This podcast is recorded on the traditional lands of the Kulin Nation.
We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land
and pay our respects to their elders,
past, present and emerging.
We extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples listening today.
Hello and welcome to GivenTote Cannabis Conversations,
the show that aims to elevate the conversation about cannabis to a higher level.
I'm your host Paul and today it is my pleasure to welcome Andrew Gordon to the show.
Andrew is the Chief Growth Officer for THC, a recognisable Vancouver cannabis retailer
offering a macular vibes at an expertly curated cannabis menu.
He is also a founding member and vice president of the BC Craft Farmers Co-op,
whose mission is to maintain BC's status as International Cannabis Leader and Innovator.
If you like what you hear today, please give us a five-star rating and review on your podcast
platform with choice, tell a friend or simply just listen to another episode.
But for now, please enjoy my conversation with Andrew Gordon.
Now, something I've missed about being in Canada were the pre-pandemic industry events,
like the Lift Expo, infused dinners with the Nomad Cook,
and even facility tours. What amazing events have you been to lately?
Yeah, a great point. I think a big part of our industry is the camaraderie, cohesion
and community that come out of getting together.
The best ideas always come from the other other ideas,
so it's really important that we stay tight. We've built this mycelium.
It's helped us weather a lot of storms. It helped pre-legalization us get organized,
and in step with each other, developing common threads of interest,
really developing communication lines that fed into what legalization also represented.
A big, big part of that, of course, was the event scene. Your lifts, your MJ Bizcons,
your ICBC events, those were tremendous in terms of galvanizing opportunity and
and performing the regulatory landscape and engaging with key stakeholders on all fronts.
So I think, you know, Lift, I just attended in January here in Vancouver.
That was a lot of fun. You know, I am a little curious about how the traditional trade show scene
is going to do in Canada, moving forward. I think that dog and pony show has been a little bit
over exercise in terms of its traditional approach. So I think we're going to see a big
evolution in terms of how these get together. It's happening. I'm proud to say I'm part of
you know, stewarding a new opportunity moving forward in that regard. I'm the co-chair and I
one of the founders of BC craft farmers co-op and we, along with the RCC BC, which is
reach out to Canada's council of BC, which I'm also a director of, have put on this event now for
a second year called the summit. And what we're finding is a very small event. It's only 500 people
at the El Dorado and Matteo Resorting Colona, which again, off the beaten path. And you know,
it's Vancouver, Toronto to get a lot of the love when it comes to the conference and connection scene.
And there's a lot of regional parts of the province that just don't get the representation,
the engagement and the opportunity to shine that they should. And particularly when you look at
the supply chain and where the good cannabis is grown and where it's coming from, it's a lot of these
regions, the cootneys and the island, you know, areas where traditionally we've seen, you know, a very
rich legacy history, a lot of great execution in terms of small scale craft products in the regulated
environment. But unfortunately, they got to travel a long way. So I think hosting events that are more
regionally focused. I think hosting events that are smaller in number and really trying to create
that cohesion and and camaraderie through the exchange of just, you know, proximity and purpose
and passion rather than, you know, presentation and, you know, marketing pitch points. That's going to be
the future of our industry. You know, we're starting to see, you know, the suits erode out of the
equation for lack of a better term and we're starting to see the real industry players, the people who
sacrificed, who built something who were, you know, small to mid-size operators that really just want to
that have a passion and purpose for the plant and for the consumer. We're fitting those stakeholders
wind out and they're the ones that want to come together and build the bridges, share the ideas,
make the economic impact and reform the regulatory landscape in a way that's more conducive to, you know,
what the economic development opportunity with cannabis represents. And so I think we need to get
smaller, not bigger when it comes to these events and I think, you know, the summit and Cologne is a
great example of that. So in terms of the two that I've attended this year, we had lift, much larger
of edge. Obviously, you know, actually, party scenes a lot of fun, but is there a lot of, I there for
the stakeholders? I don't know. What I saw with the feedback and engagement and programming at the summit,
much more conducive. Everyone got something out of it, actually got business development, actually got
the outcomes they were looking forward with government and regulatory stakeholders and I think that's
going to be the evolution moving forward. So proud to be a part of that, proud to have advanced
that and I think that's going to be a trend we see moving forward in the industry for sure.
