One of the reason Reefer MEDness started was becasuse Trevor couldn't understand why medicinal cannabis wasn't in pharmacies.  Well, all the barriers aren't down yet but meet Rahim Dhalla.  We've talked to Rahim before, but this time we dive into the workings of his pharmacy, Hybrid Pharm.  Hybrid Pharm is a regular pharmacy where you can pick up your diabetes meds, get your flu shot and lately they are even doing COVID-19 testing.  But Hybrid Pharm is special for many reasons.  Not the least of which is, if all the paperwork is in place, you can walk into Hybrid Pharm and pick up your medicinal cannabis.  Welcome to the future, as Kirk and Trevor talk with Rahim about how this all works.

This is our Christmas Day episode.  Although it has nothing to do with trees, reindeer, Kris Kringle, elves or baby Jesus, it is as much fun to open as a present on Christmas morning!  The guys from the High On Home Grown podcast were a delight to talk you.  We hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed making it.

Although universal health care is considered a Canadian right, ensuring your unique needs are fully met can be a challenge. Kirk and Trevor meet Susan Hagar, from Nurse on Board, your healthcare navigation partner. Working for you and your family, a Nurse “will take the stress out of dealing with medical challenges and will design a plan tailored to your specific needs.” Acting as your personal health care manager, they work collaboratively with the health professionals involved with your care. Are you interested in Cannabis and your doctor is not? Nurse on Board offers Cannabis Competent Nurses, who will accompany you to your doctor appointments and guide you and your doctor, with better understanding how Cannabis can be used in your care plan. In this episode, we learn how self-employed nurses help our current health care system meet needs of individuals. We also learn how health professionals can learn to be Cannabis competent through online education.

Many family docs spend part of their time looking after patients in long term care homes.  Two of the most common conditions in long term care are chronic pain and dementia.  We don't have great options in the standard pharmaceutical tool box to treat either of these conditions.  What if I told you a family doc in Sarnia, Ontario is having so much success treating both chronic pain and dementia symptoms in long term care that his colleagues are referring patients to him?  Dr. Blake Pearson is treating chronic pain, dementia symptoms, autism symptoms and others with cannabis.  His expertise is in such demand that he teaches other doctors how to use cannabis successfully in their practice.  Come have a listen.

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What were you doing during the start of the pandemic lock down?  Did you build a puzzle for the first time in year?  Did you get reacquainted with how stupid and long and frustrating monopoly is?  How about sour dough bread?  Did you make your first sour dough?  Dr. Igor Kovalchuk and his wife, Dr. Olga Kovalchuk from the University of Lethbridge were locked out of their labs too.  Their lock down side project was a little more ambitious.  They had been researching hundreds of cannabis extracts to see if these extracts reduced inflammation and might help treat conditions like multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis.  During this forced pause in their research, they wondered in CBD rich cannabis extracts might be useful against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.  You want to hear what they found out.