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In this educational episode of the Legacies Podcast, hosts Tom Ritchie and Wesley Bowles discuss several regulatory and retail shifts within the Canadian cannabis market. They cover the OCS’s SKU reduction proposal to trim general listings, analyzing the impact of SKU rationalization on independent brands. They discuss local activation events, highlighting the upcoming Lake and Bake cruise. The hosts also touch upon international developments, detailing election controversies in the United States and Venezuela.
Later, they welcome Adam Coates, Chief Revenue Officer of Decibel Cannabis Company. Adam shares insights from his transition from the beverage alcohol industry to the cannabis sector, detailing the operational hurdles of scaling a vertically integrated operator. He explains the history behind Decibel’s formation through the merger of Westleaf and We Grow BC, highlighting the role of consumer feedback and strategic SKU management in building successful national brands like General Admission and Qwest.
Tom Ritchie Says: Hey, what’s going on, everyone? Welcome to Legacies! I’m your host, Tom Ritchie, joined by Wesley ‘The Wizard’ Bowles. You’ll notice for those that have tuned in before, Wes is in a different location. Wes, where the fuck are you? Where in the world is Wesley Bowles?
Wesley Bowles Says: I’m down here in the middle of nowhere—Staunton, Virginia! Down here at my dad’s house. This is an old farmhouse that’s been in my dad’s wife’s family since 1917, though the farm itself is much older than that.
Tom Ritchie Says: You were telling me a story when we were in a meeting earlier this week about Stonewall Jackson.
Wesley Bowles Says: Right across the street, Stonewall Jackson had stayed at that farmhouse, and during the Civil War, there was an encampment of about five to six thousand soldiers traveling through that were on this land. My dad’s father-in-law has a downstairs collection of memorabilia—bullets, vintage guns, all kinds of historic artifacts found on the property.
Wesley Bowles Says: I’ve been dipping my toes into the farm life. We were wrangling cows a couple of days ago to get them into pens. We had some guys on quads, and my dad and I were opening and closing the gates as the herd whipped through. Even a baby calf, when you’re two feet away, is huge—definitely not something you want kicked in the face by!
Wesley Bowles Says: We have this new mom tagged ‘Number Nine’ who is a complete escape artist. She figured out how to hop the pens and was teaching her calf how to escape, so we had to isolate them.
Tom Ritchie Says: Growing up, I spent my weekends on my uncle’s dairy farm in southwestern Ontario picking rocks. Anyone who’s picked rocks behind a tilling tractor at five miles an hour knows it’s the most thankless job in the world!
Tom Ritchie Says: Did you find any weed down in Virginia? I had to do a quick search on where the state stands. Possession up to an ounce is decriminalized, but there’s no recreational retail dispensary framework—it’s like early medical days in Canada.
Wesley Bowles Says: God no, I wasn’t going to risk crossing the border with anything. Down here, consumer knowledge is practically non-existent. People ask what I do in Canadian cannabis, and even basic concepts like THC versus CBD are completely foreign. I went jamming with my dad and some guys in a garage, and someone pulled out a bag of rough home-grown barn weed. You realize how much we take our regulated market for granted in Canada.
Tom Ritchie Says: Back during the MMAR pink slip days in Canada, I remember traveling through airports with just shy of a pound of medical cannabis. Airport security gave you serious stink eye, but they had to accept the paperwork. Without clear retail frameworks, law enforcement and the public don’t know how to treat it.
Tom Ritchie Says: Regulated markets destigmatize cannabis enough to have real educational conversations backed by clinical science. Have your dreams come back since you took a break down on the farm?
Wesley Bowles Says: No vivid dreams yet. With the farm work, I’ve actually been sleeping great, which was the main reason I consumed before bed back home.
Tom Ritchie Says: I’ve been struggling with understanding cannabis and REM sleep. After decades of sports injuries, spinal surgery, and avoiding opioids for ten-plus years with cannabis, my joint pain has flared up lately. I want to talk to a cannabinoid researcher about whether suppressing REM sleep hinders deep physiological tissue healing.
Tom Ritchie Says: That led me down a rabbit hole with Gary Brecka and Joe Rogan on biohacking, genetic methylation swabs, and baseline blood markers. Nutrition and supplementation are full of confusing marketing, very similar to cannabis consumers navigating thousands of conflicting products.
Tom Ritchie Says: Speaking of overwhelming selection, the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) announced they’re going to throttle back the massive volume of general listing SKUs over the next year to eighteen months.
Wesley Bowles Says: Their central distribution warehouse was holding SKU counts comparable to a Costco. Many non-performing listings will likely transition over to the flow-through direct model rather than holding dedicated warehouse floor space.
