Today on Hempresent our host is joined by Tim Pate Oregon hemp broker, and SHF core. Since 2013 Tim as been a member of the Administrative Rules Committee for Industrial Hemp for the State of Oregon. 20 years on Mainstage at the Seattle Hempfest. 7 years on the TV show Cannabis Common Sense. 7 years with Hempstalk as Event Coordinator or Stage Manager. On the Board of Directors of C&S Building Supply, inventors of Hemp MDF. He has built over 1,000 houses.. Tim has also been a judge in several high level Cannabis cups and competitions. Tim says quoute It's my medicine. I have had 21 surgeries, and it [cannabis] helps my chronic pain.

Cannabis as the cause of illness is our topic as Vivian McPeak speaks with Alternative Model, Cannabis Enthusiast and Activist Damsel W. Dank. Damsel suffered from arsenic poisoning from ingesting bad cannabis and she explains how she has handle treating the problem which Vivian knows all too well based on his own personal health. She takes us through how she first realized her issues and her mission to treat it.

Talking about cannabis program development, communication and implementation as Vivian McPeak speaks with Kris Morwood, the Director of Development of FOCUS (Foundation of Cannabis United Standards).FOCUS offers a range of services to assist with cannabis program development, communication and implementation, ongoing management and evaluation. FOCUS provides an impartial research, facilitation, training and program management resources for regulators, legislators, and non-governmental organizations. For cannabis businesses, FOCUS offers a complete quality management system to ensure product quality and safety, worker safety and continuous improvement. Our digital system brings the standards to life by linking standards requirements to operating procedures and worker training. Custom workflows automatically send reminders and track task completion. The management dashboard tracks open activity to completion.

Talking about Retail Commercialization and Social Consumption with Abi Roach, owner of the HotBox lounge in Toronto, Canada's longest running cannabis lounge.

Jeff Ditchfield is cannabis activism’s answer to Robin Hood; for years he has altruistically put himself in a legal firing line to provide sick people with the medicine they need. In 2002 he founded the Bud Buddies UK Medicinal Cannabis Organisation and in doing so became a poster boy for medicinal cannabis in the UK. For half a decade the club operated as a members-only service which supplies education, support, and medicinal cannabis to gravely ill patients. “The philosophy at Bud Buddies is to empower people to be self-sufficient". “So all members are taught how to cultivate and the guidance provided on making preparations depends on the illness or disease of the individual.” Members of Bud Buddies essentially have two options when considering how to treat their condition: to legally take pharmaceutical drugs that would invariably come with a string of harmful side effects or break the law and use cannabis. As you can probably imagine, the Misuse of Drugs Act would be the least of your considerations if you found yourself in that position.

Today on Hempresent Vivian is joined by Trey Reckling. Trey is originally from Savannah, Georgia and has 15 years experience in higher education. He has specialized in conflict resolution and helping prepare students for careers after they graduate. He founded the Academy of Cannabis Science and has been active in the cannabis community as a board member of the Washington Marijuana Association and Washington Cannabis Commission. In addition to other coursework at the SCC Cannabis Institute, he co-wrote the Medical Marijuana Consultant Course, the first program approved by the Washington Department of Health. He is pleased to be working with Seattle Central to develop a variety of courses to prepare the next generation of cannabis employees, informed consumers and industry leaders. Trey is a regularly featured author in the RX section of The Fresh Toast. Trey Reckling and his fiancée packed up their car in Savannah, Georgia and moved out to Seattle to join the cannabis green rush eighteen months ago. With a background in higher education (no pun intended), Reckling envisioned creating a class focused on the basics of cannabis science, handling, and law, targeted at the thousands of employees and owners in the burgeoning industry. His timing could not have been better. The Washington Department of Health recently began requiring that anybody who wanted to serve as medical marijuana consultants (talk with patients about medical marijuana choices) had to take a 20-hour educational class. When Reckling first arrived, and before the new law had passed, he started modestly, renting a classroom on the University of Washington’s Seattle campus for short sessions on “Introduction to Cannabis.” After six months he moved to Seattle Central College for a deeper partnership.

Today on Hempresent our host Vivian Mcpeak is joined by Amanda Chicago Lewis, cannabis writer from Rolling Stone Magazine. Amanda reports and writes stories about cannabis, as it relates to policy, politics, science, economics, culture, race, public safety, and criminal justice. She has written about the impossible dream of a marijuana breathalyzer, the $50,000 bongs that weed moguls use to launder money, and the ways that the conflicts between state and federal marijuana law have forced sick people back into the unregulated medical circumstances of the late 19th century, before the FDA, when it was entirely unclear what a jar of medicine might actually contain. Amanda is particularly interested in public health, the influence of special interests, and the ways in which the documented racial disparities of drug law enforcement are being cemented into the details of legalization. She tries to tell the stories of representative stakeholders in order to hold those in power accountable and better inform and educate citizens, legislators, and other journalists.