We're going to talk a little bit more about your work at THC and your work with the BC craft
co-op, but what is your background? What kind of inspired you to get into this work? I know that
when you left university, I heard on another podcast, you felt this kind of compulsion to improve
the health and well-being of your community. So what was it that inspired you to kind of start working
with cannabis and what is your cannabis journey? Yeah. Well, for me, you know, cannabis has really saved
my life. I have PTSD from pretty soon to begin childhood trauma and I got to avoid a very debilitating
pharmaceutical drug regimen by introducing cannabis into my life in college. Being on the island
and being a UVEC obviously cannabis is just omnipresent. So I definitely got a good education in cannabis,
good exposure and to the right kinds of people when it came to that. It wasn't just dialodil birds.
These were real growers, people who contributed for a long time. Some of them were draft Dodgers
up from the US back in the day and their family. They were the second generation grower in their
family. And so there was such a rich history there that I was exposed to and, you know, I'm a very
justice oriented person and I was pursuing law when I was in university and then I started digging
into it. And you know, I found it's not always about justice but more about points of interpretation
and procedure. And so for me, I found, you know, real justice and real development causes happening
in the nonprofit sector. So I had geared my career towards nonprofit fundraising development.
And I was, you know, consider that relatively successful for eight or nine years. I did that
coming out of university raised money for international medical missions was very successful in that.
Hospital campaigns, you know, patient-focused campaigns. I did a term with Canadian blood services
where we brought on the tissue and stem cell donation program. A big capital campaign took a team
to kill a mongaro. So that was a lot of fun and I got to see the impact and just the capacity
of raising awareness, you know, breaking down barriers and creating, you know, momentum for
causes of merit in community. And so in 2014, some people through some of my friends network reached out.
I'd done a nonprofit management program at BCIT. So I was, you know, aware on the governance side
and on the fundraising side on how to manage these organizations and a lot of them were non-profits
at the time because that's the only thing they can get at least or this or that. So I came in really
to help support as volunteer the governance side. Well, they were going through what would be the
licensing regime of what of the first in the world here in Vancouver, the MMRU.
And so I've been looking for a while kind of in my, I was, what I felt was at pivot point in my
in my nonprofit career around social enterprise. And that's, you know, again, working in the
nonprofit sector, you're always working with one hand out. There's not always a lot of, you know,
capacity to always get the mission done because you're constantly trying to raise funds. And so
social enterprise model was very appealing to me because I saw the capacity to affect change,
but it also drive sustainability for the mission. Perhaps even actually solve the thing that you
were setting yourself up to address. And then on prophesied sector, we see a lot of organizations
perpetuating their missions, perhaps at the expense of actually solving the issue, they're,
they're trying to raise funds around. So, you know, I'm not pointing any figures specifically, but,
you know, you look at the cost per dollar raised issue in the nonprofit sector and it erodes
credibility with a lot of stakeholders that you're going to engage in raised money with. So social
enterprise was a great way to, you know, find middle ground in that conversation and build that
credibility you need with, with your donor base. And so, you know, looking at the mission of cannabis
again, something that obviously made a big impact on my life. Here was, you know, a nonprofit
organization looking to structure itself and get prepared for a licensing opportunity that was
pretty impressive at the time. So it was just really exciting and good timing. So I pivoted into a career,
you know, late 2014 or the 2015 and got a chance to be a part of some amazing operations that,
you know, really helped set the standard in terms of destigmatizing in terms of
building credible conversations with community and really, you know, being able to deliver
strong economic value for those operations. So that was absolutely tremendous and really, you know,
came into it not a ton of experience in terms of, you know, the cannabis side of it other than just
being a consumer, but slowly just through active listening through, you know, structuring the business
that we could get other feedback so that we could optimize and improve. We joined our local business
improvement association. Just little things that I knew worked at picking up the phone and answering
getting back to messages. I mean, at the time, that just wasn't something that operators in that
space did. Everything was very clandestine. Everything was very risk inverse in terms of exposure. And
so, you know, I came with a bit of fresh approach and fresh eyes to that equation and created a lot
of momentum and value around that and you really started to destigmatize what cannabis look like
regionally here in Vancouver, along with many other great operators that I'm happy to see,
a good chunk of them have actually transitioned into the regulated environment and did successful
in executing their models here in Vancouver and have expanded in each other communities as well.
