Cannabis Law on Earth

Dr. Daniel Bear is the Director of the Centre for Social Innovation at Humber College and has worked in Canadian and US drugs policy since 2003, when he started a chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy. He went on to work with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Drug Law Reform Project where he focused on public education and outreach initiatives in support of civil and criminal cases across the United States. Dr. Bear’s doctoral work at the London School of Economics and Political Science focused on the implementation of cannabis policy by police in the UK. 

Since coming to Canada in 2013, Dr. Bear focused on cannabis education, harm reduction, and how young people make decisions about how and where they consume cannabis. Currently, Dr. Bear leads the Canadian team of the Global Cannabis Cultivation Research Consortium (GCCRC), and the Engaging and Educating Young-Adult Cannabis Consumers (EEYCC) project. 

His latest research project is called Pharmacists as Cannabis Educators (PACE), where he works with the Canadian Pharmacists Association and other groups to re-imagine the role pharmacists can play in supporting cannabis consumers. He has been a Professor in the Faculty of Social and Community Services (FSCS) at Humber College in Toronto for eight years. 

If that’s not enough, Dr. Bear is also the Principal Consultant at Responsum Consulting, where he works with clients such as the Mental Health Commission of Canada and the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse to support knowledge translation efforts around cannabis research.

I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Thank you to Jeremy Benning, our co-producer and sound editor.

And thank you to Albert Wong, who created and performed our beautiful music.

For more insightful conversations related to cannabis law, listen to our other episodes at https://podcast.cannabislawonearth.com/

If you're looking for a good text book on Canada's federal cannabis law and regulations with helpful related case law, read Canada's Cannabis Act.

And if you need a cannabis lawyer, ask Russell for more information at https://cannabislaw.ca

Dr. "Barb" Barbara J. Mainville, MD has been working with medical cannabis for more than 8 years following 30 years of practice in Emergency Medicine, and 30 years as a Coroner for the Province of Ontario (conducting both investigations and inquests.

Barb is a member of the Canadian Consortium for the Investigation of Cannabinoids, the Society of Cannabis Clinicians, the Western Trauma Association, and the Special Operations Medical Association, as well as serving as the Medical Director for DBI Tactical. 

Barb has a particular interest in the potential applications of medical cannabis in physical and psychological trauma, both long term and acutely. She is a featured guest on another podcast, Let's Talk Cannabis.

I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Thank you to Jeremy Benning, our co-producer and sound editor.

And thank you to Albert Wong, who created and performed our beautiful music.

For more insightful conversations related to cannabis law, listen to our other episodes at https://podcast.cannabislawonearth.com/

If you're looking for a good text book on Canada's federal cannabis law and regulations with helpful related case law, read Canada's Cannabis Act.

And if you need a cannabis lawyer, ask Russell for more information at https://cannabislaw.ca

Chris Nyberg’s law practice focuses on transactional and commercial matters, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and complex commercial transactions for start-up and mid-market companies in technology, food, beverage and agribusiness, healthcare and other regulated industries. He has broad experience with a range of private equity, venture capital and other institutional investments as well as complex acquisitions, mergers, divestitures, minority investments, and cross-border transactions. In addition to transactional work, Chris’s experience includes advising clients on all aspects of their corporate and commercial arrangements, including reorganizations and other corporate restructurings, as well as assisting with their corporate governance. Chris also regularly advises applicants, licensees, retailers, brands, service providers, First Nations communities and businesses and members of adjacent industries on all manner of cannabis-related mandates. He was seconded to one of North America’s leading licensed producers and has taught cannabis law and regulation at two major Canadian universities.

Chris co-authored a recent article:
Saving Cannabis Inventory From Going Up in Smoke - Tantalus case
A recent decision established that Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) should not withhold the renewal of an excise licence issued under the Excise Act, 2001 (“Excise Act”) where an excise licence is necessary for the debtor to deal with their assets within an insolvency proceeding.

Chris is
* Recognized in The Best Lawyers in Canada, Cannabis Law (2022)
* Recognized in Chambers Canada: Canada’s Leading Lawyers for Business, Cannabis Law (2020 – 2022)
* Recognized in The Legal 500 Canada, Cannabis Law (2020 – 2022)

Thank you to Jeremy Benning, our co-producer and sound editor.

And thank you to Albert Wong, who created and performed our beautiful music.

For more insightful conversations related to cannabis law, listen to our other episodes at https://podcast.cannabislawonearth.com/

If you're looking for a good text book on Canada's federal cannabis law and regulations with helpful related case law, read Canada's Cannabis Act.

