How do you explore the cannabis culture on holiday with a non-user? Get tips for sharing your casually baked lifestyle with a cannabis-free travel companion in a way that’s fun and informative for everyone. Plus Jo reports back on her experience of the gray-market and legal BC bud scene. Get more cannabis travel tips and meet Shanda, Jo’s bestie and Vancouver, BC, travel companion in the show notes below.

‘After the Show’ Notes

I just spent a week with my best friend of 24-years. Shanda flew to Oakland to explore my world for a few days before we took off to Vancouver, BC, to celebrate her 42nd birthday.

Now, in Vancouver, about half of the 20 illegal (gray-market) cannabis stores have closed and six provincially licensed private cannabis retail stores have opened.

Shanda and I chatted with the locals and explored both gray-market and licensed shops.  There were pros and cons to both experiences.

For example, the shopping experience was more high-end in the licensed shops with touch screen menus and visually-pleasing displays and modern decor but the gray-market shops had more variety of flower strains and products. Of course, with all of that variety there were no testing COA’s and when I asked to see their pre-roll selection it was indica, sativa or hybrid with no clue of what strains or blends were inside. Just a joint in a baggy. 

At the licensed shop the pre-rolls were officially packaged and sealed but the THC labeling made absolutely no sense to me or the four staff members I asked to explain it. The cannabinoid percentages weren’t even included on the pre-roll package but after a database search by the managing bud tender, I was told the flower was 14-20% THC. There’s a big difference in the experience of 14% THC and 20% THC.

In the end, I was just as confused about what I was smoking from the licensed shop as I was from the illicit shop.

Jo + Shan’s Travel Pics

Shanda and I have been friends since the day we met in the dorms of Killingsworth Hall at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, TX, in 1995. She calls herself the white Gayle to my Joprah. I couldn’t imagine my life without her. Make time to connect with the important people in your life and celebrate your connection whenever possible! Kumbaya and cannabis. -Jo