Many dispensaries keep “tip” jars near the cash registers in the United States. No suggested tip or percentage of the transaction is considered standard, like in other industries. Budtenders should not assume or expect customers to tip, although many will drop their change in the jar or leave extra cash as a token of appreciation for their service.
Outside the US, tipping is uncommon in any industry and is sometimes viewed as an inadequate subsidy for unfair wages. Dispensary owners should pay fair wages rather than expecting customers to supplement them through tips. Budtenders in the US should also be aware that any tips received are taxable and must be reported to the government. It is considered wage theft if dispensary owners or managers take any amount of the tips left for budtenders.
“Those who cling to life die, and those who defy death live.” ~Kenshin
The only way to conquer death is to live a life so healthy, courageous, and humorous that the gods themselves blush with envy.
Death is not something that we can master, like Kung Fu or basket weaving. It is not a skill. It is an orientation. It is a sacred alignment with nature. Moreover, Death is an initiation into the infinite.
You must have infinity inside you to conquer death. The deeper you gaze into infinity, the closer you get to resolving the anxiety of death. When you’re oriented toward death, you live. When you’re disoriented toward death, you suffer. Living fully is dying well in sacred alignment with Infinity. Living poorly is slowly dying out of misalignment with the infinite.
If, as the Buddha said, “The root of suffering is attachment,” then it stands to reason that the root of attachment is belief. And the root of belief is fear. And the root of fear is death. Conquer death!
Live so healthy and full that Death fears to take you:
“We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.” ~Bukowski
You fear death because you believe that it is taking something away from you. But discipline teaches you that death is a gift. As Kafka said, “The meaning of life is that it stops.”
Death is a whetstone for life. Use it to sharpen your mettle. Use it to test your soul. Use it to forge a character so antifragile that Fear itself shatters against it.
As Marcus Aurelius said, “It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
Come alive! You are a blade. Sharpen yourself. Then use it to cut the world.
Health cuts through entropy. Health is a sword that slices through entropy, inertia, idleness, laziness, and even death. Where entropy is the ultimate state of inert uniformity, health is the absolute state of engaged harmony.
To cut with health is to breathe. Breath is the lifeblood of the cut. This is the importance of meditation. Breath is the primal source. To breathe and to be present with breath, is to become one with the cosmos, in the moment, fluid, non-attached, and in a state of absolute awareness that everything is connected to everything else.
Establish harmony between you and the world, between you and the infinite, between you and death. Become a force to be reckoned with. Cut with your health. Fear of death be damned! There is life to be lived.
Live so courageously that Death stumbles over your audacity:
“Much of our lives are spent running from our own shadow. The denial of death and the division of the human soul go together.” ~John Gray
Death is a compass. The shadow is your ally. The trickster is your sidekick. Nonattachment is your discipline.
Meditate on death. Meditate on eternity. Meditate on interconnectedness. Meditate on pain. Meditate on the improbability of your own existence. You are a miracle, a flash in a pan, a speck in an implausible cosmos. Honor it.
Tap your inner shadow for courage. Tap your inner trickster for audacity. Use them both to get out of your own way, to recondition cultural conditioning, to stay ahead of the curve. Use them to rise above the pettiness and platitudes of a fear-based culture.
Blow up the crossroads. Dance a jig over God’s grave. Laugh into the abyss. Bridge the gap between opposites. Topple thrones. Kneecap high horses. Melt down golden idols into molten puddles of “try again.”
As Tecumseh said, “Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.”
Life is short. You only have so much time. Do you want to spend it afraid, risk-averse, unhealthy, and caught up in a sick society that keeps you lazy, comfortable, safe, and secure? Or do you want to spend it with courage, taking risks, challenging yourself to be healthy despite the sick society that surrounds you?
As Virgil warned, “Death twitches my ear. ‘Live,’ he says, ‘I am coming.’”