So in 2017, Daniel Petrov, you know, one of the co-founders of Aurora and part of the operation
or at the time, we shown said, hey, we're going to go big when it comes to legalization here. We'd
love you to join our team. And so we went on that journey together for five years and we built what
would became the publicly traded retailer, Kiaro, that at its height had 21 locations across the
country in three provinces. We were the first license award winners in Saskatchewan. We built
build that application, opened those stores, worked with that community. It was tremendous breaking
down the stigma and barriers and ignorance and difference in inertia that we saw with with the
community there around what regulated cannabis meant, great media campaigns, great exchanges with
local stakeholders and really training the conversation around about what cannabis meant in the
community. And so one of the most enriching stories I have probably in my cannabis career was when
we opened the garage, which is a pretty small community and kind of halfway up in the province
there in the boreal area of Saskatchewan about three and a half hour drive north of Saskatoon.
It was beautiful to drive up there. It's like a windows 90 screensaver, just gorgeous hills
and clouds and blue sky forever. I miss that so much. I hear you, Kiaro, we're blessed here. There's no
doubt no matter where you are. Regionally, Kiaro has something unique to offer. That's beautiful.
But in opening the launch store, we, I mean, I had been in contact with the local RC and PDA
spatula around security and our measures around compliance and just bringing them into the fold
as you do with the key stakeholders in the community. And so Staff Sergeant Takau-Wilson and his
crew came in on day one to be a part of the opening. And there was an exchange between one of the
customers and the RC and PDA gobstered were a year prior. This guy had been arrested for cannabis
possession and he was in the store buying legally and they were, you know, they almost hugged it out.
It was a wonderful thing, definitely firm handshakes and laughs. That's awesome.
And we got feedback from Staff Sergeant Kiaro-Wilson a year later on the impact of regulated cannabis
in that community and, you know, crime rates and a lot of the impacting factors that they'd seen
around, like domestic abuse and a bunch of calls that they usually got had been significantly
mitigated over the course of the year and they correlated that almost directly with our opening
and the regulated cannabis regime coming into play. So, you know, the positive effect on community is
undeniable. Normal did a long chewed all day from 2014 to 17 that touched on the impacts of
regulated cannabis retail and we saw property values go up. We saw crime rates go down. We saw
youth interest, youth access, increase in regulated environments. Impair driving didn't go up.
So all the things that have, you know, the conservatives, you know, put out there in fear-mongering,
never materialized. And so, you know, to get that feedback directly from stakeholders, I was presenting
at the Surrey Board of Trade the other day on behalf of PHC Canada and, you know, they had the head
inspector from the Drug Enforcement Union come up and say, cannabis really only has positive effects
in the community as long as they're sticking by the rules. We have absolutely no problem with this
coming into the community. So, you know, I'm incredibly encouraged by that. In my journey, I've had
a chance to be a part of developing that discussion, serving on boards at the Canadian Medical
Association of cannabis dispensaries on the Association of Canadian cannabis retailers and now on the
retail cannabis council. We've seen big regulatory reform leaps happen here, you know, we're security
protocols and background checks. The burdens around those have come down. The cost barriers have come
down in terms of licensing. You know, we're starting to see opportunities emerged where direct sales
and farm feed and on site consumption, ever, to realizing. And that's been the work for the last two
to three years to advocate on government on, you know, the value of that and push the agenda more towards
the economic development angle and away from public health and safety because, you know, at the end of
the day, the sky's not falling. People aren't dying in droves like this. Respect is not killing kids.
Here we are actually adding tremendous value to community by doing the ID checkings, by having
quality assured, analytically tested product in store and being able to really carry the menu that's
responsive to the local economic development opportunity for small scale producers to get profile
in shelf space and traction with retailers. So I guess it's a little bit of my background of that
regard. You know, again, I've also been married 15 years. I have a beautiful wife. I have a beautiful
boy named Fender who is eight years old and just absolutely a wonderful experience being a dad too.
And, you know, I've been able to integrate this crazy cannabis career into also building a really
great life that I'm proud of. And so that for me, he's been the most meaningful part of being part
of all of this. There's so much in what you just said that's fantastic. You know, from the work that
you're doing, it doesn't just inform Canadian work, but it also trickles over to places like Australia where
we need to hear these challenges. You know, you guys are years ahead of us. We are learning from the
work that you're doing. You know, in there, I also hear the amazing work you've done about regulations.
And I will link in the show notes a great podcast you were on a couple of years ago, Canada's
podcast where you spoke about kind of the gap in regulation costs in licensing fees and the work
that you've done there. But also finally, that element of you being a family man, you know, you're a
dad, you're a husband as well as being involved in this space. And that just adds legitimacy. You know,
so often we think about stoners and people being lazy, but guests after guests that comes on this show
proves to be a highly functioning human being. And that's so important for people to hear.