Tom Ritchie Says: If a brand has 0.04% category market share and doesn’t market, train budtenders, or support retailers, you can’t expect the distributor to hold your inventory. Look at Jazz Samra with Astro Boyz—he secured eight general listings out of the gate because he has an authentic story, incredible product, and directly supports the retail community with Dope Box sample kits.
Tom Ritchie Says: Health Canada has also revisited the Non-Prescription Health Products with Cannabis proposal that the Canadian Cannabis Health Products Coalition has pushed since 2019. Over-the-counter CBD products shouldn’t require practitioner oversight or carry giant red THC stop-sign warning labels when they are non-intoxicating wellness formulations. David Brown from StratCann is coming on Legacies soon to break all this regulatory movement down.
Tom Ritchie Says: On X (Twitter), real-time reporting moves faster than traditional media, though you have to triangulate data points to verify what’s fact versus sensationalism. Seeing the political instability and contested elections in Venezuela right now highlights how fragile governance and public trust can become when citizens lose faith in transparent institutions.
Wesley Bowles Says: Down in Virginia, basic grocery costs are noticeably cheaper. I bought three heads of romaine lettuce at Walmart for three dollars—back home at Fortinos or Sobeys, that’s a six to nine dollar package.
Tom Ritchie Says: Canada has one of the highest household debt ratios in the world. Between surging municipal hydro rates, 30-year amortizations, and carbon taxation debates, the cost-of-living squeeze is hitting every household and small business owner across the country.
Tom Ritchie Says: On a lighter note, I’ve been testing out the Toki 510 battery and dab device. I tried loading some live resin jam and Rosin Heads Point Break live resin. While I’m still learning the exact coil placement on the quartz cup, the terpene expression at 7%+ was incredible.
Wesley Bowles Says: Live resin carts hit instantly compared to standard distillate carts—the full terpene profile completely changes the onset.
Tom Ritchie Says: Coming up on August 17th is the Lake and Bake boat cruise on the River Gambler in Toronto Harbour, hosted by the Ganja Gala crew! It kicks off with a two-hour tailgate party followed by a four-hour cruise with DJ Dopey, brand pop-ups from Retro Haze, Cactus, Montrose, Legacy Market, and a retractable roof rain or shine. Use promo code LEGACIES for 25% off tickets.
Tom Ritchie Says: Now, let’s welcome today’s guest: Adam Coates, Chief Revenue Officer of Decibel Cannabis Company—the powerhouse behind General Admission, Qwest, and Vox!
Tom Ritchie Says: Welcome back, everyone! We are joined by Adam Coates, Chief Revenue Officer of Decibel Cannabis Company. Adam, welcome to Legacies!
Adam Coates Says: Thanks, guys! Doing great, long-time listener, first-time caller. Excited to chop it up with you both.
Tom Ritchie Says: Tell us your background—how did you become the CRO of Decibel?
Adam Coates Says: I broke the classic rule and went into business with my best friends! I started my career in consumer packaged goods with Anheuser-Busch InBev in the beer industry. In 2017, I wanted to build a brand from scratch rather than executing someone else’s playbook.
Adam Coates Says: I joined Westleaf as their first employee, sitting around a table in a Calgary office figuring out how to build a vertically integrated cannabis company. In late 2019, Westleaf merged with WeGrow BC—who had incredible craft cultivation out in Creston, BC—and we unified under the name Decibel.
Tom Ritchie Says: When people see General Admission topping national sales charts, some dismiss it as ‘corporate cannabis.’ But your founding team bootstrapped Decibel without hundreds of millions in institutional bailouts.
Adam Coates Says: We sit in the top five market share nationally, competing against companies that raised hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. Because we didn’t have massive cash cushions to burn on mistakes, we had to be tactical, disciplined, and profitable from day one.
Adam Coates Says: Cannabis is not true CPG yet—it has to get there, but it’s still in spring training. Early LPs made the mistake of targeting non-existent ‘canna-curious’ consumers based on pitch decks, forgetting the core legacy consumers who actually buy the volume.
Adam Coates Says: We owned retail first through Prairie Records. Our C-suite executives worked behind the retail tills, listening directly to budtenders and shoppers. That on-the-ground intelligence shaped our product strategy.
Tom Ritchie Says: How do you balance high-potency products like General Admission infused pre-rolls with entry-level consumers?
Adam Coates Says: General Admission infused pre-rolls sit at 38% to 40% THC—over 400mg per joint—which is designed for experienced consumers. For curious or moderate consumers who love our flavor profiles like Tiger Blood, we offer 2-pack 5mg edibles as an approachable entry point. Winning brands focus on delivering consistent flavor, potency, and format reliability.
Tom Ritchie Says: Most cannabis products have short market lifecycles of six to nine months. How do you forecast inventory?
