Enjoying the Legalized Cannabis in Canada journey. Do not let Gary Johnston's self-deprecating description of this podcast The Cannabis Potcast, fool you because it is one of the industry's most professionally produced podcasts. Yes, during "Cultivar Corner" he sometimes gets stoned but he never misses a beat and his distinctive, soothing voice is a pleasure to listen to. He joins Dan Humiston to talk about applying 25 years of broadcasting experience to the Canadian cannabis topics he discussed on his bi-weekly show. Produced by PodConX Potcasters - https://podconx.com/podcasts/potcasters Dan Humiston - https://podconx.com/guests/dan-humiston Gary Johnston - https://podconx.com/guests/gary-johnson The Cannabis Potcast - https://cannabispotcast.com/
Enjoying the Legalized Cannabis in Canada journey.
Do not let Gary Johnston's self-deprecating description of this podcast The Cannabis Potcast, fool you because it is one of the industry's most professionally produced podcasts. Yes, during "Cultivar Corner" he sometimes gets stoned but he never misses a beat and his distinctive, soothing voice is a pleasure to listen to. He joins Dan Humiston to talk about applying 25 years of broadcasting experience to the Canadian cannabis topics he discussed on his bi-weekly show.
Produced by PodConX
Potcasters - https://podconx.com/podcasts/potcasters
Dan Humiston - https://podconx.com/guests/dan-humiston
Gary Johnston - https://podconx.com/guests/gary-johnston
The Cannabis Potcast - https://cannabispotcast.com/
PC Cannabis Potcast
Dan Humiston: [00:00:00] All right, everyone. Thanks for joining us. And welcome back. We have another great show in store for you today.
Gary Johnston is here to talk about his podcast, the cannabis podcast, Gary. Welcome to the show.
Gary Johnston: Thank you very much, Dan. And in a special, thank you for hitting the T in the last name. So many people. Forget it. Thank you. Okay.
Dan Humiston: Well, you're welcome. I'm glad you could join us today and no less on a Saturday. I have to admit that prior to preparing for today's interview, I hadn't listened to your show, but now I'm a big fan. I listen to a lot of podcasts. I listen to a lot of podcasts, all different genres, but I've never heard one quite like yours.
You have a very unique sound. Do you have a background in broadcast?
Gary Johnston: I I do, which I think probably comes through. I was a broadcaster for, um, conservatively 25. Uh, I continue to do a voiceover. I've been a voiceover artist, uh, doing various narrations for the last 20 years or so. So yeah, absolutely. I have [00:01:00] some background, both , in speaking and , in production.
Dan Humiston: Yeah, you can tell, you can tell whether it's your voice or your cadence or your delivery, whatever it, is. It's very soothing which is great for discussing a multi-faceted topic like legalized cannabis in Canada. Can you give us a flavor of the type of things that you discuss?
Gary Johnston: It really is that it's. The broad stroke of is a country that cannabis was forbidden for, for years and years and years. And so many of us would, it became legal on October 17th, 2018 said we have to celebrate this. And that's what I wanted to celebrate with the cannabis podcast. A clear focus on what's happening in the legal world.
The one thing we talk about a lot is that there's a restriction on the level of, edibles and how much THC they can maintain 10 milligrams per package in Canada is the legal limit, which some of your listeners. Pretty pretty low. It probably does nothing and they may be right. So it's things like that.
[00:02:00] It's various other stories that I come across through my various internet searches that I think are going to be appealing to people who either really love cannabis or are interested in cannabis and are curious what it might bring to their world and just have that fascination site. I try to bring stuff that's going to cover all of those.
Dan Humiston: Well, you do a great job on it and you touch on a really broad range of topics. And we talked about this before we get on, but one of the occupational hazards of hosts. Cannabis podcast is that it's easy to inadvertently say something that offends somebody. You brought along a clip from a recent episode that really illustrates this point.
Can you kind of set it up for us before we play it?
Gary Johnston: sure, absolutely. Thanks, Dan. Yeah, to your point. So this was a story that I had covered about some children in Victoria, BC who had consumed some yeah. And these edibles were fairly high dosage. So it resulted in a call to nine one, one and a big fairer erupted. [00:03:00] And I was commenting on that story. After the story itself, I made some reference to, you know, this gray market and how high the dosage of edibles were.
