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In this educational episode of the Legacies Podcast, hosts Tom Ritchie and Wesley Bowles reflect on the 6-year anniversary of Canadian legalization, discuss OCS’s Buzzkill campaign, review Wyld care packages and Boveda humidity control packs, and highlight the Elevate Retailer Summit and Tether Holiday Market. Special guest Lucas Jarzem of Resell Cannabis Equipment (RSCE) shares how he accidentally entered the liquidation market to help transitioning LPs recover capital from surplus hardware. Finally, the hosts launch Part 1 of their ‘Clean vs. Dirty Cannabis’ series with Nicole Ryan, Secretary of the Board of Directors for the American Cannabis Nurses Association (ACNA). Nicole details the professionalization of cannabis nursing, safety and quality assurance, testing integrity, and the critical importance of ensuring contaminant-free products for medical patients.
Tom Ritchie Says: Hey, what’s going on, everyone? Check out what’s coming up this week on Legacies.
Nicole Ryan Says: Our mission at the American Cannabis Nurses Association is to advance excellence in cannabis nursing practice through advocacy, collaboration, education, research, and policy development.
Lucas Jarzem Says: Long term, you’re going to see the market consolidate into five to ten large licensed producers and ten to twenty dedicated craft micro-producers.
Tom Ritchie Says: Welcome to Legacies, everyone! I’m your host, Tom Ritchie, joined by Wesley ‘The Wizard’ Bowles.
Wesley Bowles Says: Good morning, everyone!
Tom Ritchie Says: A reminder that Legacies is powered by Breadstack. Retailers, upgrade your e-commerce platform and connect your multi-store inventories seamlessly.
Tom Ritchie Says: I’ve continued my search for balanced 1:1 THC:CBD craft flower. I picked up Orchid CBD by Cannara Biotech, and our friend Jason Schwartz highlighted Purple Mountain Majesty available on Mendo Medical. If you have third-party insurance coverage, Mendo makes accessing medicinal craft flower straightforward.
Tom Ritchie Says: I’ve also been testing premium glass-tip pre-rolls—including Table Slaps by Atlantic Cultivation and Third Coast Genetics’ Pure Michigan. The airflow and terpene draw through a glass tip elevate the entire smoking experience.
Tom Ritchie Says: Did everyone catch SpaceX’s Starship Flight 5 test over the weekend? Wes, you geek out on space tech.
Wesley Bowles Says: They launched the massive 230-foot Super Heavy booster to orbit, guided it back through the atmosphere, and caught it mid-air on the launchpad using the mechanical chopstick arms of the ‘Mechazilla’ launch tower. Capturing a rocket the size of a skyscraper for rapid turnaround and reuse changes space logistics forever.
Tom Ritchie Says: The Ontario Cannabis Store is opening its Buzzkill anti-illicit pop-up on Queen Street in Toronto tomorrow. While consumer education around untested contaminants is vital, broad-brush claims that all legacy-grown cannabis is unsafe ignore the care many master growers put into their crops.
Wesley Bowles Says: The real public education win is reminding shoppers to verify the AGCO Authorized Retailer seal so they know their local independent dispensaries are compliant.
Tom Ritchie Says: Shoutout to our friends at Wyld for sending a care package of their real-fruit gummies. Their Blood Orange formulation features 5mg THC paired with 15mg of CBC (Cannabichromene), delivering a gentle, functional entourage effect.
Wesley Bowles Says: Wyld is a Climate Neutral Certified brand utilizing fully compostable packaging, showing genuine environmental accountability.
Tom Ritchie Says: We caught up with Scott Swail from Boveda at the CANEXEC Summit. Boveda’s 2-way humidity control creates a monolayer of water molecules over trichomes, locking in volatile terpenes without ‘stealing’ flavor as some forum myths claim.
Tom Ritchie Says: Our copy of This Is Our Life—the official coffee table book companion to Mike Downie’s docuseries No Dress Rehearsal—just arrived. It is packed with unreleased lyric sheets, setlists, and four decades of archival photography from The Tragically Hip’s personal vaults.
Tom Ritchie Says: Mark your calendars for upcoming autumn gatherings:
Tom Ritchie Says: November 6th: The Tether Holiday Market in Dundas, Ontario, hosted by Katie Pringle and Marigold PR.
