KC CHRONICLE May 2023 Newsletter

FEATURE

A 4/20 to Remember

By: Forest Palmer

The KCC team celebrated our 2nd anniversary this 4/20 and with it, we celebrated all things cannabis. Over these last 2 years, KCC has had the opportunity to educate over 30,000 patients and customers while serving them more than half a million cannabis products. For our team, this has been the most fun and fulfilling career path and we thank you all for enjoying this plant with us.

Adult use kicked off in Missouri in full display the entire week surrounding the actual holiday starting with the Artisan’s of Dank, KCCannafest. This year was the 2nd year that AOD has put on a 420 festival and it brought down the house; literally! Both days were a ton of fun but the 2nd day tested the crew when a storm came through and blew away half the vendor tents and main stage. The AOD team recovered elegantly and still put on an awesome show either way. The KCC tent was definitely smoking heavy and we burnt through more than a pound of weed in those two days. Shout out to the Artisans for helping keep the cannabis culture alive in Kansas City.

The week leading up to 4/20 continued at KCC dispensaries with a raffle to join the KCC 420 Club, which earns 1 patient or customer a 30% Off Lifetime discount. From Monday through the end of the day on 4/20 itself, each transaction earned a chance to join this select group of cannabis aficionados. Don’t worry if you didn’t win this year because we will be running the same raffle, EVERY 4/20.

4/20 ended with a huge smoke session with 4/20 Fest at the Smokey River District in River Bend Missouri. The festival was a blast and a great way to cap a wonderful holiday. The festival included a concert with performances by Wiz Khalifa, Joey Badass and Berner, a cannabis consumption village and some of KC’s tastiest food trucks. Good weed, good music, good food. The only drag was how police from 3 different departments converged on the venue and rolled the dice on pulling over just about anyone.

All-in-all, KCC and all of Kansas City showed out for our first adult use 4/20, setting the precedent for events and festivals for years to come. The positive culture that surrounds cannabis and continues to grow into the mainstream gives me hope for the future of this plant and industry. Happy 4/20/2023 and thanks for making it one to remember.

K-MONEY

Kassie Ferrero has been on the KCC team for over 2 years and is one of the original team members of our very first dispensary in Blue Springs. Back then, she was joining an eclectic group of about 20 people who were all trying to put together one of the best dispensary experiences in Kansas City. Since then, Kassie has excelled and has been promoted multiple times, with the most recent being to Purchasing Manager, and is now in charge of one of the most valuable pieces of the dispensary process and experience; purchasing products. This role puts the product vetting and purchasing process on her list of duties and her success is the reason we had an excess of products around the 4/20 holiday.

Outside of her success in the cannabis industry, Kassie is also an accomplished musician and has been playing the double bass for over 20 years. Pursuing professional growth in her music career is actually what brought her to Kansas City back in 2019 to teach at Northwest Missouri State. When asked when she decided on making music her career she said there was no formal deciding moment; she just knew it was something she loved doing. When it came time to make decisions about college, there was no other real option. Her career in the cannabis industry was a bit more unexpected.

Kassie was first introduced to cannabis in high school but she wasn’t immediately drawn to the plant and she definitely wasn’t imagining a career outside of music. It wasn’t until 2014, when she sustained a performance injury, that Kassie had an inadvertent career change towards cannabis. After being injured, she was having to figure out how to deal with chronic pain while still maintaining a top tier performance skillset. She tried many different routes to help relieve her from the pain she was experiencing but in the end, cannabis was the key. From there, Kassie continued down her inadvertent path towards the cannabis industry by first experiencing the medicinal benefits from cannabis and then finding herself in a part time role as a budtender at a dispensary in Baltimore called Charm City Medicus. It was there that Kassie decided that if she was to have a career outside of music, she would prefer it to be within the cannabis industry.

Fast forward to 2020 and Kassie had just finished teaching a bass lesson at her home studio before jumping on an interview with some of the KCC team. She was then offered a position on the original team at Blue Springs. She was hesitant to accept the position because of the potential disapproval from her music colleagues but she ultimately took the leap of faith into a full time role and started in early 2021. Since then, she has been on the come-up, utilizing her strengths to help provide the best dispensary experience in Missouri all while performing full time with many orchestras. She has become the face of business relations at KCC and is utilizing her platform to empower other women to find success within the cannabis space.

