The State of Craft - Episode 44 - Compassion Clubs

Welcome to Season 4 of The State of Craft! This season is all about conversations that lead to cannabis policy reforms that allow craft cannabis producers in Canada to thrive. What are the policies that are barring this possibility today? Read our white paper: The Dire State of Craft Cannabis in Canada. It serves as the framework for the current season.

The third episode of season 4 features some real legends of Canadian medical cannabis history. We will be discussing compassion clubs and their role (or lack thereof) in today's legal cannabis landscape. We're so excited to welcome two founders of the very first compassion clubs in Canada—Hilary Black of the BC Compassion Club Society and Ted Smith of the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club—as well as pharmacist Trevor Shewfelt of Reefer MEDness podcast fame.

The experiences lived through and perspectives held by these three humans are an incredible resource for understanding the nuances critical to any kind of policies that would introduce a compassion club model to the legal cannabis landscape in Canada today. We feel privileged to be able to host this conversation! Bios below.

Hilary Black is a purpose-driven leader, and an trailblazing expert in the cannabis industry, having founded the BC Compassion Club Society, in 1997. She has changed the course of the legal cannabis landscape in Canada through her work on advocacy, capacity building, activism, government, media and public relations.

Having served as the former Chief Advocacy Officer and the first female member of the C-suite at Canopy Growth Corporation, she spearheaded DEI programs, social impact strategy and social justice initiatives; including the first-ever cannabis professorship to study cannabis as a harm reduction tool. To boot, she executed the industry's first-ever comprehensive ESG report, highlighting her commitment to sustainable business practices. 

She was awarded the Queens Diamond Jubilee for making a significant contribution to Canadian Society.

As a speaker and consultant, Hilary brings extensive expertise in  impact strategies, advocacy, capacity building, government and media relations, social justice, ESG and strategic partnerships. Her visionary approach aims to harness the potential of cannabis to address complex global issues including climate change and the opioid overdose crisis.

Ted Smith is a big Boy Scout. He is constantly helping others in need, and has successfully advocated human rights for decades.  Ted is the founder of the country’s oldest and only surviving 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 to this day with the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club.  

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 9.100 members.  After his employee Owen Smith was arrested baking cookies in 2009, he helped manage the case all the way to a unanimous 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 honor 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 three raids by the Community Safety Unit, he and the club have been fined close to $3.2 million (it was initially $6.5M) for serving low income chronically ill patients.  The VCBC has filed a lawsuit and for an injunction against the federal and provincial governments to stop the CSU from taking more punitive measures.

It is Ted’s ultimate goal to build an integrated palliative care facility with cannabis and other plant medicines grown and processed on-site for cancer patients. Ted looks forward to a future where all patients have access to this organic life saving medicine.

Trevor Shewfelt:

“What do you mean I can’t send medicinal cannabis to a care home patient?  It’s legal!” Trevor has been a pharmacist in Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada since 1997, but this 2017 question bloomed into Reefer Medness the Podcast (reefermed.ca).  Trevor and nurse Kirk Nyquist have interviewed cannabis researchers, physicians,  pharmacists, nurses, nurse practitioners, naturopathic doctors and most importantly patients about how cannabis has improved their anxiety, pain, sleep, PTSD and more.  Every time Trevor and Kirk learn something new about cannabis, they discover three more cannabis topics to explore.

As a pharmacist, Trevor is  an Asthma,  COPD and Respiratory Educator.  He is injection-certified to give injections, treat self-limiting conditions and teach smoking cessation. Trevor has two decades of experience compounding medications for patients that aren’t commercially available, like taking an oral medication and changing it into one that can be absorbed through the skin.  He supervised the medications in five Long Term Care (LTC) Homes for about 20 years, including training new LTC nurses on the pharmacology of mental health and dementia drugs.  Trevor helped design and implement Pharmacist’s Manitoba’s Smoking Cessation Pilot Project from 2012-2014 and has written various articles and continuing education units published in pharmacy trade magazines. Trevor wrote a weekly newspaper and radio column about solutions to common health complaints for a couple decades, and is now focused on podcasting as his mass medium of choice."

What is The State of Craft?

The State of Craft is a video podcast series focused on the legal craft cannabis industry presented by CertiCraft.

The rollout of cannabis legalization in Canada has been full of ups and downs. The craft cannabis industry in particular has been immensely affected by a myriad of challenges and missteps in the years following the Cannabis Act and Cannabis Regulations.

In The State of Craft, Sami Majadla, CEO of CertiCraft, facilitates conversations with leaders in the legal craft cannabis industry to explore what is going well and what is going not so well. We'll discuss what can realistically be changed at different levels of government and industry alike to address major issues the craft cannabis sector is facing, and hopefully inspire stimulating ideas of all sorts. Every episode ends with a 15-minute live Q&A with our audience.

What is CertiCraft?

CertiCraft is a compliance software system that helps licensed cannabis producers stay on top of their regulatory requirements. CertiCraft is focused on making compliance easy and automating all reports and records and saves more time (and labour cost) than any other system available. Find out more at certicraft.com.