From the Editor: Between the poles and on the verge of change

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Welcome to the Fall issue – a favourite season for its warm hues and the joy of harvest after a busy, fruitful summer.

This edition came together with a few standout themes. However first I will mention that soon we’ll be closing nominations for our Top Grower Award, so if you haven’t gotten around to submitting your choice Canadian grower, please do so by Sep. 30. We can’t wait to showcase more top talent on the cover of the Winter issue!

But before Winter arrives, there will be a new President to the south (fortunately the harvest also brought lots of corn for popping).

Unlike Canada, 2024 was a big year for cannabis in the United States, and lately every other headline is about a nominee taking a stance one way or the other. Will the rescheduling of marijuana and a new leader coming forth shift the way cannabis laws are enacted?

We know the final verdict for Schedule 3 won’t be announced until after the election, so it’s definitely a political issue. But what does it all mean?

Last month I rounded up two lawyers to talk about it, and a summary of that conversation made the cover. Spoiler alert, regardless of drug policy, they suspect it’s a narrow Republican win due to economic pressures.

However, earlier this month, friend and collaborator Mitchell Osak said in his Cannabis Management Review: “Rescheduling is coming, albeit a little late. Weed-friendlier Dems have a better than even odds of winning in November.” Denis Gertler and I then spoke about his column. I told him about the predicted Trump victory, he exhaled, and we chatted about Mitchell’s newsletter, citing positive Florida and Nevada updates.

Many can see the Democrats odds of winning the election, but when prompted, Clark Hill’s Bob Hoban in the Election Special reminds us of the dual nature of the contentious issue; that we’re mostly operating in echo chambers. What will happen? Who’s to say!

I would also like to welcome our newest writer David Silverberg – journalist and editor among other accolades. Silverberg pitched high-stress training, something we’ve seldom covered and is one of those practices everyone has their own set of rules for.

Dustan McLean wrote the Cultivation column, spoke it rather, during a talk at the Unicorn Music Festival. He, too, advocates for 1:1s and other low potency products, like the high terpene and heightened taste profiles preferred by his German clients. The low dose market that’s currently MIA in Canada is then queried in the complexity of Gertler’s Vantage Point, and is again mirrored in the hemp and marijuana civil war taking place in the United States you might read about in the cover story.

Moreover, I was fortunate to speak with Margaret Brodie and Mathieu Aubin about Rubicon Organics’ desirable products and practices. Brodie supports budtender knowledge and training, exemplified by returning Budtenders columnist Katie Pringle.

And a Canadian brand that began by leveraging the California and Oregon markets – the top selling vape in Alberta, Papa’s Herb – is our final Q&A. It shows the U.S.-Canada relation in action, about how traveling the west coast helped two cousins brand and expand. I have my own fond memories of driving south along the Oregon Coast, past the bluffs that dot it, on route to a 2018 event in San Jose.

Here’s to the friends we’ve made along the way!

This issue really would not have been complete without the gorgeous equestrian photo at Creemore’s Purple Hills. The changing leaves on the Ontario trees the whole country adores can’t be beat. It is a “portrait of connectivity – an ecosystem that is enriched and supported, not exploited, by its stewards.” That, in a nutsell, is what I would like to vote for.