Tom Ritchie Says: November 12th: The Elevate Cannabis Retailer Summit hosted by Jas, bringing together category managers, store owners, and budtenders.
Tom Ritchie Says: Operating under Health Canada and the CRA comes with absurd logistical friction. If a provincial distributor sends unsold SKUs back to a licensed producer via a Return-to-Vendor (RTV), the LP cannot simply re-route those units to another province.
Tom Ritchie Says: Workers have to manually scrape off the color-coded provincial excise stamp, risk damaging the child-resistant packaging, apply a new provincial stamp, or incinerate the entire batch in front of security cameras under CRA oversight. It is a massive waste of operational capital.
Tom Ritchie Says: Welcome back! We are joined by Lucas Jarzem, founder of Resell Canna Equipment and Good To Grow!
Lucas Jarzem Says: Thanks for having me, Tom! Great to be here.
Tom Ritchie Says: How did you create Canada’s largest secondary marketplace for commercial cannabis hardware?
Lucas Jarzem Says: It happened completely by accident. I was visiting a massive licensed producer facility in Ontario, and an operations director walked me through an entire acre of surplus extraction, trimming, and packaging equipment they needed to liquidate.
Lucas Jarzem Says: I built a comprehensive catalog spreadsheet, photographed every machine, and began matching sellers with expanding craft facilities on a transparent consignment basis. Today, Resell Canna Equipment is the leading secondary equipment marketplace in Canada, creating liquidity for operators and affordable hardware for expanding micros.
Tom Ritchie Says: What dynamics are driving CCAA restructurings across the country?
Lucas Jarzem Says: In cannabis restructurings, you see two scenarios: planned CCAA restructurings where management strategically cleans up legacy debt and buys back the core operating assets, and unplanned receiverships where court-appointed trustees step in.
Lucas Jarzem Says: Trustees follow a strict liquidation waterfall: first selling off brand IP and finished wholesale inventory, followed by processing machinery, and finally the physical real estate.
Tom Ritchie Says: What are the most in-demand pieces of used equipment right now?
Lucas Jarzem Says: Automated tabletop vape cartridge filling machines and automated pre-roll cone packers—specifically Knockbox 100, 300, and 500 units. We can sell automated pre-roll packers all day long because pre-rolls dominate Canadian retail sales volume.
Tom Ritchie Says: Does complete vertical integration make sense in 2024?
Lucas Jarzem Says: Full vertical integration only works in unique circumstances, like Atlantic Cultivation in Newfoundland where provincial regulations permit licensed producers to operate retail dispensary chains.
Lucas Jarzem Says: In provinces like Ontario, attempting to own cultivation, extraction, processing, and distribution burns excessive capital. The smartest modern operators run asset-light, nimble brands—contracting premium inputs and toll-processing to maintain high margins without massive overhead.
Lucas Jarzem Says: Historically, Canadian commerce tends toward oligopolies—whether in telecommunications, airlines, or banking. Over the next decade, the Canadian cannabis landscape will consolidate into 5 to 10 scaled national LPs handling mass-market volume, alongside 10 to 20 dedicated artisanal craft micro-producers serving connoisseurs.
Tom Ritchie Says: How will US federal reform impact Canadian producers?
Lucas Jarzem Says: If the US legalizes federally and permits international trade, Canadian indoor cultivators will face immense price pressure. Sun-grown and hybrid greenhouse operations in California, Oregon, and the American South have lower cost structures and year-round growing seasons that will drive wholesale prices per gram down across global export markets.
Tom Ritchie Says: If you had to put four figures on a Canadian Cannabis Mount Rushmore, who makes the cut?
Lucas Jarzem Says: For sheer capital formation and building the early foundation of the legal sector: Bruce Linton (Canopy Growth) and Terry Booth (Aurora Cannabis). On the medical legacy side: Rick Simpson for RSO oil, and pioneering entrepreneurs like John Fowler for championing craft quality.
Tom Ritchie Says: Lucas, thank you for joining us and providing unmatched insight into commercial hardware and market dynamics!
Lucas Jarzem Says: Thanks for having me, guys!
Tom Ritchie Says: Welcome back! We are kicking off Part 1 of our three-part series on Clean vs. Dirty Cannabis. Joining us is Nicole Ryan, RN, board member of the American Cannabis Nurses Association (ACNA)!
