Displaying episodes by topic: cannabis coaching

What happens when a cannabis compassion club gets raided again despite previous Supreme Court decisions on their side, fervent public support, and years after cannabis legalization? Kirk visits Ted Smith at the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club (VCBC) just days after its latest raid. Ted discusses ongoing legal challenges, compassionate access, Rick Simpson Oil (RSO), cannabis harm reduction, pharmacist-led patient screening, CBD drug interactions, and the future of medical cannabis in Canada. This is a thought-provoking conversation about patient care, cannabis policy, and why some Canadians still struggle to access the products they need. Listen now to learn how advocacy, healthcare, and cannabis policy continue to collide in post-legalization Canada.

Imagine you are a 75 years old male and you have a few medical conditions like well controlled prostate cancer, diabetes, high cholesterol and your knees hurt from arthritis. Your friend says you should try cannabis for your sore knees. You also live in a small rural Manitoba town that leans religious and conservative. Where do you go to find out if cannabis for your knees is a good idea? In Ste Anne's, Manitoba, retail cannabis store owner of Supercraft, Sean Stewart and pharmacist and co-founder of Apothecare, Ajay Chahal have you covered. Sean and his knowledgeable budtenders can help you with general and non-medical cannabis questions. If your questions start swinging medical, like asking about if cannabis interactions with the prescription drugs your on, they can virtually hand you off to the pharmacists at Apothecare, based out of Ontario. The medical cannabis system in Canada isn't perfect. Physicians and other prescribers have been known to tell patients to just go to their local retail cannabis outlet and buy cannabis there. Budtenders in retail outlets are legally prohibited from giving out medical advice to their customers, and they really don't have the medical background to do so. Supercraft and Apothecare are filling that gap by providing access to a medical professional at the place where people are already going with cannabis questions.

Here is yet another story of how individuals found cannabis to be beneficial for their own personal medical needs. The difference in this story? These people went on to grow a grassroots organization called EduCanNation, a non-profit association of Certified Cannabis Educators. While many traditional healthcare professions remain hesitant or outright dismissive of cannabis medicine, EduCanNation is stepping up to bridge the gap between scientific understanding, consumer needs, and the ever-changing legal landscape. The leaders within EduCanNation aim to set the national standards for all Cannabis Coaches and Educators. In this episode, Kirk and Trevor continue their discussion on the emergence of Cannabis Coaches and Educators—an unregulated, but increasingly necessary role—seems to be a natural response to the gaps in education and access that exist in the heavily regulated cannabis space.

The Canadian Medical Cannabis Program has been available for more than two decades, yet the process of obtaining cannabis as medicine remains very cumbersome. In comparison, Recreational Cannabis, seen as a substance of misuse, is easy to acquire. When people express an interest in trying cannabis as a medicine to their health care team, many health practitioners simply direct their patients toward the Rec market knowing (or maybe not) the restrictions the Cannabis Act places on budtenders. Budtenders cannot discuss health conditions with customers. While many health professionals continue to ignore the highly regulated medicinal cannabis system, a group of entrepreneurs calling themselves Cannabis Coaches, are filling the need. In this episode we learn how certified Cannabis Coach Terese Bowors started a small business educating people about medicinal cannabis. We come to understand how a group of non-regulated health educators are developing their own Standards of Practice.