These days, Kassie tends to lean towards ‘indica-dominant’ strains but she does have major love for the Golden family of strains, particularly Golden Strawberry (Golden Goat x Sour Strawberry), because they tend to be more euphoric and mood boosting. Her favorite strain is Blue Cookies (Blueberry x GSC) due to its pain and stress relieving benefits and its mouth watering taste. Kassie plans to continue her cannabis career and to one day find herself on the executive staff of a cannabis company. She will then retire to a home in the Appalachian Mountains where she will coexist with nature, growing a garden of vegetables and Golden Strawberry with her partner and animals.

STAFF REVIEWS

Our helpful staff is happy to advise something similar, if items are out of stock

Head Change: Strawpicanna #3

“Headchange has blended Tropicana Cookies x Strawnana, producing Strawpicanna #3! This Rosin is soft and light. Giving off vibes of candy, it has a seasoned aroma upon first impression. Once you're ready, Summer is in the air! The taste is very fruity, sweet and tart! Strawberry and mango come through with an overall spicy pepper note. This Hybrid will relax you within minutes! Feeling very happy and content, providing the way to productivity. You may feel talkative and cheerful. A nice equality between the cerebral and body euphoria. I recommend it to help with general stress and anxiety in your day!” - Hillary

INFO

ASK THE PHARMACIST

By: Cody Freeze, PharmD RPh

Meet our resident Director of Health & Wellness, Cody Freeze, PharmD RPH. In this monthly feature, we will field your questions around cannabinoids, as well as the attributes that THC and CBD dominant products provide. To submit a question, please send to info@kccannabis.org with "Ask Dr. Freeze" in the subject line.

Q: How many cannabinoids are there? What’s the difference between dispensary products that are THC-dominant compared to CBD-dominant cannabis products?

A: Today we will do a deep dive into the 2 current major cannabinoids, THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol), respectively. Next month, we will keep on-track with our theme, and delve into minor cannabinoids such as CBC, CBN, THCV and CBDV. After that, we will follow with major terpenes, and then minor terpenes after.

Many patients and healthcare professionals today are aware that a significant (but probably not all) of cannabis chemovars, also known as “strains”, are tested and required to have the labeled concentration (or dose per volume or weight) of THC and/or CBD.

As far as worldwide cannabis science knows at this current time of writing, THC and CBD are probably the 2 most common, medically significant cannabinoids at the time of this writing and publication.

While THC is probably the most stigmatized of the 2 major cannabinoids, we will start with why this is, and what matters when you are primarily concerned with a THC-dominant form of cannabis.

THC is absolutely psychoactive. THC can also be absolutely impairing. Meaning, it can produce observed and documented effects within the user, altering or augmenting things as widely spread in the human endocannabinoid system from its topical anti-inflammatory effects, to the systemic effects sought for in ailments such as chronic pain, inflammation, migraine, fibromyalgia, and an entire host of issues.

Due perhaps to prohibition, THC is the most commonly observed and popular cannabinoid for both autoimmune diseases, nausea, vomiting, appetite stimulatory and other benefits. THC is the biggest “bang for the buck” when considering prohibition. THC acts mainly on our CB1 receptors, but also has activity at the CB2 receptor, and likely many other important aspects of biological machinery. The changes in mood or consciousness THC can promote occasionally are felt as pronounced or intense. While it’s excellent for nausea, vomiting, and appetite, it seems to also be able to cause some paranoia, stress, increased appetite and other effects via the human endocannabinoid system.

My advice as a pharmacist to my patients regarding THC dominant products is to “start low, go slow, and don’t be afraid to ask questions.” Paranoia, anxiety, dysphoria, time distortion and psychosis are not fun side effects. When available, I like to recommend certain patients take their THC doses in the presence of cannabidiol (CBD) as well as terpenes, as it initiates the “Entourage Effect” in some patients. Although the science behind what exactly the “Entourage Effect” entails, and all of its significant nuances are incredibly in-depth and detailed, the basic idea behind the Entourage Effect is that whole plant or full- spectrum (THC+ CBD + terpenes, etc.) sum of the parts are greater than the sum of each individual component when studied alone.

