I am from a small town, in a normal sized family. I grew up watching the same TV we all did, the commercials likening an egg being smashed/scrambled/friend to one's brain ‘on drugs. I was a ‘good’ boy and for years I could not have told you what marijuana smells like…but I would have told you that it is bad. I had tried it once, plus everyone being social was drinking beer or alcohol (legal stuff).

I served in the Canadian Forces for 5 years (2005-2010), TL:DR 5 years in, 2.5 Air Force, 2.5 CANSOFCOM, one tour to Afghanistan. I started out as a supporter, a meteorological technician…what other working trade would you join to be least likely to go overseas…well that was my thought initially as well. Luckily, or unluckily, I had the opportunity to visit Kandahar for an extended period of time (OP ATHENA, ROTO 3). Little did I know the influence the areas’ flora would have on me later in life!-- Subsequent to completing my tour to Afghanistan, I was recommended for a position within the Special Operations Forces, that of the first meteorological tech to be posted to a unit within. If you know me, you know I am not a runner, or jogger…but against the odds and constant hell of jogging and middle of the night PT sessions I made it in and continued serving for the remainder of my career. This is where the stress starts to accumulate, being one of one in your role with a 30-minute notice-to-move pager. I genuinely put my maximum effort into everything I did, I even received the top candidate award in our unit. The thing is, you can often exert your maximum effort, but it is never enough for others…I found out I had won that award by the random chance of looking into a trophy case and seeing my name there. This award was never formally presented to me during the unit dinner because I was not ‘the best’ in another's viewpoint. After something like that, you start to doubt yourself.

After the military, I attended college and obtained a 4-year diploma with on-the-job training. I was working in Oil & Gas and the money was great! The lifestyle was unique, working shifts, a ton of overtime, whittling an already burnt end of a stick away. It was during this time that I had started to hear about people utilizing cannabis to aid with sleep, stress, and anxiety amongst other things. I reached out to a medical cannabis provider and had a prescription set up, the only things I knew about cannabis were that THC stopped the perpetual vigilance and that cannabis that was more ‘white’ or frosty was stronger. At this time, I had been suffering from clinical anxiety and depression, along with a constant barrage of dark thoughts, of which I also sought assistance and prescribed pharmaceuticals to help. I utilized these medications and cannabis, along with therapy…things were improving. I was able to come off the medications again! This is where the harsh reality that cannabis as a medicine (even prescribed) is not favourably looked upon in that industry.

After months of searching brought me to the cannabis industry. It was a tough go for a while, but I was determined to find a way to improve the quality of cannabis products. I started in the facilities department, creating a preventative maintenance program. Through my time at the facility, I started noticing discrepancies in their final product, versus what I was receiving from my provider. I put together a small case study, proposing to change the approach using trim machines, and to repurpose a product that was aging. Luckily, my boss at the time liked the initiative…she called it ‘Continuous Improvement,’ something I knew a bit about, but was about to learn a whole lot more! This started years of continuous improvement initiatives (beyond my normal job scope) realizing massive savings from slight changes or tweaks to behind-the-scenes processes (wash bays, greenhouse trolley with mounted bucking machines). I also spent a significant amount of time working with internal groups around deriving Qualitative Analysis of products and setting a benchmark for premium/mid/low value streams.

Speaking at Prohibition Partners 2020 webinar as a guest speaker with boveda. This was a request coming from Boveda. I was sitting at my office, creating a cannabis initial introduction course when the Dir of R&D at Boveda called and asked if I would speak on mastering post harvest processing for Prohibition Partners Europe 2020! The main point was to go over the major objectives coming from post secondary, that being retention of quality and chemistry, emphasizing the important of adequate drying conditions to avoid microbial issues and proper storage of final product (or the additional step of a craft curing method in barrels, something not all LPs follow through with.