Terry O'Regan has spent his career in the pharmaceutical industry. He has worked for several Big Pharma companies including ones that have developed important treatments for neurological diseases like Multiple Sclerosis. Terry had heard there was a class of therapeutics for neurological conditions that pharmaceutical companies weren't working on, cannabinoids. Terry kept hearing from neurologists that cannabinoids held great promise for neurological conditions. Enter Brains Bioceutical. Brains is involved in trials around the world looking at phytochemicals including cannabinoids. Trevor and Terry discuss how cannabis medicine is moving into the pharmaceutical space and how all our "Brains" could be better with the right cannabinoids. Come have a listen.

A short intro for the eminent Dr. Ethan Russo is challenging. Ethan Russo is a neurologist who explored the Amazon rain forest in the 90's to explore medicinal plants with aboriginal tribes. He returned to the USA and became interested in medicinal cannabis. He quickly became an expert in the field, and worked as a consultant for GW Pharmaceuticals. Later, as a Senior Medical Advisor for GW, he was involved with the development of Sativex and Epidiolex. Dr. Russo founded CReDO Science, creating innovative products and services related to cannabis and the endocannabinoid system. Trevor and Dr. Russo discuss Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS). It is a relatively rare, but very unpleasant condition that causes some heavy users of cannabis to be very nauseous and vomit a lot. Dr. Russo and collaborators have developed a genetic test that may be able to predict who will get CHS and thus who might want to avoid THC containing cannabis altogether.  Then Trevor and Dr. Russo discuss THCV. Come hear about all the potential indications for this lesser known cannabinoid. Make sure you listen to the very, very end of this episode for a hidden my cannabis story.

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.

Ahmed Labied – Morocco - At the opening reception of CannMed 23, there were all these people with green t-shirts that said Morocco. Trevor introduced himself and was told he had to talk to Ahmed Labied. Ahmed explained that in August 2023 there should be the first legal crop of cannabis coming off the field in Morocco and that they’re organizing a cannabis conference in Morocco in November 2023.

Texas A&M - Everything is bigger in Texas. These tall gentlemen from Texas A&M are all about hemp. Russell Jessup is an Associate Professor Texas A&M. Clayton Moore is a Student Researcher at Texas A&M in AgriLife Soil & Crop Sciences. David Baltensperger is a Professor and the Head of Soil & Crop Sciences at Texas A&M. Listen to hear what Texas A&M has been doing with hemp.

Cathie Hiegel - Hear Cathie’s winding road from cytotechnologist to writing the textbook, “A Microscopic View of Medicinal Cannabis”. It really is a very well referenced, easy to read text on Cannabis.

Markus Roggen - Our Germany, American, Canadian chemist. Markus runs Delic labs at UBC in Vancouver, BC. Although it really has nothing to do with the high-powered chemistry his company does every day, Markus is a little obsessed with cannabis names. He found that every year when he gets new students, he has to re-explain cannabis nomenclature. He wondered if he could develop a new classification system for cannabis. Long time cannabis aficionados may hate this, but the rest of us might really like it.

Canadians are changing their perspective of cannabis. People are using it as medicine and access has never been easier. Why is this bad? Why should anyone care how we access our medicinal cannabis? Canada is one of the few countries with federally legal cannabis. However, Canadians are not all benefiting from the creation of the Cannabis Act. There are barriers doing cannabis clinical research. Many prescribers and provincial health systems still refuse to help patients safely access medicinal cannabis despite legalization. This is just not good health care according to Dr. Lynda Balneaves. Her team set out to quantify patients’ hurdles with the Medical Cannabis Access and Experiences in Canada Study. In this episode, Kirk and Trevor explore how medical cannabis is different from recreational cannabis and how the status quo of lumping them together is just not good for patient care.

Potheads are too, well, stoned to succeed in tech, right? A medicinal cannabis user couldn’t be a successful serial tech entrepreneur, could they? Well, meet Brian. He is a US Marine Vet who became a successful tech entrepreneur several times over. However, Brian’s military service also left him with PTSD. Brian tried all the standard PTSD treatments and none of them worked for him. Then an ex-military friend of his suggested Brian try cannabis. Now Brian’s PTSD is under control, his tech business is snapping along and the myth that cannabis holds people back is a stigma that needs to be thrown away.  

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!

There are very few, if any, reliable methods of measuring cannabis impairment.  Road-side sobriety tests done by trained Drug Recognition Experts are very subjective and workplaces are limited with how they assess employees with safety sensitive jobs.  Back by video evidence, Gaize offers real-time impairment screening within 6 minutes.  This portable AV device is considered accurate, providing objective eye behaviours when deciding when an individual is impaired on Cannabis.  Considered the first impairment detection platform released to the marketplace, Gaize will search for answers by finding the six ways your eyes give you away.  

The team gathers in the studio for the first time since pandemic restrictions were lifted. Rene interviews Kirk and Trevor, and gains insights into the creation and growth of this Passion Project. With 100 episodes in the library, the team has lots to review. From suppositories to driving, seizures to criminal records, Parkinson’s to David Crosby, current fans will enjoy reminiscing with the team. If you are new to our podcast looking for new cannabis knowledge, then "It's Okay to be Medicated While Getting Educated" is a great introduction to Reefer Medness – The Podcast. You’ve just found your new binge worthy ear candy.

Dr. Rob Sealey returns to the podcast. Back in S3E7 he talked about Cannabis For Kids. Today we drive down the road to the other end of the age spectrum, Cannabis and Seniors. Dr. Sealey is super knowledgeable, but also pithy comment machine! Within this episode he says  "you wouldn't go into your local liquor store and say, which bottle of Marlow should I use for my arthritis." He also figures "if we're at all related to mice and some people are more related to rats, then you know, you got a pretty good shot as this could actually potentially help."  When filling your medicine cabinet there is "the great substitution effect of using cannabis because of its multi-modal aspects." Applying his knowledge he shares "I always am a booster of the endocannabinoid system." We can’t entice you any better that these quotes. Go Listen!