Legalized Marijuana: More Than Just A Drug

On October 17, 2018, the government of Canada legalized the selling of marijuana.  

URBNBUD, co-owned by Michael Lewis and his family, is just one of more than ten dispensaries that have opened in Windsor since the legalization.  

To the non-consumer of marijuana, one may wonder what, if any, are the benefits of making a ‘drug’ legal in Canada. 

“Socially I think it’s a good thing,” said Lewis. “Not that there’s not down sides to it, I’m sure there are but they’re hyper minimal comparatively to alcohol for instance.” Lewis feels that alcohol has a legacy industry of being legally, therefore it gets taken for granted and the cons are rarely seen. “Marijuana is tightly controlled and it’s a rather benign drug comparatively than alcohol” Lewis claimed. 

When asked about demographics regarding customers URBNBUD serves, Lewis says there is no hard ethnic or age line that he has not seen. He says there is a “wide range of people. Everyone from what you typically associate with this sort of culture, which is that 18-34 stoner white boy to older people looking for sleep or pain management with CBD and CBN products. There’s a huge market for that.” 

In addition to THC, dispensaries also offer non-psychoactive products that aid in pain management and sleep. CBD acts an anti-inflammatory and comes in cream, oils, capsules and very few marijuana strains. For sleep, CBN is produced during the flowering stage of a marijuana plant and helps to aid in sleep. Like CBD, it also comes in creams, oils, and capsules and is non-psychoactive. 

For Windsorite Kath Meloche, CBD has been a great aid in her pain management since suffering a failed surgery back in 2019. “I feel CBD is better than any pharmaceutical treatment,” said Meloche. “The side effects are minimal, if any.” Meloche says that since pharmaceutical treatments have side effects that can cause death, she would rather see people use CBD for medical reasons than pharmaceuticals. “It’s near impossible to overdose on CBD, but I can overdose on my opioids.” Meloche also enjoys the non-psychoactive properties in CBD. “I can do my daily things without having to worry about being spaced out.” 

URBNBUD has three locations in Windsor which can be found on their website urbnbud.com.