all over it and Stevie Nicks herself has done it, you know, so it's it was a thing.

Kirk: Rumours is back on the Billboard Top Ten list.

Trevor: Well, I don't know if it's because of that or just he really likes the song. But Rahim being on top of the latest trends he wants to hear Dreams.

Kirk: Well, so a flashback to grade 11. I think it was for me. You were probably still in elementary school in nineteen seventy-seven. Yeah, I know I can remember this song was everywhere in the seventies. Rumours, Rumours was the top selling album. I think it beat out Dark Side of the Moon and Tapestry became the number one selling album for its time. I think Thriller actually took over Rumors and now is back. I think I saw someplace where Fleetwood where Mick Fleetwood was actually also doing the thing and said, thank you. Royalties are nice. So, yes, let's play let's play Fleetwood Mac Dream.

Streeter: Oh, yes, so it's two years since legalization of cannabis. Do you care? No, I don't smoke it. So. Have you noticed any difference in society after two years? No, I didn't notice anything. OK, I don't. That's all I'm looking for. I don't know. All right. Thanks, man.