Today on Hempresent our host ios joined by Dale Schaefer. The cannabis industry is one of many facets. From the advocates and activists speaking up for cannabis, to the patients that desperately need it, to the recreational smoker, to the lawyers defending or prosecuting, to those serving jail sentences from using or selling cannabis, to illegal drug dealers, to legitimate investors and entrepreneurs; there’s a lot of people involved in the cannabis industry. But few have seen it from more than one angle. And, certainly, no one has seen in it is as many as Dale Schafer. Schafer, a lawyer based in California, went from running a well-established law firm and being a small-time recreational user in his off hours to being arrested and serving time for over five years due to a cannabis collective he made to gather medicine for his former wife who was diagnosed with cancer. Labeled a saint by many and an outright drug dealer by others, Schafer has experienced every facet of the cannabis industry. Now, once again a licensed lawyer, Schafer uses his expertise to defend cannabis users from criminal prosecution, help fight unjust drug laws, help create literature like California’s recreational cannabis bill Prop. 67 and much, much more.

Today on Hempresent Vivian is joined by the curator of The Dublin Hemp Museum Brian Houlihan. The Museum located at The Hemp Company of Dublin is Ireland’s first ever cannabis museum! The Hemp Company of Dublin is a company that specializes in cannabis products and the museum is a complement to their storefront. Established in the early days of 1999, a time when Hemp meant drugs to most people, The Hemp Company of Dublin has seen many changes in public perception regarding hemp. Passionate to the point of evangelism, the Hemp Company are opening a juice bar in its basement Hemp Museum this month to further promote the benefits of the wonder weed. At The Hemp Company of Dublin, they especially concentrate on educating people about the potential benefits of nutritional supplements extracted from species of Cannabis which are high in the chemical compound CBD. Ongoing scientific research suggests CBD oil, a dietary supplement, made by extracting CBD from hemp, may be helpful for dealing with a range of health issues, such as chronic pain, inflammation, and anxiety.

Today on Hempresent Vivian is joined by Vera Twomey the mother Ava Twomey the Irish Med Canna-Mom Ava is a seven-year-old, beautiful young girl from Ireland. At the age of four months old, she had her first grand mal seizure. It lasted for 45 minutes. Shortly after, she was diagnosed with a condition called Dravet syndrome, a debilitating form of epilepsy that doesn’t respond to conventional medication and leaves a host of developmental challenges in its wake. Ava’s seizures can last anywhere from a couple of minutes to several hours. One seizure was so bad, it left Ava in cardiac arrest. After years of failed attempts to get Ava’s seizures under control, the family was granted permission from the Irish government to treat her with a CBD-only strain of medical cannabis. Ava’s seizures reduced dramatically, by approximately 85%. While on this CBD treatment, Ava experienced her longest seizure free stretch in 7 years, a previously unreachable 11 days. This is indeed a great start. A combination of CBD (one of the compounds found in cannabis) and THC (the psychoactive component in cannabis) is widely accepted as sound treatment among knowing medical cannabis professionals and among many parents who have tried it with their children in states that allow it. Sadly, there is still shockingly little clinical evidence to support these case studies. However, the esteemed European Journal of Epilepsy, “Seizure” published Israel’s 2016 clinical study on cannabis medicine in the treatment of epilepsy. The conclusion demonstrated extremely promising results.The ratios they used in their study of 74 pediatric patients were 20% CBD 0.5-1% THC. Vera has been a dear friend of CananTech’s since we first met her at the International Conference on Medical Cannabis hosted at the European Parliament in Brussels last year. We have been following her story closely ever since. I had the great pleasure of speaking with Vera earlier this week, from their new temporary residence in Holland.

Today on Hempresent David Borden joins our host Vivian Mcpeak. David Borden is founder and Executive Director of StoptheDrugWar.org. Borden played the leading role in pioneering use of the Internet for education and organizing in drug policy reform after founding DRCNet in late 1993. Borden oversaw the organization's work on the Higher Education Act Reform Campaign, an effort to repeal a federal law that denies students financial aid because of drug convictions, and has initiated programs including the John W. Perry Fund scholarship program and the Out from the Shadows international conference series. Borden has written over 160 editorials on drug policy, and publishes DRCNet's Prohibition in the Media blog. He earned an A.B. with honors in Astrophysical Sciences from Princeton University in 1988, and completed an M.M. in Jazz Composition from New England Conservatory in 1990. He is a native of Englewood, New Jersey, one of the first communities in the state to achieve racial integration in its school system. Borden is also a member of the Boards of Directors of Common Sense for Drug Policy and the Flex Your Rights Foundation, and of the Students for Sensible Drug Policy Council of Advisors.