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Displaying episodes by topic: legal

Kirk catches up with Ted Smith from the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club and his organization’s ill-defined existence within a country of legalized cannabis. We hear how Ted’s dreams, for this timeworn cannabis compassion club, are close to fruition yet there lingers potential for a new set of fines and a visit from the Public Health Authority impeding the full potential of this caring organization. In this episode we learn how the clouds preventing Ted from flying high are not simply from his new smoking lounge but rather the various levels of bureaucracy he must manage when putting compassion into action

Friday, 27 October 2023 15:13

E115 - Peter Su - Banking on Cannabis

With a film credits in Dr. Strangelove, Conan the Barbarian, Coming to America, Field of Dreams and The Hunt for Red October and off-screen credits in many Shakespearean stage roles, two Tony awards, military service, Ranger School and his Ranger Tab, there would be so many conversations to have with James Earl Jones. But over and over, fans just clamored for the catch phrase, “Luke. I am your Father.” Peter Su’s “catch phrase” is writing for Rolling Stone. He loves the gig. But as a banker with over 24 years experience, who can paper a wall with his credentials, he is occasionally annoyed that is all people want to talk to him is the Rolling Stone. So, of course, we ask him about writing for Rolling Stone. Also listen for why Trevor’s fictitious New York State licensed, legal cannabis dispensary could be laundering money, how your Mandarin speaking parents have a literal language barrier to understanding why you want to start that cannabis business and the Asian Cannabis Roundtable.

Ryan Kocot was the in-house legal counsel and director of compliance for a multinational cannabis company. He now has his own practice in California, Massachusetts and New York. He helps operators scale into multiple States, do joint ventures, trademark, and other intellectual property license agreements.  Listen as Trevor and Ryan discuss the weird and counter-intuitive land of multi-states operations, trade marks when cannabis products aren't federally legal, and how Trevor's pipe dream of being a cannabis gummy mogul is way more complicated than he thought.

We've got another amazing group of attendees from CannMed 23!

One evening they said dinner was on Lanai Beach. In Manitoba, if you are at a conference and someone says dinner is on Lanai Beach, then Lanai Beach is the name of a room. But in Florida, they actually meant dinner was on a beach. That sounds like a lovely idea, unless it is over 30 C and there is no shade. Thankfully, I brought a ball cap for my bald head and I met Dr. Joe Thompson also looking for some shade beside a pole. Dr. Thompson trained as a pediatrician, but now is the President & CEO of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement. They have a program where they are going to analyze the data of people who got medical cannabis in Arkansas and see what happened to Health Outcomes. You want to hear about how that study will be done.

Dr. Leah Johnson Pharm D is a pharmacist and we met her in the Poster Hallway. Her Poster was about palliative care patients in California. Her group believes that if patients have access to cannabinoid medicine during palliative care, that will promote a better quality of life for the patients. Dr. Leah helps patients with their cannabis therapy and is a Cannabis Speaker and Educator across the US. She is on the Executive of the Pharmacist Cannabis Coalition of California (PCCC).

I met Akeem during the opening reception of CannMed 23. I didn't know anyone at the conference yet, so thankfully, he came up to me, read my name tag and introduced himself. Soon we discovered we were both from Canada, and we laughed over the fact the sliders were taken away too quickly. He told me he was nervous about a main stage talk he was giving. Now I understand why. He was giving a very technical, science heavy talk to a room full of cannabis doctors and researchers. But he killed it during his talk. He even handled challenges from the audience. I got to collect some audio from Akeem right after his talk. He’s from Mississauga. He’s a huge basketball fan. He has a nephew who Uncle Akeem really wants to become the next Lebron James. But for our story, Akeem is a Canadian lawyer turned hemp farmer turned CEO of the BioTech company Canurta Inc. His talk was about cannaflavins and their potential to treat glioblastoma, a common and aggressive form of brain cancer.

Bruce Mackler was involved with Prairie Plant Systems in Flin Flon when all “legal” Canadian Government Cannabis was grown in a mine in 2000. That became Cannimed in Saskatoon. And that got bought out by Aurora. Former lawyer that fought cases against the FDA. Former immunologist. His company, Ethicann, is developing a sublingual tablet for Multiple Sclerosis as a competitor to Stativex.