Tear the doors off the Ivory Tower and tell the oracles that they have failed. No fear. Ride like lightning, crash like thunder. Live dangerously. Live on purpose, with purpose. As Courage Wolf said, “Climb the highest mountain and punch the face of God.”
Live so humorously that Death has no choice but to laugh with you:
“Death smiles at us all; all we can do is smile back.” ~Marcus Aurelius
Death outflanks us all. What is a mortal to do with such fleetingness, such soul-crushing angst, such overwhelming impermanence? How do you react to the crippling transience of it all?
You meet it with courageous humor. You meet it with audacity, tenacity, and a smile. You meet the cosmic joke head-on and laugh with the knowledge that although you are merely a speck in the cosmos you are also the entire cosmos within a speck.
Forced to gaze into Infinity, a few things become clear: Absurdity rules. Certainty is folly. Security is an illusion. Rescue isn’t coming. No God is coming to save you from your sins. No so-called authority is coming to bail you out. No hero is coming to liberate you from taking responsibility for your own freedom.
The only rescue is a good sense of humor. The only God is laughter. The only hero is wit. When humor is God, all false gods die. When humor is the only authority, all seriousness dies. Boundaries dissolve. Horizons manifest. Placation and sentimentality are laid to rest. You are finally free to laugh, to play, to live.
Death shrinks into a null set, a nothingness, a moot point. It becomes merely something to weigh your lightheartedness against. A laughable inevitability. A pitiful parenthesis. A petty destination.
In the throes of good humor, the entire universe is inside you, vibrating through you, howling at all moons, singing a language older than words, and, most importantly, reminding you that the destination (death) is nothing; that the journey (life) is the thing.
Gary Z McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide-awake view of the modern world.
This article (How to Conquer Death) was originally created and published by Self-inflicted Philosophy and is printed here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Gary Z McGee and self-inflictedphilosophy.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this statement of copyright.
Toronto area cannabis store forced to print out entire script of Shrek on customer receipt | StratCann
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A prankster forced a Toronto cannabis dispensary to print out the entire script of Shrek last month, something the retailer’s e-commerce provider says they quickly took measures to prevent in the future.
A video shared online in December shows an incredibly long receipt being printed at a cannabis store and then later displayed on a wall.
The short video first references a group chat where the video was shared among what appears to be employees of a cannabis store in York. The customer purchased a single vape cart before pasting all the words from the first Shrek movie into the comments section in their order form, leading to the printing incident.
A representative with Dutchie, the technology platform that provides the e-commerce system used by the cannabis store in question, confirmed with StratCann that they quickly took measures to prevent anyone from doing something similar in the future.
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(CNW) Vancouver — Filament Health Corp., a clinical‐stage natural psychedelic drug development company, announced that it successfully completed an export of PEX010, the company’s botanical psilocybin drug candidate, to Perth, Western Australia.
The shipment is believed to be the first botanical psilocybin to be exported to Australia and was received by Reset Mind Sciences Ltd., a psychedelic-focused subsidiary of Little Green Pharma, a biotechnology company dedicated to developing natural quality medicines to help those living with chronic conditions. Reset will use Filament’s drug product for research purposes.
“The successful export of PEX010 to Australia is a major achievement for our team and demonstrates our significant regulatory capabilities,” said Lisa Ranken, chief operating officer at Filament Health. “To our knowledge, this is the first legal shipment of a botanical psilocybin drug candidate to arrive in Australia, and we are pleased to see a natural option being explored by Australian researchers.”
“This shipment of naturally sourced psilocybin, the first of its kind to Australia, is not only a significant milestone for Reset but also for Australia’s burgeoning psilocybin industry,” said Reset’s chief operating officer Leon Warne.
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Since July 1, 2023, authorized psychiatrists in Australia have been able to prescribe psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression. Reset is progressing its GMP licence application to manufacture psilocybin products for human consumption from botanically sourced psilocybin while the industry awaits publication of the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration’s Therapeutic Goods Order governing psilocybin production in Australia.