And if you need a cannabis lawyer, ask Russell for more information at https://cannabislaw.ca

Crista Eggers is the Statewide Campaign Manager for Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, a ballot committee leading the effort to put a pair of initiatives on the 2024 ballot that would legalize medical cannabis access in Nebraska. 

Crista has been active in lobbying for legislative efforts and with two prior ballot attempts in 2020 and 2022.

Crista's passion for cannabis advocacy began when her youngest son Colton, was diagnosed with intractable epilepsy when he was two. Colton continues to experience daily uncontrolled seizures, and Crista believes as do many other parents of children with epilepsy, that cannabis has an ability to prevent seizures. The Nebraskan authorities do not agree.

Crista is a graduate of Wayne State College, and holds degrees in Public Relations and Organizational Leadership. Crista’s husband and their two sons live in Gretna, Nebraska. 

Thank you to Jeremy Benning, our co-producer and sound editor.

And thank you to Albert Wong, who created and performed our beautiful music.

For more insightful conversations related to cannabis law, listen to our other episodes at https://podcast.cannabislawonearth.com/

If you're looking for a good text book on Canada's federal cannabis law and regulations with helpful related case law, read Canada's Cannabis Act.

And if you need a cannabis lawyer, ask Russell for more information at https://cannabislaw.ca

Ross Rebagliati, 52
Born 1971 North Vancouver BC
Diving team 1978
Swim team High school 1985
Ski raced 5yrs (10-15) 1980-86
Started snowboarding 1987-88
Coached snowboard halfpipe camps for Craig Kelly 1988-91
BC amateur series 1988 - 1991 — Won everything haha — they tried to kick me off the tour by the end.. lol
USA and Canadian amateur champion Snowboarding 1990
Lord Byng high school Grad 1990
Moved to Whistler 1990 - 2018
Cover of TransWold Snowboarding magazine 1991
World Cup debut Austria 1992
1st pro win Mt.Baker Banked Slalom 1992
European Champion 1994
US Open Champion 1994
Whistler World cup 1996
Multiple other world cup wins and podiums
Gold medal Nagano winter Olympics Feb 8, 1998.
Tested positive for THC
Disqualified and reinstated within 3 days (First time any athlete was reinstated by the IOC)
Was temporarily in a Japanese jail
Jay Leno 2 days later
Conan O'brian etc etc
Became a public figure
Roots sponsorship 1999- 2002
Retired from pro snowboarding 1999
Became a cannabis advocate 2000 - 2023
No fly list 2001 (re: 911) 22 yrs and counting….
Worked construction renos, framer, heavy equipment, flipped real estate etc.
RossGold established 2012
RossGold glass 2012-2018
RossGold store 2015 - 2017 (prohibition)
Various jobs growing in the grey market 2000 - 2018
Closed the RossGold company during legalization 2017-2023
Worked in various BC craft/micro facilities 2019-2022
Feb 8, 2023 RossGold cannabis products in Canadian stores. (25yrs to the day! Not planned — coincidence!)
Currently living near Penticton, BC
Married with 3 kids: 14, 11, and 8. They all ski and snowboard, but also individually play football, dance and play hockey.
Founder/CEO RossGold Cannabis
Documentary “Nagano till now” premiering at the 2023 Whistler Film Festival.

Thank you to Jeremy Benning, our co-producer and sound editor.

And thank you to Albert Wong, who created and performed our beautiful music.

For more insightful conversations related to cannabis law, listen to our other episodes at https://podcast.cannabislawonearth.com/

If you're looking for a good text book on Canada's federal cannabis law and regulations with helpful related case law, read Canada's Cannabis Act.

And if you need a cannabis lawyer, ask Russell for more information at https://cannabislaw.ca

Ted Smith is a big Boy Scout. He is constantly helping others in need, and Ted has successfully advocated human rights for decades.  Ted is the Founder of the the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club, Canada's oldest compassion club, which opened in 1996.  He has played a large role in the battle to legalize cannabis in Canada for the past three decades and continues his advocacy work today .  

Since moving to Victoria in 1995 to start the International Hempology 101 Society, Ted has been at the forefront of cannabis activism. He is the author of Hempology 101: The History and Uses of Cannabis Sativa, published in 2012, a history of cannabis text book full of rich references to our historic use of this important plant medicine. He was the publisher of the Cannabis Digest newspaper, Canada’s largest publication on the subject for almost 10 years. Ted was even featured in a cameo as himself in the movie Kid Cannabis.  Ted has organized cannabis conventions across the country, coordinating or participating in approximately 4,000 rallies, meetings, press conferences and other events.