Tuesday, 02 May 2023 13:19

E102 - Catch Up with Kieley Beaudry

Kieley is in the lead as our most interviewed guest. Kirk still teases Trevor how he blushed back on E34 when Trevor and Kieley talked about cannabis and sexual dysfunction. We talked to her on the Craft Cannabis Panel on E63 and during our trip to Calgary Hemfest in E78. Today we catch up with this cannabis entrepreneur and force of nature. The company she founded, Parkland Flower, is winning awards and she is pursuing new ventures with Hyde Advisory and Investments. Come listen to the evolution of a entrepreneur and where Kieley thinks the cannabis space is headed!

Kirk and Owen continued discussion moves into a more personal realm as they share their views of the current state of Medical Cannabis industry. Kirk sees a disconnect with federal verses provincial government system management whereas Owen wants more services for individuals needing cannabis as medicine. As he continues his advocacy of medical cannabis, Owen also speaks to current projects to help society be a better place to live. Tune into the second part of a conversion with Canada’s Godfather of Cannabis Two point Oh!

In this episode, Kirk learns how the law was on the side of righteousness when Owen Smith found himself in front of the Supreme Court of Canada defending a desire to help others. In the first part of a longer discussion, listeners gain insights to his six-year legal journey which ends with him becoming a medical cannabis industry advocate and influencer. His cannabis story started with family, but it was a faulty exhaust fan and loud music which moved the Victoria Police Department to deliver, “rock star treatment” during his arrest for creating cannabis edibles. He explains how a legal technicality brought him to the Supreme Court, while the Canadian court system actually supported his efforts creating cookies for medical cannabis patients.

Tuesday, 18 October 2022 11:58

E93 - Cannabis Amnesty with Aisha Abawajy

Pre-legalization, policing of Cannabis was disproportionally excessive and punitive to BIPOC and poor folk of Canada. While Cannabis is now legal, thousands are still saddled with cannabis convictions preventing them from employment opportunities, international travel, and or joining volunteer groups. Although federal legislation “Bill-93 - No-fee, Expedited Pardons for Simple Possession of Cannabis” has received royal assent, the complicated process of applying to have a criminal record removed remains prohibitive. In this episode, Aisha Abawajy explains how her organization, Cannabis Amnesty, is fighting for this community. When many people with a cannabis record hope to obtain a Pardon, Ms. Abawajy explains why Expungement should be the ultimate goal. During discussions with Trevor, Kirk reflects on how “white privilege” may have influenced his own past recreational cannabis use. 

The Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club (VCBC) is no stranger to defending the services that a compassion club can deliver. For decades, the VCBC has supported individuals with chronic and or life-threatening diseases by providing aid not available from government health systems. Kirk once again visits this west coast healing community. He examines how this celebrated organization is now fighting a $6.4 million fine levied against them as an unlicensed dispensary. Founder Ted Smith, a tenacious defender of human rights, explains this current challenge, the club’s relationships with growers, and the help his staff provides the medical cannabis community.

Saturday, 10 April 2021 08:43

E67 - TobaGrown with Jesse Lavoie

By legalizing recreational use of cannabis in 2018, Canada became the world’s largest cannabis friendly country. The Cannabis Act allows provinces to individualized their approach to legalizing the various components of this federal legislation. The Manitoba government rejected the component allowing citizens to grow four plants at home making our province the only non-homegrown jurisdiction. Jesse Lavoie is challenging the Manitoba government’s position suggesting their decisions were made using an outdated understanding of the plant’s threat to homes, children, and those who want to grow. Trevor and Kirk compare the Manitoba government’s current move to make alcohol more available to citizens while at the same time fighting Jesse’s petition to allow homegrown cannabis cultivation. In their discussions, Trevor and Kirk point out the contradictions in Premier Pallister’s approach to Harm Reduction.

Tuesday, 29 December 2020 12:13

E61 - One Less Nurse - Paul Martin

In this episode we explore a series of unfortunate events started when a Registered Nurse decided to illegally grow cannabis as medicine. Society may consider nurses one of our most trustworthy groups however, employers and professional colleges have policies and procedures suggesting otherwise because the profession is plagued with addiction issues. This episode explores what happens when a nurse self-medicates using cannabis and is seen as having an addiction issue. There is a mismatch in understanding needs and medicine. Kirk and Trevor wonder if this is one of those stories where Cannabis is misunderstood and due to this lack of understanding, we are left with one less nurse.

