New Episode
Short Summary
In this educational episode of the Legacies Podcast, hosts Tom Ritchie and Wesley Bowles discuss current retail updates and policy dynamics within the Canadian cannabis market. They conduct a live unboxing and product review of Mendo Select cultivars, highlighting the role of medical access platforms in Canada. They review business news, detailing retail technology partnerships (such as Stok’d integration with BreadStack dashboard software) and regional activations (like the Lake and Bake river cruise). The hosts also analyze US election campaigns, noting discussions between Donald Trump and Elon Musk regarding federal reform.
Later, they welcome David Brown, co-founder of StratCann and former Senior Policy Adviser for Health Canada. David shares historical insights into Canada’s regulatory transition from early patient-focused frameworks (MMPR, ACMPR) to commercial adult-use distribution (Bill C-45). He details his experience working inside Health Canada’s Legalization and Regulation Branch, highlighting the complexities of policy drafting, public input integration, and the contrasting growth trajectories of corporate producers versus craft micro-cultivators.
Tom Ritchie Says: Hey, what’s going on, everyone? Check out what’s coming up this week on Legacies.
Wesley Bowles Says: I can’t bring my dab rig with me? You bring a pocket-sized dab rig, but bringing glass on a boat like this—no, no glass on the boat!
David Brown Says: We are busy, there is a lot of news. These financial reports have become the bane of my existence.
Tom Ritchie Says: Our audience is going to go, ‘No, you fucking idiot, it’s not!’
Tom Ritchie Says: Hey, welcome to Legacies, everyone! I’m your host, Tom Ritchie, joined as usual by Wesley Bowles. Wes, good morning, sir!
Wesley Bowles Says: Good morning! Episode 25—can you believe it? One more and we’re at the half-year mark!
Tom Ritchie Says: This episode is brought to you by Mendo Medical. Twenty-five weeks in! When you look at long-running podcasts like Joe Rogan, Tom Segura, or your favorite weekly shows, they’ve been grinding for ten-plus years. We are twenty-five weeks in, building momentum, and bringing on the most knowledgeable leaders in the Canadian cannabis space.
Tom Ritchie Says: A huge shoutout to Jay Schwartz from Mendo for sending over a fresh care package. In the early days, Mendo helped licensed producers move extra medical lots, but now they actively curate premium small-batch craft growers specifically under their Mendo Select banner.
Tom Ritchie Says: I’m cracking open a 7g bag of their Jezebel cultivar grown indoor by Cootes Canna—hang-dried, never irradiated, packing 3.95% terpenes! The dominant terpenes listed on the back are myrcene at 1.3%, beta-caryophyllene, and limonene. The nose on this is pure gas, dank and peppery. Mendo provides unmatched transparency and lot education for medical patients and adult-use consumers.
Tom Ritchie Says: We’re taking a short production break next week, though as entrepreneurs, we never truly disconnect. Taking time away triggers severe FOMO when you have massive projects on the go.
Wesley Bowles Says: My idea of a relaxing vacation is putting on lofi beats, shutting off notifications, and coding uninterrupted on our secret software project without tech support interruptions!
Wesley Bowles Says: We’re reorganizing the Legacies YouTube channel to release standalone ten-minute thematic interview chapters and topic playlists so listeners can digest specific masterclasses on their own schedule.
Tom Ritchie Says: The messages, LinkedIn DMs, and positive feedback from industry peers validating our guest selection have been incredible. Keep reaching out!
Tom Ritchie Says: Did you catch the long-form conversation between Elon Musk and Donald Trump on X Spaces? Despite massive DDoS attacks delaying the start, over a million live listeners tuned in.
Tom Ritchie Says: What made it compelling was that it was an unscripted, unedited long-form dialogue. When discussing energy, Musk pushed back on abrupt fossil fuel shutdowns while highlighting the necessity of an orderly transition toward sustainable baseload energy. Long-form unedited audio allows the public to hear unfiltered nuance rather than three-second cable news soundbites.
Tom Ritchie Says: Why doesn’t Canada have independent long-form platforms that challenge established government narratives with rigorous debate the way independent media does internationally? In Canada, between skyrocketing federal debt, carbon taxation, and cost-of-living inflation, citizens and younger generations need to pay close attention to policy decisions that directly impact their economic future.
Wesley Bowles Says: Shoutout to Lisa Bigioni and the team at Stok’d Cannabis! They operate four premier retail dispensaries in Ontario and just launched their brand-new website built on Breadstack.
Tom Ritchie Says: Many retailers defaulted to Dutchie for quick plug-and-play e-commerce, but Dutchie templates lack customizable UX/UI and comprehensive search engine optimization. Stok’d’s new Breadstack site is lightning-fast, fully customized, Canadian-built, and optimized for local SEO and integrated delivery.
