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In this educational episode of the Legacies Podcast, hosts Tom Ritchie and Wesley Bowles discuss Tom’s recent consultation with wellness brand uFeelu. They analyze the clinical application of minor cannabinoids (such as CBG, CBN, CBC, and Delta 8 THC) and the physiological mechanisms of the entourage effect, noting a shift in consumer demand away from simplistic indica-sativa categories toward terpene and effect-based profiles. The hosts examine METRC’s entrance into the Canadian market through its Retail ID pilot program with plant life and Token Naturals, discussing how QR codes can complain-friendly deliver Certificate of Analysis (COA) data and educational content to retail consumers. They also address the True North (vancor group) CCAA filing and discuss retail marketing.
Later, they are joined by Dina Rollman, CEO of StrainBrain. Dina outlines her legal career, including serving as senior VP of regulatory compliance at Green Thumb Industries (GTI) and founding Illinois Women in Cannabis, and details how StrainBrain utilizes B2B AI recommendation systems to customize dispensary retail menus and loyalty integrations around effect-based shopping.
Finally, Jill Ozero and Sarah Jones of Blunt Botanicals discuss the brand’s sustainable topicals line. Jill recalls her transition from bee farming to formulating non-impairing topicals for a friend with cancer in 2010, which led to her working with BC compassion clubs pre-legalization. Sarah discusses her decade of educational leadership at Aveda Canada and her sales leadership at an LP before joining Blunt Botanicals. Together, they outline their efforts to introduce biodegradable mycelium-based packaging solutions to reduce plastic waste in retail cannabis.
Tom Ritchie Says: Hey, what’s going on, everyone? Check out what’s coming up this week on Legacies! I’m going to trigger you with one word: Metrc.
Wesley Bowles Says: Kill me.
Jill Ozero Says: But we just kept going because we kept getting emails from people saying, “The stuff that we’ve tried is amazing, and we need more of it.”
Dina Rollman Says: The majority of customers that come to your store, at least in the U.S., are one-time customers. There’s just a real problem getting them to come back.
Tom Ritchie Says: That’s crazy! Well, welcome to Legacies, everyone.
Tom Ritchie Says: I’m your host, Tom Ritchie, joined by Wesley “The Wizard” Bowles, co-host and executive producer. How are you doing, Wes?
Wesley Bowles Says: Good morning! I feel like we’re going to talk about the weather again.
Tom Ritchie Says: Well, you didn’t get enough snow here, so you had to run off to Blue Mountain!
Wesley Bowles Says: It’s an annual trip my friend group does. It was really good!
Tom Ritchie Says: Did you ski? Did you snowboard?
Wesley Bowles Says: Too top-heavy for skiing and snowboarding! I tried it once in high school at Glen Eden. I came down way too fast, the front of the board caught the snow, and I did about five front flips over my head. I decided right then: that’s not for me. We rented a cabin, ate edibles for three days, and relaxed. I tried the 1964 live rosin gummies—they were delicious and hit with a clean, full punch.
Tom Ritchie Says: Live rosin makes such a difference compared to plain distillate. We had friends over Saturday night for dinner, and nobody really wanted to drink alcohol. I had a bunch of cannabis sodas in my fridge that they tried. They looked at the can and said, “Oh, it’s only ten milligrams.” I told them: “Trust me, ten milligrams of live resin hits completely different than distillate.” Within half an hour, they were believers!
Tom Ritchie Says: Speaking of snow, my garage heater almost caused an electrical disaster. With the massive storm, I ran the snowblower four or five times in forty-eight hours. The next morning, there was this strong electrical burning smell in the garage. I checked the breaker, pulled off the bottom plate of the heater, and the wiring block had completely melted back three inches from working non-stop! Luckily the heating element itself survived, so I ran heavy-duty armored cable last night. If you live in this climate, radiant heated floors and heated driveways are sounding better and better every single day.
Tom Ritchie Says: I had a chance to connect with Sam and Alex from uFeelu yesterday. We were talking about the wellness category, moving away from old medical frameworks, and their CBC-focused gelcap. Wes, what do you know about minor cannabinoids?
Wesley Bowles Says: Very little, other than they probably play a much larger role in the entourage effect than we currently understand.
Tom Ritchie Says: Exactly. We’ve been in this industry for years, and we’re only now really unpacking them. You have CBG—the “mother cannabinoid,” known for anti-inflammatory properties. CBN, which is sedating and associated with nighttime sleep. CBC for inflammation, and THCV or Delta-8 for milder, clear-headed daytime effects.
Tom Ritchie Says: We need to move completely away from the simplistic “Indica makes you sleepy, Sativa gives you energy” myth. What actually determines your physiological experience is the complex interplay of minor cannabinoids and terpenes working together. Educating budtenders on minor cannabinoids is how consumers will actually find products that suit their needs.
Tom Ritchie Says: Now, I’m going to trigger you with that one word again: Metrc!
Wesley Bowles Says: Was it Metrc or MJ Freeway that was the bigger headache back in our Ample Organics and Akerna days? Both of them gave us nightmares.