Thank you. Yeah. Well, I think, you know, again, the world has not yet seen what the capacity of the
cannabis consumer can achieve. And we're only now just being able to demonstrate that. And you know,
I'm a guy who essentially smokes every day throughout the day to manage my PTSD and just improve my
quality of life. And you know, somebody is unbusy and I don't always get to puff, but until the evening,
but generally speaking, like I'm happy to consume throughout the day and still be, you know, a high
functioning contributing member of society and to my business, to my family, to my friends, and to my
community. So let's touch on THC, you know, to call it the Apple store of dispensaries. I think
undersells it. I think agree. Experienc it is being provided at THC is way above Apple. You know,
Apple is a solace corporation. THC has got a lot of heart, a lot of spirit and a lot of love there.
So let's talk about THC. I'm incredibly proud to be a part of this mission. I mean, you know,
I meant Spencer back in 2015. We were multiplying for licensing event Cooper. And I've had a chance to
see his trajectory grow and just that authentic exchange with community continue to be reinforced,
reinvigorated and reinterpreted as every new year presents new challenges and opportunities. And
he's a guy that's a real one. He's been doing it forever and continues to keep the culture very much
alive. And you know, I've gone through the experience of, sorry, we got a phone call in the background.
Just as the authenticity. Yeah, it's okay. Yeah, exactly. I'm here at the back of the shop. And
again, you know, we're a small scale enterprise here. We got the one location in Vancouver,
we're opening in Toronto in the summer. We got an application in Whistler where the only one in
our zone, so you have a high probability of getting that one. This is just a brand that, you know,
again, established and founded itself in the legacy of Markley, obviously quickly became one of the most
iconic retail experiences in Canada. You're just awarded back to back ad can independent retail brand
of the year nationally. So incredibly proud to be a part of this team. And again, the relationships
they have with their supply chain partners and to see the consistent pull from the consumer base
towards this brand towards our events towards our experience has been tremendous. They've truly been
setting the standards since day one. And that's through community focus brand centric collaborations
that drive a legendary customer experience. And that's something that when you come to THC,
you can see touch and feel in every part of the store. We curate the mission you extremely
carefully. And everything is really optimized for with the consumer's interest at heart. And
Spencer has a following and a very inspirational story when it comes to be a young entrepreneur
being a bi-pop leader in the space. That's another reason why I really wanted to come and serve the
mission of THC is we need to see models like this win in the regulated industry. This is, you know,
that bright shining example for others that are waiting on the sidelines to convert in a transition
or not, you know, can a brand like this succeed with all of its commitment to the plant, commitment to
the culture, you know, commitment to, you know, real, the real smokers as it were. Can it win? Can it be
successful? Can it scale? And that's the mission I wanted to throw my whole heart and head at. And,
you know, so far, we've been as successful in that exercise. You know, we've been able to raise
capital during very difficult times to to make plays and expand and grow the footprint. And that's
a testament again to, you know, the work Spencer has done to build a brand that's recognizable
and that, you know, keeps people coming back again through serving the community, being mindful of
that customer experience and focusing on only the best products. We've never sold one
Iota of shelf space to a data program, which we're a producer, everything goes to the crucible of,
you know, our supply team and our quality standards. And we do not waver from that for anything.
And our customers trust us as a result of that. When Nick or Span's or Renin or Taya make a recommendation,
you know, people can, you know, they can stand behind that and people can get confident that that's
going to be a great product because we know good we, and we don't compromise on that in favor of any,
you know, sort of economic opportunity that may be out there that we see a lot of other retailers.
Really, you know, again, compromising that relationship with their consumers and community in
favor of, and again, in some cases, it's, it's the only way to remain sustainable and I'm not
putting that necessarily in the pejorative life, but I do say that in the long term that will cost
you your credibility. And then you won't have a common, you know, North Star to point to in terms of
what your mission and your vision is for your company if you're constantly just selling out for
shelf space. So we don't compromise that. It's been a consistent commitment to quality, to community,
to, you know, building collaborative exchange that, you know, creates value beyond the transaction.