CBD is found most commonly in hemp or fiber-type cannabis and may be called hemp. While CBD is a fantastic antioxidant itself, and able to relieve some of the negative effects THC may have on a patient, it’s not yet incredibly common as a component found in Missouri’s medicinal cannabis market. While we enjoy informing patients of the increased potential synergy when using THC with CBD, especially for pain, inflammation, neuropathy, etc., Kansas City Cannabis will always try to serve each patient equally, and make the best recommendations or suggestions we can to help patients find relief. CBD typically could help patients with such things as nausea, pain, inflammation, anxiety, sleep, migraine, and a host of other issues. CBD is more broad-spectrum than THC, which may seem counterintuitive. The most commonly described effects when using CBD are dose-dependent generally, and range from somnolence (drowsiness), weight loss (opposite of THC), increased mindfulness and concentration, weight loss, and/or mood effects. While most of these effects are positive, we still need more data and studies.

It is this pharmacist’s opinion that THC nor CBD have yet yielded all their possible uses. More research is needed. We still have much to learn, and even the things I’ve detailed here today are so break-through, they may themselves change in a relatively short time. Cannabis is a quickly evolving area of study, and we all must respect that and its ability to keep clinicians and patients alike on their toes!

“It’s not magic or mysticism, it’s biochemistry!”

CHEF

Infused Cooking with KCC

Spring is here, weather is warming up, and it's time to get outside! Whatever you enjoy doing outside, it likely goes well with grilling.. So, this month we're featuring a classic and simple recipie that is always a crowd pleaser!

Infused Kabobs

What you'll need:
- Saucepan (for cannabis infusion)
- Kabob skewers

Ingredients:
Meat Marinade
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/8 cup olive oil
- 1/8-1/4 cup cannabis-infused olive oil (adjust for strength)
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon dried basil
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- 1 tablespoon black pepper

Skewers
- 1 1/2 pounds sirloin steak or chicken
- 2 tablespoons cannabis-infused olive oil
- 1 red onion, cut into cubes
- 1 red bell pepper, cut into cubes
- 1 green bell pepper, cut into cubes
- 1 yellow bell pepper, cut into cubes
- Salt and pepper
- Skewer sticks (either wooden or metal)

(For vegetarians, increasing veg and removing meat option is equally delicious!)

Steps:
1. Mix all the ingredients for meat marinade in a plastic bag. Cut sirloin steak/chicken into one-inch cubes, and place in marinade for at least 1 hour (or a maximum of five hours).
2. Alternate vegetables and meat as desired onto a skewer stick. Cover skewers evenly with infused olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. If there is reserved marinade, use it to cover the skewers as well.
3. On a high-heat grill, cook skewers for 10 minutes. Flip onto different sides throughout cook times.

Enjoy!

INFUSION INSTRUCTIONS
Canna-Butter/or Oil
What you'll need:
- Double Boiler or Saucepan
- 1 Cup Butter/or Oil
- 1 Cup ground Cannabis Flower
- 1 Cup water (if using saucepan with butter)
- Cheesecloth or fine strainer

Steps:
*Decarb cannabis before using for infustion*
1. Set a double boiler to a low simmer
2. Combine cannabis, Butter/Oil, and water (if butter).
3. Simmer on low for 2-3 hours, keeping oil temp between 160º-200ºF. (Do not exceed 200ºF)
4. Once cooled, remove plant matter by straining.
TIP: Do not press too hard when straining - this will add chlorophyll, giving it more of a plant taste.

*Refrigerate few hours/overnight, remove any excess water that forms at bottom of container*

To calculate dosage for your infused product, there are online calculators like this one featured at hempster.com.

DECARBOXYLATION (DECARB) INSTRUCTIONS

Decarboxylation (Flower)
What you'll need:
- Baking Sheet
- Cannabis Flower
- Grinder

Steps:
1. Grind Cannabis flower.
2. Spread evenly on baking sheet, lined with parchment.
3. Preheat oven to 230ºF
4. "Bake" Cannabis for 30min. Cannabis should look toasted.

Decarboxylation (Wax)
What you'll need:
- Baking Sheet
- Concentrate

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 200ºF
2. Place concentrate in oven safe dish or silicone
3. "Bake" Concentrate for 20-25min, until wax is done bubbling.

Please email info@kccannabis.org to submit feedback, questions, or recipe requests.