Grassroots: an expo for the canna-curious

With marijuana legalization just a few months away, we know that residents of Vancouver, the Lower Mainland, and beyond have questions about cannabis and its potential. Is it safe? Does it have medicinal value? Can I use it for my pet? What about driving? These queries are just the tip of a very big iceberg.

Recognizing this need for education, the Georgia Straight, Vancouver’s long-standing source for news and entertainment, will host Grassroots: An Expo for the Cannabis Curious at UBC Robson Square on April 7 and 8. Having covered stories about the city’s favourite weed since 1967, the Straight is excited to connect past, present, and future cannabis users with passionate local business owners, manufacturers, and growers.

The weekendlong, consumerfocused conference will feature space for exhibitors, a lounge area, and a stage featuring world-class speakers and panelists discussing topics like women’s health, product quality, cooking with cannabis, treating pain, and cannabis for seniors, among others.

With the intention of connecting Vancouverites with some of Canada’s leading cannabis educators, brands, and startup companies and answering their questions through speakers involved in all levels of the cannabis industry, Grassroots will give consumers a more intimate experience than other, more business-focused cannabis events. With experts and exhibitors from the medical field to the grow facility and the courthouse to the production lab, we’ll cover every facet of the emerging industry in a way that will neither overwhelm the cannabiscurious nor bore the lifelong user.

Hosted in an educational setting in the heart of downtown Vancouver, Grassroots will host speakers like Zachary Walsh, a mental-health expert and associate professor at UBC Okanagan; well-known cannabis chef and long-time activist Mary Jean “Watermelon” Dunsdon; and organic-cannabis grower and entrepreneur Travis Lane, among others with extraordinary industry experience.