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In this educational episode of the Legacies Podcast, hosts Tom Ritchie and Wesley Bowles discuss critical events affecting the Canadian retail and production landscape. They cover the commercial implications of the LCBO strike and analyze the financial and insurance impacts of the million-dollar fire at the JC Green (Jonny Chronic) facility in Thorndale, Ontario. They also examine testing integrity in the industry, referencing a report from Stratcann and High North Labs that highlighted significant discrepancies between labeled THC percentages and actual lab results.
Later, they welcome back recurring guest Jonathan Wilson, CEO of New Brunswick-based craft producer Crystal Cure. Jonathan provides a detailed breakdown of the ‘dark side of compliance’—detailing how federal security, packaging, licensing, and testing requirements double the production costs for legal micro-producers compared to the illicit market. He details the success of ‘Le Backdoor,’ Atlantic Canada’s first farmgate store in Shediac Cape, explaining how farmgate retail enables producers to bypass distribution bottlenecks, educate consumers directly, and build localized brand equity.
Tom Ritchie Says: What’s up, everyone? Welcome to Legacies! I’m your host, Tom Ritchie, joined by executive producer and co-host Wesley ‘The Wizard’ Bowles. Wes, how are you doing today?
Wesley Bowles Says: Good, good! How about yourself?
Tom Ritchie Says: We were supposed to have Chris Crosby of Atlantic Cultivation on today, but he got held up traveling across Alberta. Luckily, our good friend Jonathan Wilson from Crystal Cure stepped off the bench like a true hockey player to sub in as our very first repeat two-time guest!
Tom Ritchie Says: Before we dive in, a quick update on my backyard skunk saga: I set live traps baited with dog food, cat food, and molasses bread. Yesterday morning, the dogs went crazy—we caught a massive brown rat in the trap instead of a skunk! I couldn’t bring myself to kill it, so I put the cage in a heavy-duty contractor bag in the back of my SUV and drove out to the country to find a nice gully by the river to release it.
Wesley Bowles Says: You’re a nicer guy than me. My first night in my first Toronto basement apartment, I woke up at 3:00 AM in pitch black and heard loud scratching on the floor. I flipped the light on and saw two massive ‘Pinky and the Brain’ sized rats staring at me. I took care of business right then and there with my heavy winter boots!
Tom Ritchie Says: Have you watched Guy Ritchie’s eight-part Netflix series, The Gentlemen? It’s phenomenal. Vinnie Jones is in it, and the entire plot revolves around secret underground cannabis grow operations hidden on British aristocratic estates.
Wesley Bowles Says: It’s an eight-hour Guy Ritchie masterclass. Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels are all-time classics, and this series delivers that exact energy.
Tom Ritchie Says: On the business side, I’ve been revisiting Clayton Christensen’s book The Innovator’s Dilemma. When building innovative platforms, it’s so easy for entrepreneurs to get trapped in perfectionism. Sometimes you have to remember that speed matters, and you have to get comfortable with ‘good enough, ship it’ while continually refining.
Tom Ritchie Says: My son Ashton is turning 16 and getting his beginner’s driving permit. He’s learning to drive a manual transmission first. It made me reflect on my first car—a Pontiac Acadian—compared to what kids experience today.
Wesley Bowles Says: My first car was a 1994 Honda Accord that cost $750 and had over 600,000 kilometers on it! My dad told me, ‘I’ll cover the $750, but you pay insurance, gas, and maintenance—if you wrap it around a tree, that’s on you.’
Tom Ritchie Says: Having owned over 30 vehicles, Japanese and German imports just last forever. I will never be forced into a purely electric vehicle by government mandates—there is an irreplaceable, visceral joy to driving a rear-wheel-drive manual sports car and letting the engine rip.
Tom Ritchie Says: There was breaking news about a fire at JC Green’s facility near London, Ontario.
Wesley Bowles Says: It occurred on the evening of June 8th, causing an estimated $1 million in damage. Thankfully, no one was injured.
Tom Ritchie Says: For those who don’t know, JC Green is Johnny Chronic. They produce phenomenal craft cultivars like French Macaron and Cherry Bomb with authentic legacy roots. It’s a massive setback in an already tough market, and we hope their biological asset insurance covers the harvest interruption so they bounce back quickly.
Tom Ritchie Says: In positive destigmatization news, the Calgary Music Festival hosted ‘The Garden’—a dedicated 18+ licensed consumption space where attendees can order legal products for on-site delivery and consumption.
Wesley Bowles Says: It’s amazing seeing cannabis treated on equal footing with beer gardens at major public cultural festivals rather than isolated off-site.
Tom Ritchie Says: Meanwhile, in Ontario, the LCBO workers are on strike as the province expands ready-to-drink alcohol into private convenience stores. The big commercial beer conglomerates will easily buy up convenience store shelf space, putting immense distribution pressure on local craft breweries—very similar to what craft cannabis producers face every single day.
Tom Ritchie Says: StratCann and High North Laboratories (led by Rick Myers) published an eye-opening investigative report on Canadian cannabis potency testing.
Wesley Bowles Says: Across 20,000 laboratory flower samples, the vast majority naturally tested between 18% and 24% THC. Only 154 samples—under 1%—naturally exceeded 30% THC!