Nicole Ryan Says: Thank you for having me! It’s great to be here.
Tom Ritchie Says: Tell us about the ACNA and its role in healthcare.
Nicole Ryan Says: The ACNA was founded in 2010 by pioneering nurse Mary Lynn Mathre and became a 501(c)(3) national professional organization in 2016. In 2023, the American Nurses Association officially recognized cannabis nursing as a formal nursing specialty.
Nicole Ryan Says: Whether healthcare providers agree with cannabis or not, millions of patients are consuming cannabinoids daily. Nurses are the most trusted profession in healthcare; we must understand cannabinoid therapeutics, drug-drug interactions, and the endocannabinoid system (ECS) to guide patients safely.
Nicole Ryan Says: When I graduated nursing school in 2019, textbooks still categorized cannabis strictly as an illicit substance. That stigma prevents clinical open-mindedness.
Nicole Ryan Says: Institutions like the University of Maryland now offer master’s degrees in cannabinoid therapeutics, but we need comprehensive endocannabinoid education integrated into all core nursing and medical curricula.
Nicole Ryan Says: The traditional ‘sativa vs. indica’ classification is clinically outdated. Therapeutic outcomes are driven by unique chemovars—the specific interplay between minor cannabinoids, flavonoids, and dominant terpene profiles (like myrcene, caryophyllene, and limonene) interacting with an individual patient’s endocannabinoid tone.
Tom Ritchie Says: What are the primary health risks when consumers encounter contaminated cannabis?
Nicole Ryan Says: Cannabis is a known bio-accumulator that pulls heavy metals out of the soil. In clay-heavy soils, plants readily absorb cadmium and lead. When combusted or concentrated, those heavy metals pass directly into lung tissue and bloodstreams.
Nicole Ryan Says: For immunocompromised patients, inhaling microbial pathogens like Aspergillus mold spores can lead to fatal pulmonary aspergillosis infections. Poorly purged chemical extracts can contain toxic residual solvents like butane or ethanol, causing acute respiratory distress and severe gastrointestinal upset.
Tom Ritchie Says: How prevalent is lab shopping for inflated THC percentages?
Nicole Ryan Says: Lab shopping is a massive systemic issue across North America. Unethical producers will send samples to multiple labs until they find one that yields an inflated 30%+ THC figure or overlooks contaminant thresholds.
Nicole Ryan Says: We need rigorous national laboratory standardization with third-party proficiency testing to protect patient safety.
Nicole Ryan Says: When unregulated high-dose edibles—often containing synthetic Delta-8 THC synthesized with harsh acid reagents—enter the market without Certificates of Analysis (COAs), they pose major risks to liver and kidney metabolic pathways.
Nicole Ryan Says: Patients must look for verified QR codes linking directly to accredited third-party lab results detailing heavy metals, pesticides, mycotoxins, and residual solvents.
Tom Ritchie Says: Nicole, thank you for sharing your clinical expertise and championing patient education across North America!
Nicole Ryan Says: Thank you, Tom and Wes! The ACNA is here to support nurses and patients on their healthcare journey.
Wesley Bowles Says: Stay tuned for Part 2 of our Clean vs. Dirty Cannabis series next week, and check out Breadstack to power your retail dispensary. See everyone next time on Legacies!
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Secretary, Board of Directors
Nicole Ryan is a registered nurse, healthcare advocate, and Secretary of the Board of Directors for the American Cannabis Nurses Association (ACNA).
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The American Cannabis Nurses Association (ACNA) is a national professional organization dedicated to cannabis nursing. Founded to advance excellence in...
Learn More About Partner ↗The ACNA is a professional nursing organization dedicated to advancing excellence in cannabis nursing practice. They focus on establishing clinical standards, patient safety protocols, continuing education, and advocating for cannabinoid research.
Lucas Jarzem explains that his business, Resell Cannabis Equipment (RSCE), helps facilities in transition find buyers for surplus cultivation, processing, and laboratory equipment, facilitating capital recovery and sustainable industry expansion.
This is a three-part educational series launched on the Legacies Podcast. Part 1 features Nicole Ryan from the ACNA discussing safety standards, testing integrity, and the clinical importance of screening for heavy metals, pesticides, and microbial contaminants.