Adam Coates Says: In manufactured goods like distillate vapes, formulation to launch can happen in weeks. But with craft flower, selecting genetics, pheno-hunting, and scaling a commercial crop takes twelve months. Making agricultural supply chain bets in August 2024 for March 2025 listings requires rigorous feedback and conservative planning.
Adam Coates Says: We initially created General Admission to utilize extra vape hardware. We noticed competitors only offered half-gram carts with generic lemon profiles. We launched 1.0g formats with 85%+ potency and bold, unique botanical terpene blends, and consumer demand took off.
Adam Coates Says: Crucially, we built a dedicated in-house sales team rather than outsourcing to third-party broker agencies carrying 300 competing SKUs. When our reps receive store feedback—like an issue with shatter sticking to parchment paper—they call our product development team directly, and we push an updated production run out in two weeks.
Tom Ritchie Says: I tried the new Qwest Cheetah cultivar sample from Brendan Jones—the bag appeal, sticky cure, dank aroma, and clean burn were phenomenal. What is the philosophy behind the Qwest brand relaunch?
Adam Coates Says: Our tagline is ‘More Dank, Less Bank.’ Premium flower over $45 an eighth has compressed across Canada. Consumers want craft indoor quality at accessible pricing. We’re bringing True Craft flower—like Cheetah and Bubble Bath—down to an approachable price point so everyday consumers can trade up from mass greenhouse flower to true indoor craft.
Adam Coates Says: We cultivate across two facilities: our original WeGrow craft facility in Creston, BC with 900 sq. ft. grow rooms, and our Thunderchild facility with ~1,500 sq. ft. rooms. Both operate well below mass-production industrial scales, allowing our cultivation team to hang-dry, hand-trim, and cold-cure properly.
Wesley Bowles Says: There’s vocal online criticism from purists towards distillate products. What is your perspective on distillate in the broader market?
Adam Coates Says: In craft brewing, any master brewer will tell you the hardest beer to make is a clean, crisp lager—because you can’t dump heavy hops into it to mask process flaws. Making high-purity, clean distillate stripped of lipids and chlorophyll to serve as a pure canvas for terpenes is an exact science.
Adam Coates Says: Just like there is room for both bitter IPAs and refreshing hard seltzers, cannabis needs diverse formats. If a consumer prefers approachable fruit flavors and discreet convenience over heavy skunky flower, distillate serves that consumer perfectly and grows the legal ecosystem.
Wesley Bowles Says: Last week, Alexandre Poulin asked: ‘What specific consumer-facing educational initiative or concrete action are you actively taking right now to bridge the gap between industry advocacy and public consumer awareness?’
Adam Coates Says: When consumers buy gas, the pump displays a breakdown showing how much of every litre goes to provincial and federal taxes. When the OCS increased markups on infused pre-rolls, we calculated that out of every dollar a consumer pays for a General Admission infused pre-roll, approximately $0.76 goes to the government through excise duties, provincial markups, and sales tax.
Adam Coates Says: If we visually communicated at retail that 76% of their retail spend goes to government coffers while producers operate on tight margins, consumers would understand why product prices and regulatory reforms matter to them.
Tom Ritchie Says: Adam, what is your chain question for next week’s incoming guest?
Adam Coates Says: ‘If you could transport yourself back to when you first started in this industry knowing everything you know today, what is the single biggest thing you would do differently?’
Tom Ritchie Says: Fantastic question! Adam, thank you so much for being transparent about Decibel’s journey, retail operations, and product quality. Keep crushing it!
Tom Ritchie Says: What a great breakdown with Adam Coates. Putting faces to Decibel and understanding that their leadership spent weeks working retail registers explains their commercial momentum.
Wesley Bowles Says: Shoutout to SpaceX Starlink down here on the Virginia farm—we set the dish up on the roof with a cherry picker and streamed multi-cam HD without a single drop!
Tom Ritchie Says: Safe travels driving back from Virginia, Wes! Don’t forget to grab your tickets for Lake & Bake on August 17th using code LEGACIES, check out Qwest’s Cheetah craft flower, and we’ll see you next week on Legacies!
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Chief Revenue Officer
Adam Coates is a Canadian consumer packaged goods executive and the Chief Revenue Officer of Decibel Cannabis Company.
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Licensed Producer & Consumer Brands Owner
Decibel Cannabis Company Inc. is a Health Canada-licensed, vertically integrated cannabis producer based in Calgary, Alberta. The company operates standard...
Learn More About Partner ↗It refers to the OCS's plan to throttle back the total number of general listing SKUs in their warehouse to optimize inventory management, making listing retention more competitive for brands.
Decibel was formed in late 2019 through the merger of Westleaf (a vertically integrated startup focused on retail and processing) and We Grow BC (known for Qwest craft cannabis).
The key is combining regulated CPG marketing experience with strong retail support and consistent product formulations that directly respond to consumer feedback.