Tom Ritchie Says: Even crazier, they mystery-shopped 35 legal dried flower products off Ontario retail dispensary shelves. Only 12% fell within acceptable regulatory label variance, while others showed discrepancies as extreme as 96% deviation—like packaging claiming 38% THC when actual lab re-tests showed 19%! That is why I’m wearing my ‘Show Me Your Terps’ shirt today. The market needs to move past fake THC numbers and celebrate authentic terpene quality.
Tom Ritchie Says: Welcome back! We are thrilled to welcome back Jonathan Wilson, founder and CEO of Crystal Cure. Jonathan, welcome back to Legacies!
Jonathan Wilson Says: Happy to be here! Am I officially the first repeat two-time guest in Legacies history?
Tom Ritchie Says: You are officially the charter member of the Two-Time Club! How is ‘The Back Door’ farmgate store performing at Crystal Cure?
Jonathan Wilson Says: June 2024 was our best sales month of all time since opening farmgate in November 2021. We haven’t spent a single dollar on traditional marketing—it’s driven entirely by word-of-mouth, exclusive craft SKUs, larger multi-pack formats, and great local support, including Cannabis NB retail staff sending customers directly to our farmgate door.
Tom Ritchie Says: You made a powerful LinkedIn post this morning dissecting the immense cost burden of compliance. Walk us through the disparity between legal producers and the illicit market.
Jonathan Wilson Says: In New Brunswick, an illegal dispensary was recently shut down and given a $3,200 fine with a full year to pay. That $3,200 fine is less than the annual licensing fee ($2,500) and security clearances we pay to Health Canada and public safety regulators just to exist legally! An illegal operator can run for a year, pay zero excise tax, zero corporate tax, and their penalty is a slap on the wrist.
Jonathan Wilson Says: Dan Sutton and Tantalus Labs proved years ago that Health Canada compliance adds approximately $1.42 per gram to production costs—including mandatory third-party lab testing, QA software, security cameras, PPE, and child-resistant packaging. Under the current flat $1.00/gram federal excise duty, an LP selling flower at $8.00/gram retail actually operates at a net loss. Moving to an ad valorem 10% tax would immediately restore producer solvency.
Tom Ritchie Says: The compliance barriers extend right down to the consumer opening the product.
Jonathan Wilson Says: Every Friday, I crack open a White Claw for my wife with zero effort, but if I want a cannabis beverage, I’m using a spoon to pry open childproof plastic caps and tearing through an excise stamp glued over the mouth hole! In alcohol, tax verification is completely digitized, but cannabis LPs still manually apply physical excise stamps with glue sticks, facing $30 CRA fines for every single lost stamp.
Tom Ritchie Says: Drew Henson made a great point last week: nobody locks their beer fridge or crystal wine decanters. Treating dried flower—which requires grinding and heating to activate—with extreme childproof barriers reinforces outdated prohibition stigma while illicit operators sell 600mg bootleg candy bags designed to mimic commercial sweets.
Tom Ritchie Says: How do we break out of LinkedIn echo chambers and educate everyday consumers on why legal craft cannabis matters?
Jonathan Wilson Says: Look at what Dairy Farmers of Canada did with ‘Got Milk’ or Beer Canada’s public campaigns on excise tax. Producers, budtenders, and retailers need to unite behind a single consumer-facing public campaign. We can’t just complain about profit margins; we must show consumers that their tax dollars support Canadian jobs, clean living-soil agriculture, and tested product safety.
Wesley Bowles Says: Last week, Drew Henson of TOQI left this question for you: “What is an area of your life or business that you struggled with initially, but worked on to turn into a strength?”
Jonathan Wilson Says: Developing emotional intelligence (EQ) and learning not to react impulsively. Early in my career, my immediate impulse was to react quickly to every problem. I had to train myself—even writing ‘DON’T REACT’ at the top of meeting notebooks—to pause, reflect in silence, listen to others’ perspectives, and craft thoughtful responses.
Tom Ritchie Says: That is such a vital leadership maturity trait. What is your question for next week’s incoming guest?
Jonathan Wilson Says: “What is the most effective way for the Canadian cannabis industry to collaborate and deliver a unified, powerful message directly to the public?”
Tom Ritchie Says: Jonathan, thank you for stepping up on short notice and being our first Two-Time Club guest on Legacies! Visit Crystal Cure in New Brunswick, check out their AM/PM craft line, subscribe to Legacies, and we’ll see you all next week!
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Founder
Jonathan Wilson founded Crystal Cure, a Canadian cannabis brand focused on quality curing processes. He appears on Legacies twice (Episodes 8 and 20), covering excise tax, the 2024 federal budget, farmgate retail, and the compliance challenges facing craft producers.
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Learn More About Partner ↗It refers to the compounding costs of Health Canada's regulatory mandates (such as continuous surveillance, batch testing, security clearances, and excise stamping) that create disproportionate financial overhead for micro-producers.
Farmgate retail allows licensed producers to sell directly to consumers at their facility, which helps bypass provincial wholesale distribution bottlenecks, capture higher margins, and educate consumers directly.
The report identified significant discrepancies between labeled THC potency percentages and actual lab results, highlighting the prevalence of potency inflation on commercial shelves.