Ted founded the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club in January of 1996 making it the oldest medical cannabis dispensary in Canada, now with over 8,500 members.  After his employee Owen Smith was arrested baking cookies in 2009, he helped manage the case all the way to a unanimous 7-0 victory at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2015.  The R. v. Smith case made cannabis edibles and concentrates legal for patients to consume, whereas before only smoked herb was considered legal medicine.  Over the years, the VCBC and its facilities have been raided 8 times but have beaten every criminal charge in court using constitutional arguments.

He took a few years away from the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club to care for his life time partner Gayle Quin, who was also a patient and a passionate cannabis activist.   After she died of cancer in 2016, Ted created a tea company in her honour named Gayle’s Tea, which is only available for sale at the VCBC.

Currently Ted is focused on getting the VCBC a temporary exemption from the Cannabis Act to provide high-dosage edibles to patients, medicines the club has provided long before legalization.  After two raids by the Community Safety Unit, he and the club have been fined

Thank you to Jeremy Benning, our co-producer and sound editor.

And thank you to Albert Wong, who created and performed our beautiful music.

For more insightful conversations related to cannabis law, listen to our other episodes at https://podcast.cannabislawonearth.com/

If you're looking for a good text book on Canada's federal cannabis law and regulations with helpful related case law, read Canada's Cannabis Act.

And if you need a cannabis lawyer, ask Russell for more information at https://cannabislaw.ca

Owen Smith is a director of the non profit Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club ("VCBC"), one of the oldest compassion clubs in Canada, with over 8000 active members, which helps members who have documented, serious medical conditions, by providing them with medicinal cannabis and cannabis based products.

Owen is a cannabis subject-matter expert, possessing a wide range of cannabis industry knowledge based on two decades of working with patients, advocates, dispensaries, non-profits, producers and processors as well as one of the worlds largest cannabis corporations.

In 2009, Owen was arrested for baking cannabis and making extracts, edibles and oils for members of the VCBC, and consequently raised a constitutional challenge that the Supreme Court of Canada decided 7-0 in his favour in 2015. R v Smith is the most successful cannabis case in Canadian history, which legalized the process of cannabis extraction so that people and companies could make extracts, edibles and oils for medicinal use.

Owen is also a storyteller, multi-media artist, videographer, writer, juggler and musician.

During our interview, Owen's audio became garbled due to a streaming issue, so we salvaged some of the recording and then moved to a different recording platform. It's around the 20-minute mark.

Thanks to Byron Wong for his help with correcting the audio problem! I think it actually made for a better interview. 

Have a listen and enjoy!

Thank you to Jeremy Benning, our co-producer and sound editor.

And thank you to Albert Wong, who created and performed our beautiful music.

For more insightful conversations related to cannabis law, listen to our other episodes at https://podcast.cannabislawonearth.com/

If you're looking for a good text book on Canada's federal cannabis law and regulations with helpful related case law, read Canada's Cannabis Act.

And if you need a cannabis lawyer, ask Russell for more information at https://cannabislaw.ca

Alison Myrden began her career as a Corrections Officer in 1988 after working with the Children's Aid Society. In addition to her website, you can find Alison at the following social media:  Twitter  -- LinkedIn -- Facebook -- During her career, Alison worked at troubled youth facilities around Southern Ontario and eventually solidified her niche with Young Offender cases in early 1989 at Community Resource Services. During her career, Alison was responsible for various duties including attending court, facility shifts and as court liaison for Cassatta Youth Custodial Facilities. One of her most challenging assignments included working with Psychiatric Young Offenders at a Secure Custody Facility. While working in the Youth Court Justice system, Alison noticed many Young Offenders were in trouble with the law for simple experimentation with illicit drugs. This seemed very wrong to her. Alison felt it would be better to educate these young people about drugs instead of punishing them. It seemed to her that our youth were being criminalized for no good reason. Around the same time, Alison was diagnosed with chronic progressive Multiple Sclerosis. She began experiencing Tic Doloureux (bilateral trigeminal neuralgia), an excruciating facial pain associated with MS. Soon after retiring in 1992, she was introduced to medicinal cannabis. She found immediate relief with cannabis without the harmful side effects of the other, more addictive medications. It was then that Alison became an activist for drug law reform. In 1995, Alison was prescribed cannabis for pain relief after her legal, doctor-supervised cocaine and heroin therapy, along with other prescription medications that proved to be insufficient. In 2000, Alison received a s.56 exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to possess and grow cannabis for medical purposes, but was frustrated at not having her own high-quality, cost-effective supply. In 2004, Alison began working with Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), which was renamed Law Enforcement Action Partnership, where she was the first female speaker in Canada to represent LEAP U.S. until 2016, when she branched out on her own. For over 35 years, in over 1,000 interviews, Alison described the "War on Drugs" as a "War on People", calling for its end.  While cannabis was legalized in Canada in 2018, Alison believes the government has not supported those people who need high quality doses of cannabis products at reasonable prices for medical purposes. In 2017, Alison became the first Authorized Pain Patient in the World for Medical Psilocybin for pain relief.  She applied to Health Canada in 2019 for an exemption from the CDSA to grow her own mushrooms with a daily dose of 50

Thank you to Jeremy Benning, our co-producer and sound editor.