Tom Ritchie Says: That reminds me of the classic story: a factory foreman sets his pocket watch every morning against a jeweler’s grandfather clock so he can blow the factory whistle at 5:00 PM. One day he asks the jeweler how his clock stays so precise, and the jeweler says, ‘I set it every day to the 5:00 PM factory whistle!’ When you blindly follow market incumbents without independent evaluation, you risk compounding their errors.
Tom Ritchie Says: This Saturday, August 17th, is the Lake & Bake summer boat cruise on the River Gambler in Toronto Harbour! It features brand pop-ups, a two-hour tailgate party, and a four-hour cruise. Use code LEGACIES for 25% off. Remember: keep consumption respectful and leave the glass dab rigs at home!
Wesley Bowles Says: We also had lunch with Katie Pringle from Marigold PR and Tether. Tether does phenomenal work connecting budtenders, retailers, and brand partners through educational sampling events.
Tom Ritchie Says: Now, let’s welcome today’s guest: David Brown, founder of StratCann, former Senior Policy Advisor at Health Canada, and co-founder of Lift Cannabis!
Tom Ritchie Says: Welcome back, everyone! We are joined by David Brown, founder of StratCann. David, welcome to Legacies!
David Brown Says: Thanks for having me, Tom and Wes! Great to be here from the Lower Mainland in BC.
Tom Ritchie Says: Take us back to the beginning—how did you get started in cannabis journalism and policy?
David Brown Says: Around 2012, I began covering early state-level legalization in Washington and Colorado. In early 2014, I partnered with Tyler Sookdeo, founder of Lift Cannabis. We launched Lift as a strain review and news platform for Canada’s newly introduced Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR), which transitioned medical access from home designated grows to commercial licensed producers.
David Brown Says: After four years growing Lift, I was recruited in early 2018 to serve as a Senior Policy Advisor within Health Canada’s Cannabis Legalization and Regulation Branch. I spent two years there—one year during the intense legislative build-up to Bill C-45 and one year post-legalization—gaining invaluable insight into how federal regulations, public health mandates, and ministerial policies are crafted.
David Brown Says: In early 2020, I left government to return to independent journalism and founded StratCann to provide timely, nuanced news and B2B analysis for the Canadian cannabis sector.
Tom Ritchie Says: Many consumers forget that commercial legal cannabis was forced by constitutional court challenges, not proactive political benevolence.
David Brown Says: Exactly. Under the original MMAR, patients fought in court for legal access, forcing the government to contract Prairie Plant Systems (which later became CanniMed) to grow single-source medical cannabis in an underground mine. When designated grower networks grew too large for federal oversight, the Harper administration introduced the commercial MMPR framework in 2013 with the first wave of LPs like Peace Naturals, Canna Farms, Tweed, and Aphria.
David Brown Says: While the U.S. framed legalization around state tax revenues and personal liberty, Canada framed Bill C-45 strictly as a public health initiative: displacing the illicit market and restricting youth access through stringent federal quality control.
Tom Ritchie Says: In 2016 to 2018, the Lift Expos in Toronto and Vancouver were massive spectacles with six-figure booths and tens of thousands of attendees.
David Brown Says: Our first Toronto Lift Expo drew over 10,000 attendees in two days. It was an electric era when capital was flowing freely. Our second Toronto expo happened right after Project Claudia, where Toronto police conducted widespread raids on unlicensed dispensaries, highlighting the dramatic tension between legacy compassion operators and the emerging commercial framework.
David Brown Says: The subsequent industry downturn wasn’t the collapse of cannabis—it was the collapse of unrealistic speculative corporate hype. Early market projections from major consultancies predicted $10 to $12 per gram wholesale prices, which was completely detached from agricultural reality.
David Brown Says: Companies that spent millions on parties and massive inefficient facilities without basic CPG business fundamentals failed. The producers thriving today are lean, agile, understand their unit economics, and respect that cannabis is farming combined with regulated manufacturing.
Tom Ritchie Says: Are medical patient registrations declining as adult-use dispensaries expand?
David Brown Says: Yes, medical registrations have plateaued or declined because casual consumers who previously obtained medical authorizations for minor ailments now purchase directly from recreational stores. The medical channel is returning to its core purpose: serving patients with specific therapeutic needs, veteran coverage, or private insurance adjudication who rely on specialized clinics like Mendo.
Wesley Bowles Says: Will Canadian producers get crushed once the U.S. legalizes federally?
David Brown Says: While U.S. brands have strong marketing, Canadian producers hold a massive advantage: six-plus years of rigorous federal compliance, GPP/GMP standards, and established international export pathways into Germany, Australia, and the EU. When U.S. federal reform eventually passes, untangling 50 conflicting state regulatory regimes will be messy. Canada’s unified federal foundation provides long-term stability.