Tom Ritchie Says: In the U.S., state regulators mandated track-and-trace systems like Metrc or BioTrack. When state contracts required RFID tags on every single plant, operators spent millions on tags and generated massive plastic waste. Now, Metrc is entering Canada with their Metrc Retail ID pilot program, partnering with Token Naturals and Plantlife in Alberta.
Wesley Bowles Says: Under current Canadian regulations, Health Canada doesn’t permit promotional or dynamic QR codes directly on product packaging. How are they rolling this out?
Tom Ritchie Says: By providing the QR code at the retail counter or via in-store educational collateral. The customer scans it to unlock certified Certificates of Analysis, detailed terpene profiles, and harvest dates. My hope is that the industry establishes standardized baseline disclosures so every brand displays consistent data rather than just lot numbers. Let’s bring on our first guest: Dina Rollman, CEO of PowerPlant and StrainBrain!
Tom Ritchie Says: Welcome back! We are joined by Dina Rollman, CEO of PowerPlant and StrainBrain, calling in from snowy Chicago. Dina, welcome to Legacies!
Dina Rollman Says: Thanks for having me, Tom and Wes! It’s five below zero here, but great to be with you.
Tom Ritchie Says: You have a fascinating background. You were an equity partner at a traditional law firm before jumping into cannabis as a founding executive at Green Thumb Industries (GTI). What sparked that transition?
Dina Rollman Says: As a commercial litigator, you work with very risk-averse people on situations that have already failed. In college, I volunteered with NORML and followed the Grateful Dead, so I had an adventurous side that was missing in traditional corporate law. When Illinois legalized medical cannabis legislatively in 2013 with a comprehensive 100-page bipartisan statute, I could read that legislation and visualize an entire new industry being built from scratch.
Dina Rollman Says: I met Ben Kovner, the founder and CEO of GTI. He appreciated that I was genuinely passionate about the plant, not just looking for billable hours. We applied for our initial licenses in Illinois, which was an all-or-nothing proposition. We won, and the state gave us just six months to build our cultivation facility and open retail doors. I quit my law firm, went all-in with GTI, and spent five years leading licensing applications and regulatory compliance across ten states before founding our Government Affairs department.
Tom Ritchie Says: How did managing compliance across multiple states compare to Canada’s federal model?
Dina Rollman Says: I used to tell our marketing and operational teams: roughly 80% of state cannabis regulations are similar, but that remaining 20% will make or break your business. A packaging layout approved in Illinois might violate strict font size, exact warning phrase wording, or color restrictions in Pennsylvania. You had to balance strict compliance to protect licenses while working with regulators to grant operational leeway when rules made zero practical sense.
Tom Ritchie Says: After nine years at GTI, you transitioned to PowerPlant and took the helm of StrainBrain. What problem did you see that StrainBrain solves?
Dina Rollman Says: When I travel to dispensaries in Nevada or Colorado where my regular brands aren’t on the shelf, I look at menus with 800 SKUs and feel completely overwhelmed. Most consumers don’t shop purely by THC percentage or price—they want a specific outcome, but they lack the chemistry vocabulary to articulate it.
Dina Rollman Says: StrainBrain integrates directly with e-commerce platforms like Dutchie and Jane, as well as in-store touchscreen kiosks. Instead of an open chat window that expects customers to know botanical terms, it asks four simple multiple-choice questions: desired form factor, target effect from eight intuitive options, preferred flavor profile, and a strength slider. Within seconds, our algorithm scans the dispensary’s real-time inventory and returns their top three objective matches.
Tom Ritchie Says: How does that impact the retailer’s bottom line?
Dina Rollman Says: In the U.S., over 70% of dispensary shoppers are one-time visitors. Menu paralysis leads to high cart abandonment rates online. When consumers use StrainBrain, they make confident purchasing decisions without feeling intimidated. That translates to an average 20% increase in cart size and significantly higher repeat visits, especially when tied to store loyalty programs.
Dina Rollman Says: We also provide retail operators with back-end demographic insights. For example, our analytics can show that Store A’s clientele consists of 40% high-energy social consumers seeking daytime pre-rolls, while Store B serves professionals seeking low-THC wellness formulations. Operators can curate menus based on actual consumer demand rather than guesswork. Green Light currently runs StrainBrain across more than 30 locations and advertises their virtual budtender on local radio!
Tom Ritchie Says: Dina, thank you for breaking down the data and operational strategy. Continued success with StrainBrain!
Dina Rollman Says: Thank you, Tom and Wes! Great catching up.
Tom Ritchie Says: Welcome back, everyone! We are joined by the leadership team at Blunt Botanicals: Jill Ozero, Founder & CEO, and Sarah Jones, Chief Commercialization Officer. Welcome to Legacies!
Jill Ozero Says: Thank you for having us!
Sarah Jones Says: Excited to be here!
Tom Ritchie Says: Jill, what inspired you to start formulating cannabis topicals?