And thank you to Albert Wong, who created and performed our beautiful music.

For more insightful conversations related to cannabis law, listen to our other episodes at https://podcast.cannabislawonearth.com/

If you're looking for a good text book on Canada's federal cannabis law and regulations with helpful related case law, read Canada's Cannabis Act.

And if you need a cannabis lawyer, ask Russell for more information at https://cannabislaw.ca

Matthew Jerome is the Founder and Chief Consultant of Meristem Cannabis Consulting, a patient-focused education company, and is Canada's first fully certified Ganjier.

Matt's goal within the industry is to provide confidence when it comes to quality related decisions, which he has over 15 years of experience doing. He has been a vocal medicinal cannabis advocate for over a decade and is a board of directors’
member of Educannation, a non-profit organization, as well as an advisory board member of the ‘Grow Up’ cannabis conference and Canadian Cannabis Championship, and an advocate of the Canadian Cannabis Tourism Alliance.

Matt has been featured as a key-note speaker at several cannabis events and expos globally, and has been selected to professionally judge several cannabis, hash, and extract competitions worldwide. As a Ganjier he offers one-of-a-kind systematic cannabis flower and extract assessments in the industry and features the best of which he finds in Fat Nugs Magazine, where he works as a writer and contributor.

Thank you to Jeremy Benning, our co-producer and sound editor.

And thank you to Albert Wong, who created and performed our beautiful music.

For more insightful conversations related to cannabis law, listen to our other episodes at https://podcast.cannabislawonearth.com/

If you're looking for a good text book on Canada's federal cannabis law and regulations with helpful related case law, read Canada's Cannabis Act.

And if you need a cannabis lawyer, ask Russell for more information at https://cannabislaw.ca

Matt is a partner at the Toronto law firm Torkin Manes. He is co-chair of the Cannabis Law Group and chair of the Franchise Law Group. He is also an accomplished trial and appellate lawyer in the Litigation Group with over a decade of experience advocating on behalf of his business clients. 

Matt provides business and regulatory advice to a wide range of cannabis industry stakeholders, including licensed producers, producer applicants, owners of businesses that provide ancillary services to the cannabis industry, entrepreneurs with start-up aspirations and foreign businesses who are looking to enter the Canadian market or enter into partnerships with established Canadian cannabis businesses. 

Matt has developed considerable knowledge and expertise under the Cannabis Act and its predecessor legislation, including the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations. Matt prides himself on staying abreast of developing cannabis-related legislation at the federal, provincial and municipal levels across the entire country which allows him to service clients throughout Canada and internationally. 

He is frequently sought out by clients to assist in developing promotional strategies and navigating the complexities surrounding the promotional provisions of the Cannabis Act. Matt has acted for a number of American and international celebrities in advising them in their relationships with Canadian cannabis companies. 

Matt has helped clients obtain retail sales licenses across the entire country, including British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Newfoundland. 

Within his litigation practice, Matt acts for his business clients on a wide range of commercial disputes. He has had numerous successful attendances before the Court of Appeal for Ontario and regularly litigates his clients’ cases in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on trials, applications and motions. Matt has also successfully appeared before the Supreme Court of British Columbia and the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta. 

Matt is a regular contributor to print and online media publications on issues pertaining to legal developments within the cannabis industry as well as corporate litigation. Matt is frequently sought out by Canadian media outlets to comment on issues pertaining to the cannabis industry and regularly speaks at industry conferences across the continent. Matt is also an editor of the Torkin Manes Cannabis Law Group blog. 

I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Thank you to Jeremy Benning, our co-producer and sound editor.

And thank you to Albert Wong, who created and performed our beautiful music.

For more insightful conversations related to cannabis law, listen to our other episodes at https://podcast.cannabislawonearth.com/

If you're looking for a good text book on Canada's federal cannabis law and regulations with helpful related case law, read Canada's Cannabis Act.

And if you need a cannabis lawyer, ask Russell for more information at https://cannabislaw.ca