David Brown Says: We are witnessing the downfall of predatory toll processors and brokers. In the early years, provincial buyers only dealt with large brand houses, forcing small cultivators to sell vault inventory at distressed prices of $0.50 to $1.00 per gram while brand houses marked it up to $10.00.
David Brown Says: Today, the B2B wholesale market is shifting from a buyer’s market to a seller’s market. Distressed inventory has cleared out, and wholesale prices are rising, allowing quality cultivators to command fair margins for top-tier craft flower.
Tom Ritchie Says: Which province has the most effective distribution model for craft producers?
David Brown Says: British Columbia receives high praise because of weekly product calls and their Direct Delivery program, allowing local micro-producers to ship directly to retailers. Alberta receives criticism because the AGLC maintains a rigid top-down model favoring a few large conglomerates. In Ontario, the OCS manages the largest centralized distribution warehouse in the world, which creates logistical challenges but continues to improve via its flow-through program.
David Brown Says: Health Canada’s Indigenous Navigator program has been highly effective in guiding First Nations applicants through licensing with dedicated case managers. When I worked at Health Canada, I developed a proposal for a ‘Micro Navigator’ program to provide the same dedicated regulatory guidance for craft micros taking out second mortgages. Regulators need dedicated liaison programs so small craft operators aren’t left in a bureaucratic black hole.
Tom Ritchie Says: You recently reported on the resurgence of unlicensed brick-and-mortar storefronts in Toronto, BC, and New Brunswick.
David Brown Says: Overall, legal retail captures roughly 70%+ of total national market share, but illicit storefronts exploit jurisdictional grey areas. In Toronto, municipal bylaws leave enforcement to building inspectors who lack police support. In BC and New Brunswick, provinces often avoid prioritizing enforcement on First Nations lands due to broader political and social complexities. However, modern illicit storefronts are commercial operations seeking short-term cash grabs, not civil rights activists.
David Brown Says: Laboratory testing of illicit black-market edibles advertising ‘500mg’ or ‘1000mg’ on flashy packaging reveals they frequently contain less than 50mg of actual active THC. This gives consumers a completely distorted perception of their biological tolerance. In a regulated product, an accurate 10mg to 20mg dose provides robust, predictable therapeutic effects.
David Brown Says: StratCann is hosting our ‘Growing Relationships’ event series across Canada, with our next stop in Ottawa on August 20th in partnership with Tether. We bring craft producers, independent retailers, and regulators into the same room for morning roundtables and curated B2B speed networking.
David Brown Says: We ban generic complaints about excise taxes and 10mg caps so attendees can engage in actionable, nuanced discussions about provincial listing protocols, direct delivery improvements, and Health Canada’s regulatory proposals.
Wesley Bowles Says: Last week, Michael Elkin asked: ‘If you could smoke a joint with anyone, living or dead, who would that be and why?’
David Brown Says: Barack Obama! He had his famous ‘Choom Gang’ days in Hawaii, and I would love to have a frank, private conversation with him about U.S. politics, executive power, and drug policy reform over a joint.
Tom Ritchie Says: What is your chain question for next week’s incoming guest?
David Brown Says: ‘Where do you see the Canadian cannabis industry in five years—by 2030?’
Tom Ritchie Says: Outstanding question! David, thank you for your leadership, objective journalism, and dedication to the industry. Keep up the phenomenal work at StratCann!
Tom Ritchie Says: What a fantastic conversation with David Brown! He is a true pillar of Canadian cannabis journalism and regulatory insight.
Wesley Bowles Says: A reminder to everyone: we are on production break next week, but we’ll be sharing unreleased highlight reels across YouTube and socials. We’ll be back live with Episode 26 on August 29th!
Tom Ritchie Says: Check out StratCann’s Growing Relationships events, grab your Lake & Bake tickets with code LEGACIES, explore Mendo Select’s curated craft menu, and we’ll see you in two weeks on Legacies!
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Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief
David Brown is a Canadian cannabis industry journalist, co-founder of StratCann, and former senior policy adviser for Health Canada.
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Cannabis Industry News & Media Platform
Stratcann is a Canadian online publication and media platform dedicated to covering news, business developments, regulatory changes, and policy shifts...
Learn More About Partner ↗The MMPR (Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations) was a federal medical access framework launched in 2013, whereas Bill C-45 (The Cannabis Act) was the comprehensive bill that legalized commercial adult-use cannabis in 2018.
David Brown served as a Senior Policy Adviser within Health Canada's Cannabis Legalization and Regulation Branch, helping audit regulations and draft early implementation guidelines.
StratCann is a digital B2B news publisher that provides reporting, policy analysis, and business coverage tailored for licensed producers, micro-cultivators, and retailers.