And that's something when you come out to a fresh drop or you come out to a legendary night's event that,
you know, you see firsthand, like, you know, it was raining the other day on 420 here and we had 398
people roll through this store in the rain. And we just tent up the back. We got a barbecue going. We
had a DJ and bam, you know, I don't know any other retailer in the country that can pull that kind of
audience into an event and then convert on that too because that also reflected in sales that day
as well. So then I'll just come and buy for a free burger or come in here to invest in the mission
of THC and contribute to our, our opportunity to continue to serve their interests, which is what our
entire focus is. So we are entirely here for the consumer, for the smoking culture, for cannabis culture
and, you know, Spencer's a guy who has authentically represented that for a decade now and I can't
think of, you know, a better person to go out there and execute and win in this game. So that's why
I joined this mission. So I'm proud to be here. And it's a value driven organization as well. I mean,
you know, our values are hostile adaptance at the standard and, and, you know, we really want to,
to breed success for everyone that's on the team here. You know, we have a chance through our expansion
to do that. And we're excited to, you know, cultivate the team we have here and the representatives we
have, to street to go out there and advance a mission that means so much to consumers who, you know,
don't see themselves reflected in the regulated environment. The brand is so impressive. Spencer,
such a great dude. And, you know, you've spoken before about the importance of being authentic,
the importance of listening to people, the importance of being nice in this field. And it's great
to hear that kind of the merging of those two forces because I've seen for years that you have
this kind of care. You know, we've, I've seen Spencer and THC have this kind of care. So these two
forces coming together is really fantastic. And it's a wonderful store, a great brand. And you'll
have to put in a good word for me with Spencer so I can maybe get him on the show as well because he
does have a great story. Yeah. I mean, we're starting to see a good exchange between Australia and Canada.
I talked to more and more producers every day that are beginning to, you know, migrate bulk orders
to Australia at rates that are much better than what we're, a lot of producers are getting here
domestically. So, you know, we're happy to send the best of BC bud to Australia. You know,
eventually hopefully we can get some legendary product down there too. You know, that's definitely
the goal of we're starting to position ourselves with an international perspective in mind. And
Australia has a lot to offer. I think, you know, the history of, of, uh, uh, NIMBY and, and that community
and, and, and just, you know, the rich genetics to come out of there. And forgive me, uh, it's NIMBY,
not NIMBY, my apologies. I want to correct that. You got it. All these stories up there, my apologies.
We're running hard today. NIMBY, uh, not in my back yard. Yeah, of course. Definitely, uh,
shout out to the five people in NIMBY, uh, no disrespect there, my apologies. Uh, respect the
history and the culture there. I know you guys have had your, you know, your festivals and, and,
and your gatherings there for many, many years. And, you know, there's been a rich exchange that's
come out of that and the people that have migrated to Canada from that community have been
wonderful in terms of their contribution in sight. So there's a chance for Australia to take what's
useful, uh, absorb what's useful, discard what's useless and add what is essentially your own. And,
I'm excited to see what regulated cannabis looks like in, in Australia. And I think, you know,
you guys got to take an incremental approach. You got to start medical because that really builds
the social license and acceptance word. And eventually that'll translate into a wreck market that,
ideally, you know, has huge economic windfall for all the local small entrepreneurs that had a vision
and, and, and a lot of the passion for cannabis that can now turn that into a regulated enterprise that,
you know, generates significant return and impacts their community and positive and purposeful ways.
It is very exciting, you know, we've had medical since 2016. It really opened up last February. I'm a
medical patient. Some of my products are imported from Canada. So it is great that we are stepping,
you know, so they're baby steps, but we are getting there. So it's an exciting time. Let's use the tail end
of this conversation to quickly just talk about the BC craft farmer's co-op. BC, but is world-renowned.
