Page 24 - MENU Magazine - March/April 2018

On going where no nation has gone before
T hanks to pioneers like Starseed Me- dicinal (Licensed Producer), Canada is leading the way by bringing medical canna-
bis to employee bene ts plans. Canada is one of only two countries that has legalized both medical and recreational cannabis growth (the other country is Uruguay). Also of note, there are only four states left in the US with full prohibition.
Angelo Tsebelis, former executive of both GlaxoSmithKline and Shoppers Drug Mart, is the president of Starseed Medicinal, and he was a panellist at RC Show 2018 on the future of cannabis in Canada. Starseed backs and develops cannabis as a medicine and a covered bene t. The implications
of cannabis in the workplace are expect- ed to be a turning point in the history of
There’s not enough education in the market yet, to differentiate between the two main components, the THC and the CBD. CBD has therapeutic properties but without the same psychoactive effects
Canadian labour. Starseed’s introduction
of cannabis as a paid bene t as part of an employee health bene t plan has a speci c customer in mind—LiUNA, Canada’s largest construction union. Starseed has partnered with LiUNA to add medicinal cannabis to their members’ paid bene t plans, accord- ing to Tsebelis by “seeing the opportunity to work with a progressive partner like LiUNA will ensure that members with access to me- dicinal cannabis do so in a safe an e ective way...Starseed has developed products and plans centred on servicing these employ- ees. We believe that cannabis has a rightful place as a medicine and in the workplace, as an alternative therapy for managing pain and other conditions,” says Tsebelis.
Tsebelis states con dently that evolution will happen and that our society will over- come the stigma of cannabis. But it is still early days. “Is everyone going to be impaired on the job? It’s a valid concern. But taking the same responsible approach as alcohol
or any other prescription drugs. A lot of the dialogue is focused on restrictions, but we’d like to see medical cannabis come to the forefront and be treated like any prescrip- tion drug.” Tsebelis is referring to dosing as well as the prescribing of strains of cannabis that are primarily CBD strains that do not contain psychoactive properties. For more information on strains and CBD, please see our section Medical Cannabis.
Why does cannabis in the workplace matter to Canadian foodservice? Just speak
Norman Wright is the head of national retail markets for Star- seed Medicinal.
24 MENU MARCH / APRIL 2018
Angelo Tsebelis is the president of Starseed Medicinal
Dr. Peter Blecher is the chief medical of cer for Starseed Medicinal.