No matter how often I chase the squirrels away from the garden, they always return. I believe they understand they’re not welcome, but they come back all the same. These pesky little rascals dig up garden beds everywhere and turn over containers to search for hidden treasures of acorns and walnuts. They’ll devour berries, nuts, vegetables, bulbs, and flowers. Is there any way to stop the carnage? Try these humane tips for keeping squirrels away from your garden beds.
Odors
Squirrels have sensitive noses. The scent of predator urine, available at garden supply stores and big box retailers, indicates a natural enemy is nearby and deters unwanted guests. However, this method can be short-lived; it will wash away when it rains. Sprinkling coffee grounds throughout the garden or planting peppermint plants can also help keep squirrels at bay. If nothing else, the coffee grounds add nutrients to the soil and make the garden smell nice.
Eliminate Food Sources
Squirrels consider the bird feeder an all-you-can-eat buffet. So naturally, removing thebird feeder also eliminates any temptation. Sorry, birds. Even if mounted on a tree or pole, squirrels are spry and can get to it. Consider purchasing a squirrel-proof bird feeder; they actually work!
Taste
Squirrels don’t do spicy foods, so sprinklingcayenne pepper around the base of flower beds and containers might help keep them away. Another option is apple cider vinegar. Mix one part apple cider vinegar with three parts water in a spray bottle, and spray on your containers and plants.
Mulch
This is a personal favorite of mine. When you apply thick mulch around your plants, such as small stones, bark mulch, or even a heavy blanket of leaves, squirrels can’t dig through it to get to the roots of plants. Plus, mulch is incredible for so many other ecological reasons!
Loud Noises
Loud noises will scare squirrels away – albeit temporarily. Once the din subsides, they will timidly venture back, but at least there is a short reprieve. Go ahead and pretend every night is New Year’s Eve, and when you see a squirrel chopping and digging in the garden – bang those pots and pans.
Plant Protection
Covering your plants withmesh or chicken wire is a good option. Note to the wise: I recommend wire, not fabric mesh if you use this method. Squirrels can pull and break the latter.
Plant Daffodils
This method works! Squirrels despise the smell and taste of daffodil bulbs and will steer clear of where they’re planted. I love daffodils, and the more, the better! Leaving the bulbs in the ground all year instantly creates a squirrel-free zone.
Although somewhat cute, squirrels are wild rodents. They’ll go after what you like in the garden, including fruits, veggies, nuts, and your prized tulip collection. Give them a wide berth by trying some of these methods. Have you got any tricks to share?
The newest version of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) has now been expanded to include trade in non-medical cannabis.
For the first time, the CFTA, which came into force in 2017, includes references to cannabis and the cannabis industry, with the word cannabis appearing 238 times within the text, primarily clarifying provincial rules and regulations.
Although this doesn’t mean any immediate changes to how cannabis is sold in Canada, some say it could lead to potential allowances for cannabis retailers to ship products to residents in other provinces.
Keyli Loeppky, the director of Interprovincial Affairs at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, says she believes the inclusion of cannabis within the CFTA has the opportunity to open up cross-province sales of cannabis, pending further provincial approval.
“Putting it in the CFTA is a positive first step,” Loeppky tells StratCann. “What we’re cautiously watching is how provinces put rules in place in order to limit the sale and distribution of cannabis across the province.”
She says the issue is similar to how provinces regulate the sales of alcohol, with restrictions on direct-to-consumer, out-of-province sales, and consumers bringing alcohol back with them from another province.
A 2023 report from CFIB highlights these kinds of restrictions, noting Manitoba is the only province to allow inter-jurisdictional alcohol shipments, while Nova Scotia and British Columbia allow direct-to-consumer shipments of wine from any jurisdiction. BC and Saskatchewan also have an agreement to allow consumers to order craft spirits and wine directly from producers in the other province and have them delivered.