Craft cannabis is so important, but in the midst of this federal legalization, why has the mission
of this organization been so important? Why has it been so important to make sure craft cannabis
still holds its value and is still present in people's minds? In terms of, you know, the co-op, I mean,
again, this is all about, you know, again, we've seen a huge inflection in the market in terms of
market share from large scale producers to craft producers. And that's based entirely on one qualifying
factor is quality and commitment to the plant. And, you know, this is not about creating shareholder
value. This is about, you know, again, creating value for consumers. And so craft cannabis producers
are more acutely aware of that than anyone. We have a rich, rich history here in British Columbia
to convert on, not only for economic development, but just for, you know, again, the promise of what
legalization entailed to help bring an opportunity forward for those that had risked everything to help
build what eventually became a legalized framework. So I want to acknowledge those growers,
those distributors, those retailers, they provided a lot of insight and data and social license
that opened up a wake of opportunity for all of us. And so the craft co-op really looks to inform
and power and engage that stakeholder base while creating a rich exchange of service and support
network, a bit of a mycelium, for them to pull from to reduce costs, support success, and
cultivate change in the legal marketplace. And so, you know, we saw that rich history. We want to
continue to develop on it and create paths forward that, you know, give people sustainable economic
development tracks that again can help provide for them and their family, get them out of the fear
of an uncertainty around an unregulated endeavor and put them on track for something that will create
generational wealth for them and their family. And, you know, that extends into our first nations
communities as well. They were a stakeholder base that was not, I feel, in my opinion, properly
consulted in terms of the framing of legalization in this country, anything in terms of a lesson
we can share with Australia is get your first nations partners on board and intubally involved
in discussions from the get go. There's tremendous capacity in those communities, tremendous
imagination, tremendous history and law order to pull from in terms of, you know, not only just cannabis,
but agricultural endeavor in general. And I think we need to go back to those traditional
roots and provide economic opportunities that are aligned with that tradition. Cannabis very
much dovetails beautifully into that. My words are very mindful of, you know, the power of the
value chain from, you know, seed to seed hill, can we create and connect people to, you know,
add value and context and insight to the exercise of the regulated endeavor. And so that's what the
co-op is, is really based and founded on small scale producers and processors independent retailers
trying to find a path forward to build more sustainable responsive business models within a very daunting
and expensive regulatory environment. And so if we work together, we're empowered, we can exchange
information and really work towards, you know, creating, you know, market share and profile for ourselves
that not only has the economic windfall, but the brand development opportunities moving forward so
that these brands can eventually extend themselves onto the national and international stage. And so
that's our goal at the co-op, along with, you know, a lot of the work here at the beginning has been
advocacy, but, you know, we're beginning to develop a platform of processing through direct sales
that we've advocated for that regulatory reform. That's going to allow us to create unique partnerships
through our supply chain that are going to add value for our members. And that's really what we're
focused on here is now the economic development of the co-op of the next few years. And with the
regulatory mechanisms now in play, we can achieve that. And so, you know, instead of enduring all of
the high tax burden regulatory costs that we see, we're going to be able to give some of that back
through dividends by being a member of the co-op and participating in the economic development of the
platform to offset some of those costs to create more sustainable business ventures. We've been
able to reach out to a lot of great pick and shovel businesses, a lot of service providers that have
brought down their costs, have created unique offerings to add value above and beyond just, you know,
the transaction at hand to extend into real functioning relationships where, you know, investment.
And guidance and insight and strategic support can be facilitated from the financial sector,
from the insurance sector. Those are tremendous relationships that the co-op has been a part of
sturdying. That add tremendous value long term for small scale businesses trying to manage,
again, a very competitive landscape, a very daunting and very expensive one. So, you know,
the co-op really looks to create that mycelium so that we can exchange nutrients and all the
essential elements for life in a way that's very efficient. That's, you know, egalitarian approach
and democratic and appeal. And I'm incredibly proud to be able to represent some of the best and
brightest stories in BC Canada through the co-op. Some of our members, you know, have been growing
for generations and now have businesses in the regulatory, regulated environment that, you know,
are really blowing the quality standards out of the water. They're setting new standards through
organic certification and even above that. So, you know, we're building an ecosystem of success
for small scale and independent operators. And, you know, I'm proud of a bit of founder of that.
I'm proud of what sort of, you know, Vice President of the last two years here and
chair the membership committee. And, you know, we've grown a network that I'm incredibly proud
to represent and we're still growing. The summit was a huge success for us. We've developed a
ton of new leads on service providers. Members signed out the government showed up and really
participated and gives us access now to some key discussions that are happening around the regulatory
reforms that just weren't there even a year ago. So, you know, we've been able to show that, you
know, collectively, we have a voice. We can get on the same page and we can drive forward initiatives
at that value for not just the independent operators themselves, but for the community as a whole.
And that's really the exercise of a cooperative.
Andrew, I'm incredibly grateful for the time you've given us today coming, you know, live from the
stock room at THC. And so, I'm mindful that we are at the end of our time together. So, thank you
so much. Before we wrap this thing up, there's one key takeaway that I ask for you to give our
listeners. This segment is called "Poles of Wisdom", where you drop one little dinner party fact
or one really important thing that people should know about cannabis or understand about cannabis.
