Joi Botanicals Insta Live Recap

We sat down with Jeff from Joi Botanicals to talk about their intentional grow operation, how they’re handling the pandemic, their new Cake Crasher Number 1 strain, what their feelings are on the future of cannabis and, of course, how they use the CVault in their operations. 

Would you mind telling us about how Joi Botanicals came to be and what you hope to accomplish? 

Joi Botanicals is a licensed producer of cannabis in Canada. Joi was founded back in 2016 with high-quality cannabis for a reasonable price. We’re currently cultivating in a purpose-built facility just outside of Calgary, Alberta and we hope to be able to supply the people of Canada with consistent, high-quality cannabis at a price point that won’t break the bank.

How’s the journey been to get to this point and what kind of challenges have you overcome? 

The challenges are plenty. The cannabis industry isn’t easy and I think everyone knows that. They started off really early on with real estate agents that wouldn’t work with us and banks that wouldn’t give us checking accounts even though cannabis is federally legal in Canada. We move on to the usual challenges with designing and constructing an indoor cultivation facility. 

How has the pandemic affected the company? 

The pandemic’s been really hard on everybody. Fortunately, nobody close to Joi has been seriously affected by the pandemic thus far. Of course, it always kind of weighs on you mentally knowing that at any time that could change. It doesn’t seem to take much to contract COVID. Any day, someone could get it. Overall, I’m proud of the way the Joi team has handled all the adversaries brought on by this pandemic. 

Can you explain how CVaults have been integrated into your operating procedure? 

Yeah, absolutely. We integrated them into our procedures a little over a year ago. We were actually coming up on our very first harvest at Joi and it was the first time that any of us were going to be dealing with enough cannabis that a few glass jars wouldn’t cut it. And as much as we love to use glass and that’s the tried, tested and true method, it just doesn’t make sense in a commercial facility. A little bit of online searching and spying on our competitors, seeing what they’re using, we came across those 50L CVaults pretty quickly. It comes down to the combination of the large container size, that sealing ring and the stainless steel construction makes it ideal for us.

How was having Remo touring your spot? He’s an old school supporter of ours and an OG in the game.

Remo is an absolute OG in the industry. Everyone in Canada in the industry knows who he is. We’ve known who he was for a long time, and it really just came down to us choosing to use Remo nutrients. We wanted to support a local company. We called a good year before we got our license and no questions asked, they sent us a bunch to play with and get accustomed with. So it was pretty easy to support Remo. And then when he comes on-site, it’s just hilarious. He’s absolutely the same person on and off camera. His enthusiasm for cannabis is incredible. 

[Check out Remo’s YouTube channel, UrbanRemo for a Joi tour and some Marijuana Monday reviews]

Speaking of Marijuana Mondays, what new products do you guys have planned for 2021? 

We released Cake Crasher Number 1. People can probably read between the lines, if there’s a number 1, there’s more. We have Cake Crasher Number 2 as well. They came from the same bag of seeds, but they’re fairly different plants — both pretty awesome in their own right. Probably the only other strain that I can talk about now we’re calling ChemPawg. It’s actually a cross between fruity pebbles, OG and Chemdawg. We’re always working on more. We’re in the middle of a couple of pheno-hunts right now, but it’s just a little early to start talking about strains until we know what we’ll bring to market. 

What does the future of cannabis look like to you? Are we headed in a positive direction as a whole? 

Yeah, absolutely. I think we’re heading in the right direction. I think now more than half the U.S. states have some form of legalized cannabis so that’s huge. The new federal government, let’s hope they have the sense to push the FDA to reschedule cannabis. There’s no way it should be a Schedule I drug. Once that happens, that’s when all the research opens up. To be honest, as fun as it is to do dabs and smoke joints, I think that the real innovations are going to come on the medical side when we learn what these cannabinoids are doing in conjunction with terpenes and how to really figure out proper dosing and methods for wellbeing.

The research is still in the infancy. Everyone knows it feels nice to smoke a joint, but I think we’ll find out what it really can do if we aren’t held back by regulations. It seems like there’s a shift on the horizon. 

Yeah, I think we’re getting close. I think we really are. Up north of the border in Canada, you hear about how it’s been so hard on the industry the last couple of years. You only hear about the bad news stories. I really think in the next two years, there’s going to be some good news stories. There’s going to be some companies coming out of the shadows and really making a name for themselves. And, of course, we really hope that Joi is one of them. 

Is Cake Crasher on the market in Canada? Where can people find it? 

The Cake Crasher Number 1 is on the market. It should be available in Alberta retail stores next week [first week of December of 2020]. We’re really early on the rollout, it’s a fresh drop. Alberta residents can go to albertacannabis.org and purchase it right now and have it shipped to their door. If you want to learn more about Joi Botanicals, we are @joibotanicals on Facebook and Instagram. We’re also Joi Botanicals on LinkedIn and online at JoiBotanicals.com.

I always like to close out with this question. If you could blaze up with any three people, who would they be and why? 

That’s a great question! We actually ask job applicants this quite often, it’s really fun to get people’s responses! 

• My first choice, I’m going to go with Syd Barrett. Many of the younger folks might not know who he is, but he was the founder of Pink Floyd. I’m a big fan of Pink Floyd, I absolutely love their music and Syd Barrett was instrumental in taking them to where they got even though he didn’t really take them there in the end.
• My second choice is Carl Sagan. Again, a lot of the younger people might not be aware of who he is, but Carl Sagan was an American astronomer and serious intellectual who actually wrote an essay on the positives of doing cannabis back in 1970 under a false moniker called Mr. X. From the sound of things, I think he probably knew more 50 years ago than most of us do today.
• Last, but not least, I’m going with my mom. I’m going to say my mom because she claims that she’s never tried cannabis before and I think everybody needs a little bit of Joi in their life. 

To learn more about Joi Botanicals, check out the recent feature we did on their cannabis cultivation company or visit the Joi Botanicals website! Visit Instagram to watch the IG Live with Joi Botanicals.