Jill Ozero Says: Back in 2010, I was a school teacher and yoga instructor. I met a beekeeper and started making natural beeswax lip balms for my son. That same year, one of my closest friends was diagnosed with cancer. She had three young children and asked me to create something topical that would provide comfort without producing an intoxicating high.
Jill Ozero Says: I flew to Vancouver, immersed myself in botanical extraction, took cosmetic formulation courses, and started making therapeutic topicals and suppositories for BC compassion clubs. When legalization arrived, I partnered with Token Naturals in Edmonton to bring Blunt Botanicals into the regulated market. We spent three years perfecting our core hero product before expanding our catalog.
Tom Ritchie Says: Sarah, how did your background connect with Jill and Blunt Botanicals?
Sarah Jones Says: I spent a decade with Aveda Canada directing advanced academies and environmental education programs, focusing on ethical sourcing with indigenous communities in Nepal and the Amazon basin. Later, I joined a cannabis licensed producer as Director of Sales managing nearly 70 SKUs nationwide.
Sarah Jones Says: When I met Jill, we shared an immediate alignment around sustainable sourcing and pure botanical formulation. We decided to combine forces: Jill’s formulation expertise with my commercial sales background. Together, we brought four purpose-built sustainable wellness products to market in our first year.
Tom Ritchie Says: Let’s address the elephant in the room: is true sustainability in legal cannabis actually achievable, or is it mostly marketing greenwash?
Jill Ozero Says: The current status quo is undeniably depressing. Millions of single-use plastic tubes and pouches are sitting in municipal landfills. When I lived off-grid, I realized that attempting 100% purist zero-waste living can paralyze you. We refuse to let perfection be the enemy of progress. If we can divert thousands of plastic packages by introducing practical alternatives, that effort is worth fighting for.
Sarah Jones Says: There is also social stigma around disposal: consumers often throw cannabis packaging straight into the garbage rather than curbside recycling bins because they don’t want neighbors seeing branded cannabis containers. We started with Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) materials, but our mandate has evolved toward fully biodegradable and compostable solutions.
Tom Ritchie Says: Describe the engineering behind Blunt Botanicals’ compostable packaging.
Jill Ozero Says: After years of attending packaging expos, we sourced unbleached, residentially compostable kraft paper pouches featuring child-resistant zippers manufactured entirely from sugarcane biopolymer. Consumers can dispose of them directly in backyard compost bins or municipal green waste.
Jill Ozero Says: For our bath bombs, instead of wrapping them in non-recyclable plastic shrink-wrap, we use water-soluble botanical paper printed with sugar-based inks. You drop the entire unit directly into the bathwater—it dissolves completely within ten seconds without leaving microplastics or residue. I once dissolved a package in a glass of water and drank it in front of a concerned customer to prove its safety!
Tom Ritchie Says: Beyond consumer packaging, where does the industry generate hidden environmental waste?
Sarah Jones Says: Secondary and tertiary distribution logistics. Every provincial wholesaler enforces completely different master case sizes—one board demands 13 units per shipper, another mandates 16. That forces manufacturers to purchase multiple corrugated box dimensions. Furthermore, provincial boards now enforce strict three-week inventory holding limits, requiring brands to make frequent, smaller LTL freight shipments rather than full pallet deliveries.
Tom Ritchie Says: Streamlining master case dimensions and packaging standards across provincial buyers would eliminate tons of cardboard and cut freight emissions overnight.
Tom Ritchie Says: How can dispensaries help conscious consumers find sustainable products?
Sarah Jones Says: Dispensary menus need dedicated filtering for sustainable and clean-formulated products. Mainstream beauty retailers like Sephora built dedicated “Clean at Sephora” sections that drive enormous customer loyalty. Dispensaries that highlight ethical cultivation and compostable packaging attract consumers who prioritize wellness over raw potency.
Tom Ritchie Says: Cannabis should be leading the broader CPG world in ecological responsibility, not lagging behind it. Jill and Sarah, thank you for walking the walk and pushing Canadian cannabis toward genuine sustainability!
Jill Ozero Says: Thank you so much for having us, Tom and Wes!
Sarah Jones Says: Thank you, guys!
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CEO & Partner
Dina Rollman is the CEO of StrainBrain, an investor partner at Power Plant, and a legal compliance executive in the regulated cannabis sector.
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AI-Powered B2B Recommendation Platform
StrainBrain is an artificial intelligence platform that provides B2B product recommendation services for regulated cannabis dispensaries. The platform integrates with...
Learn More About Partner ↗StrainBrain is an AI-powered product recommendation platform for cannabis dispensaries that integrates with menus and loyalty programs to guide customers based on desired physiological effects.
Blunt Botanicals aims to introduce compostable, biodegradable mycelium packaging solutions that are affordable for end consumers to replace plastic childproof packaging.
METRC Retail ID is a pilot program in Canada exploring QR-code-based compliance tracking, allowing consumers to scan in-store codes to unlock COA data and educational content compliant with marketing regulations.