If I am putting you on the spot, I think the point you made about First Nations is incredibly
important. I'm already seeing a disregard for that as politicians, plan legalization frameworks.
So, that's already a key takeaway. Is there anything else you want our listeners to take away from
this conversation? Yeah, don't forget medical patients in this context. I think, you know, you look
at the social license, you look at the impact of cannabis on people's lives, you look at how it's
saved my life. Don't forget the medical patients. They're so important. You need to be
stories. You need to be supported. Insurance companies need to step up and offset costs. We need to
continue to evolve and develop the modalities and the opportunities for medical patients in the space.
So, First Nations and medical patients are two key staples, their bases that I really all
have emerging markets paid attention to. They're definitely overlooked in some of the endeavors of
developing a regulated market here in Canada. We're making amends here and there where we can. We're
seeing some more traction to happen on the medical frontier. We've had a well-established program since
2001. So, I think it's important to always remember where we come from and what really motivated so
many people to get on board when it came to cannabis. It was the medical cause, right? It was
the childhood epilepsy, the Crohn's and Colitis, the mitigating the cancer symptoms, providing
new opportunities for people with MS. End of life stuff where they're not on these fentanyl patches,
but they can actually be lucid and be exchanging with their families. Cannabis transforms lives
and saves lives. I'm always cognizant of keeping that conversation alive in all my engagements with
government and the stakeholders, the power of the medicine of the plant. Let's not ever forget that.
And let's bring our First Nations partners who have been really cut out of so many economic
development opportunities and it's much of an afterthought. Let's bring them in. Let's bring in that
rich tradition. Let's get there. Young people excited about careers in the sector. That's interesting
and exciting. Let's be mindful of that. And I guess another pro-wizdom, it's better to be kind
than it is to be right. And I know that's a hard lesson to hear sometimes, especially when
you know, in cannabis, you're damn sure you're right about things, but there is a patience. There
is a process to this. You know, legalization is a process. It's not an end point where just when
it's legalized, everything works out. You have to work just as hard and it takes to get to legalization
to optimize it. So don't give up on the work. Don't think day one legalization, everything is
going to be where it needs to be. You still have to put in just as much work as it took to
get there. If not more, if you were a great star in the legacy market, it's like jumping from
being a high school basketball player to the NBA. You know, the consequences, the shot clock,
the teammates, the quality and caliber of competition you're going to face is going to shoot up tremendously
and you've got to be able to pivot and evolve and adapt. And if you rest on your laurels on what
you did in the legacy market, you will not survive on the regulated one. So continue to learn,
continue to adapt, continue to grow. And you know, there's an opportunity to be successful for you in
the regulated environment. Medical patient to medical patient, I'm so grateful for that expression.
I'm so grateful for your passion, your vulnerability and your honesty and your knowledge. Andrew,
you can be found on Instagram @atgvancity where else can our listeners find you. Yeah, I mean,
check us out on TEC Canada as well. Gives Spencer a follow. He's incredibly inspirational.
As a young entrepreneur, as a by-park leader, I mean, someone that I'm inspired by every day that I
get to work with and give BC craft farmers co-op a follow, give RCC BC a follow. We're definitely
organizations that are willing to engage in the international conversation share our learnings
and passion and share our expertise and experience and come to the table with solutions and brainstorming
that, you know, I think could really put emerging markets in a much better position when they look
to, you know, embrace what legalization means to them. Andrew, you're a great dude and it has been
an absolute pleasure to have you on GivenTook cannabis conversations. Thanks for joining us.
Absolutely. Happy to do a follow-up too. I know we didn't have a lot of time today, but I'm happy to come
back on the show anytime, man. I really appreciate and I love what you're doing and this international
exchange is so important. So continue to reach out and I'm happy to make recommendations
anyone else you're interested to in the industry. Thank you so much, mate. You have a great one.
All right, peace, brother. Have a great weekend. Bye-bye.
GivenTook cannabis conversations is written and produced by me, Paul, music written and produced by
Big Mike. Follow us on Instagram @giventook or get in touch by emailing give and tok@gmail.com.
You'll also find us on both Twitter and Facebook. All opinions expressed by program guests are solely
their current opinions and do not necessarily reflect the position of GivenTook. Content
discussed in this show does not constitute medical advice. Cannabis is not legal everywhere,
so please be aware of local laws.
[MUSIC]