 

Is cannabis something to fear when it comes to prenatal health? The easy answer is yes, when we consider the universally acceptable care plan of all pregnancies are best lived following a healthy diet, doing appropriate exercise, and consuming no unnecessary drugs or medications. With cannabis becoming more widely used as a medicine and consumed recreationally by a growing population, it is important to fully understand how cannabis affects human development and family health. In their second episode discussing Prenatal Cannabis Exposure, Kirk and Trevor explore the implications of cannabis use in pregnancies with Virginia Commonwealth University’s Dr. Mishka Terplan of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Psychiatry. It may surprise you to discover how care giver behaviours and social policy may actually be more harmful to a family’s health and wellbeing than the mother using cannabis during pregnancy. What does current research actually say about the threat of prenatal cannabis exposure to the unborn child? How can understanding the bigger picture of women and family health help change our current policies on prenatal health?
 
Thursday, 12 December 2019 08:08

E41 - Weed Rather be Working

 

Kirk and Trevor discuss cannabis-related workplace issues with the world’s largest advocacy group for small businesses. After one year of legalization, the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB) surveyed their 110,000 members discovering 10,000 Canadian small business owners have confronted cannabis-related issues. As the discussion digs deep into the survey numbers we learn much of the hype promoted before legalization did not materialize yet, small business owners are still dealing with employees smelling of cannabis, poor government-offered educational opportunities, and defining impairment. Ryan Mallough, the director of Provincial Affairs for Ontario, explains how CFIB normally lobbies government for better taxes, laws, regulations, and how his organization has become the primary source of cannabis education for many of their members.
 
Thursday, 25 July 2019 15:52

E32 - HempFest Part 3 - Potpourri

Listen as Trevor and Kirk walk through the displays at Hempfest Canada Saskatoon's expo. We hear from a Lawyer, Insurance Broker, Master Grower, and a Horticulturist. Can you refuse a roadside alcohol test? Are you are likely to fail a road-side sobriety test while sober? Should you consider home insurance for your homegrown? A Master Grower and Horticulturist speak to growing different cultivars; plus add information to the Sativa versus Indica debate.

 
Thursday, 02 May 2019 08:15

S3E6 - Tax Grab

Did you know medical cannabis is taxed?  That is weirder than you might think.  All other blood pressure pills, diabetes pills and depression pills that go through a pharmacy are not taxed.  Yet medical cannabis, prescribed by a doctor or other health care professional is taxed.  Ashleigh Brown (@Ashleigh02112447is a medical cannabis patient, founder of the self help cannabis group SheCann (@shecannabis) and Community Manager and Patient Liaison at Strainprint.  She is also an uber cannabis patient advocate.  Listen to Ashleigh talk about how taxes increase her struggles to afford medicinal cannabis and increase the struggles of other patients.

 

Sunday, 03 June 2018 22:14

S1E7 - The Government

 Why is the recreational cannabis age being set at 19 in Manitoba?  Why do four big companies have a monopoly on recreational sales?  Did the government look back at prohibition of alcohol to plan for legalization of recreational cannabis?  Michael Legary, a spokesperson for the Government of Manitoba update Kirk and Trevor about the Province's plans as legalization approaches

 
Sunday, 08 April 2018 16:16

S1E4 - Pharm Phacts

 Should cannabis be sold in pharmacies? Is there a difference between recreational and medicinal cannabis?  Should an ER Doc have a record if a patient is using medicinal cannabis?  Trevor the Pharmacist thinks medicinal cannabis belongs in a pharmacy.  What do you think?

 

Monday, 12 March 2018 16:30

S1E3 - The Lawyer

Do your old cannabis possession charges go away when pot is legalized in Canada?  How will the police know if you are driving while impaired by Cannabis?  How will US Border security deal with Canadians after pot is legalized?  Kirk and Trevor talk to lawyer Aaron Beddome about the upcoming changes in Canada's Cannabis laws.