“Right now, there are no federal restrictions around the movement of cannabis within Canada, but provinces can put in place rules that restrict shipping between provinces,” adds Loeppky. “So exactly what we’re seeing with alcohol where someone in Alberta can’t order a craft beer from Ontario directly to their home because there are rules in place to prevent that.”
Deepak Anand, principal at ASDA Consultancy Services, agrees this is a big step forward.
“By facilitating the movement of non-medical cannabis across provincial/territorial borders, we create a platform for open dialogue and understanding. Inclusion in the Free Trade Agreement is not only about commerce; it is also a transformative step towards a progressive and stigma-reducing approach to the regulation, distribution and consumption of cannabis within Canada.”
Harrison Jordan, a lawyer with Substance Law, specializing in cannabis law in Canada, says the addition of cannabis into the inter-Canadian trade agreement is an important step, even if he doesn’t see it resulting in any immediate changes due to provincial limitations.
“The recent inclusion of cannabis into the CFTA is welcome news as it normalizes cannabis with other industries,” Jordan tells StratCann. “The inclusion means that provinces are generally prohibited from imposing barriers to inter-provincial trade subject to exceptions that had to be reserved by each jurisdiction when it was included just recently. The problem is that all the provinces have reserved some right to restrict or authorize the importation or sale of cannabis into their borders or limit market access, so we likely won’t see much, if any, interprovincial retail sale of non-medical cannabis.”
Still, federal excise tax stamps are a sticking point, argues Jordan.
“Even if the provinces didn’t seek the reservations they obtained, practically speaking, interprovincial retail sales would be difficult to implement because of excise stamps. The CRA expects that cannabis products be stamped with the respective stamp of the province that the consumer is located in at the time of delivery to them. Wholesalers in each province, run exclusively by the respective provincial government with the exception of Saskatchewan, only purchase from processors and provide to the province’s retailers cannabis products that are stamped for that specific province.”
The CFTA was created as a replacement for the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT). It allows provinces to reconcile any differences in their jurisdictional rules and regulations that could disrupt trade within Canada.
It has encouraged provinces and territories with personal use exemption limits for the amount of alcoholic beverages transported by individuals across provincial/territorial boundaries, for personal use, for example, to either remove or increase these limits. However, the Supreme Court of Canada has somewhat upheld such limits, although not in the name of restricting trade.
The decision to include non-medical cannabis trade under the CFTA came about in December 2022, at the conclusion of a meeting of the Committee on Internal Trade, made up of provincial and territorial governments, as well as Ottawa.
This resulted in the Second Protocol of Amendment to the CFTA, which describes the relevant amendments to the CFTA for cannabis trade.
The CFTA aims to help implement advancements to Canada’s internal trade framework to enhance the flow of goods and services, investment, and labour mobility, eliminate trade barriers, expand procurement coverage, and promote regulatory cooperation within Canada.
The changes include a list of cannabis industry-related codes, such as:
A – Cannabis.
B – Services incidental to the production of cannabis plants.
C – Manufacture of cannabis.
D – Wholesale trade services, including on a fee or contract basis.
E – Retailing services, including on a fee or contract basis.
F – All other cannabis-related services not covered by B, C, D, and E.
G – Cannabis accessories
The definition of cannabis in the CTFA is the same as the definition within the federal Cannabis Act and is subject to any changes in that legislation, with some exceptions. It does not include industrial hemp, cannabis sold for medical purposes, drugs containing cannabis or combination products (as defined in the Cannabis Regulations), or cannabis that is not exempt from the application of the Food and Drugs Act.
A scan of provincial rules and regulations by StratCann shows a handful of provinces that explicitly disallow retailers to ship product to people outside of the province or for consumers to order non-medical cannabis from outside the province.
Federal regulations allow provinces to oversee the sales and distribution of non-medical cannabis while allowing the sale of medical cannabis cross-country.
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