And , that impacts the legal market. And I didn't realize the tone that some people perceived in my voice when I was making those comments. And, I received a vitriolic letter that the tour strip from the top to the bottom of me and talked about a couple of orifices in the middle and, and left it in no uncertain terms that they weren't happy with me.
So that's kind of the preamble to the.
Dan Humiston: Well, let's play it. We'll talk about it after it's over. Hmm. [00:04:00] Well, I got to ask what are those three realities?
Gary Johnston: Okay. So, so the, the quick summary to that is the original, the underground, where you're still going to your dealer. You're still buying the way that you originally did. Nothing changed you. No intention of going to the legal market. So I referred to that as the black market, then. Where you don't consider yourself in the black market.
You're running a proper business. You're doing all the things you should accept. You're [00:05:00] not paying attention to the legal, um, it's on dosages. So your dosages are incredibly high. Call that the grain. And then the third one is the one that I'm playing in and I called it the beige market for lack of a better term.
And that's the legal world in Canada, where you buy your weed at a legal store. All of that is sourced from the same location and that's kind of where I wanted to focus in. And that's why. Did it in that way, I wanted to tell this person, and by the way, they have responded to that bit. And they loved the opening of that podcast.
, they enjoyed it. They thought I covered it really well. So they've accepted it and apparently are now going to be long-term listeners.
Dan Humiston: there you go. You want another listener back and really, as we transition out of prohibition and it's important that we take. Into account all the stake concerns. I think that was well done on your part to give them another look.
Gary Johnston: uh, I, I had to, I mean, you try not to respond to some of the [00:06:00] stuff that you get thrown out, but that one, I felt that it was better for me and for them, if I kind of reset the tone and I'm really glad.
Dan Humiston: Yeah. Yeah. Well, speaking of that podcasting, every podcast says, oh, please rate and review this show. And we'd love positive reviews, but unfortunately they're not all good. Have you ever had a bad review?
Gary Johnston: Well, the one that I, I chuckled about, was it a one star review? And I mean, nobody likes one-star reviews, right?
Dan Humiston: Yeah.
Gary Johnston: And as, as you've already intimated , and you heard in the clip, the premise of my podcast is me smoking weed and talking about various things, cannabis. So this should not be a surprise. And here was the one-star review.
It said, I really wanted to like this podcast, but this guy's too stolen for me and everybody that I have related that to you says, well, that's actually a five-star review. And in my opinion,
Dan Humiston: Oh, my gosh. That's [00:07:00] great. That's a classic. That is a
Gary Johnston: Yeah. So I probably lost them as a listener, but hopefully they'll find, and I guess that's the thing. They just have to find the podcast that they like.
Dan Humiston: That's right. And there are a lot of them. So you find the one that works best for you. , before I let you go, I was hoping you could tell our listeners about a segment that you have in your show called cultivar.
Gary Johnston: absolutely. That's one of my prides and joy. It originated out of a discussion with my son. Who's helped me not only produce the podcast, but actually, recorded the jingle and wrote and performed the jingle that leads into cultivar corner. And that is me taking a package of legal. In most cases, sometimes it's something that a listener sent me.
That's another story, but mostly it's legal weed that I purchased and the segment is me opening. Getting a sense of what's in there giving this, the story in the background, what strains are involved or what cultivars are involved, anything that might be happening from that perspective. [00:08:00] And then literally going through and sampling that both from a joint perspective.
And I use a crafty plus vaporizer for a driver vaporizer. So yeah. So the example of sampling, both of those and. If I get high, you hear me get high? And if I don't get high I'm here and go, well, I guess that one didn't do it for me. , and so that's what the segment is. , it's probably one of the most popular pieces on the podcast.
And one that I have a lot of fun doing,
Dan Humiston: Oh, it's great. And you listed in the show notes, which cultivar.
you. Yeah, that's great. That's great. Well, you can check out a new episode of the cannabis podcast every other week on all major podcasts sites, including pod connects, where you can also apply to be a guest. Gary. Thanks for being on the show today.
This was fun. Getting to know.
Gary Johnston: thanks, Dan. I appreciated the invite and, and I would agree. See, it's been fun getting to know you, and then I'll look forward to talking to tomorrow.