Nicole Tappee Podcasts

This episode is to honour and celebrate the legacy of previous guest Michelle Kendall who died last year from ovarian cancer. In her words: "I think the universe gave me lemons. And I didn't just make lemonade. I feel like I've made lemon meringue pie." Michelle is referring to her unwavering determination to use a scientific approach to finding a …

Many of us have heard about how the anti-tumoral effects of cannabis and anecdotal accounts abound of patients who've successfully treated their cancer with cannabis oil. But combining cannabis and psilocybin is a potentially exciting combination using a two pronged approach: targeting the cancer cells with cannabis while healing the emotional trau…

Today sees the return of Rebekah Shaman and in what might feel like a rather off topic episode for a Cannabis podcast, we will be talking about the benefits of cacao to our mind, body and spirit. I've been enjoying ceremonial grade cacao every morning as a hot chocolate drink for the last three months, and have experienced some unexpected health be…

Jane Hinchliffe has a complex collection of illnesses which include complex regional pain syndrome, anxiety, ASD and functional neurological disorder which has meant since being a teen she has been prescribed a host of prescribed medications including strong opiates. For many years Jane sourced cannabis from the legacy market to control her pain an…

In 2018 Rebecca was diagnosed with a rare neuroendocrine cancer which resulted in a sudden removal of her left lung. At that time, she was Director of Business Development with a prominent laboratory equipment supplier serving the cannabis industry in North America. From chronic fatigue or menstrual cramps to cancer-related pain and anxiety she was…

There's no romantic origin story of how Alvaro Torres, CEO and Co-founder of Khiron Life Sciences, a Colombian medical cannabis company, got into the sector. And for this reason, it would be tempting to assume the company was started to make the most of the worldwide cannabis green rush with little concern for patients. It would seem though that at…

Nikki Lawley is a patient advocate, speaker, and founder of Nikki and the Plant. She personally discovered cannabis as medicine after suffering a life-changing injury while working as a pediatric nurse. In October of 2016, Nikki was a 46-year-old woman whose life changed in literally a second. Going from being a medical professional to becoming a p…

Dr. Bonni Goldstein is one of the most well-respected and long-established cannabis doctors in the United States. Prior to cannabis, she worked for fourteen years in pediatric emergency medicine, developed a passion for cannabis when she witnessed how helpful it had been in treating a friend’s illness. This inspired her to eventually open Canna-Cen…

Eloise Theisen is a board certified Adult Geriatric Nurse Practitioner and nurse for over twenty years, who since 2014 has been specialising in treating patients with medical cannabis. Eloise is current President of the American Cannabis Nurses Association, CEO of Radicle Health, which offers patient care focussing on cannabinoids, as well as canna…

Dr. Gordon is double board certified in family medicine and integrative medicine and author of 'The CBD Bible'. Having started her medical career practising in Canada, she is now located in the United Kingdom. As an integrative medicine practitioner in Canada, cannabis was just one treatment option amongst many she called upon to return patients to…

Filmmaker Steve Barron has directed some of the most iconic music videos of the 1980s including Michael Jackson's Billie Jean (which we discuss in the podcast), Aha's Take on Me, Human League Don't You Want Me Baby, and The Jam's Going Underground (to name but a few). Steve's also been a pretty successful film and TV director as well, and yet, it's…

In November 2019, months before the pandemic struck, Irish chronic pain patient Alicia Maher decided she'd had enough of getting cannabis off the street in order to treat the chronic pain she'd endured for many years. She decided to move to Alicante in Spain, where she could access cannabis semi-legally from the cannabis clubs there. However, now A…

In one of the most inspiring interviews of the series so far, I speak to Alisia Ratliff, CEO of Victus Capital Ventures and until very recently Chief Scientific Officer at Jersey Hemp in the UK. We cover many topics including: her lonely journey as a woman of colour into a career in science how the challenges she has faced have only made her more d…

Today we speak to Sam Cannon, who didn't take no for an answer when his hemp-focussed applications to the upcoming Cop26 UN Climate Summit were turned down. Instead he decided to put his passion for hemp and background in music and events to good use, organising an exciting new fringe festival called 'Beyond The Green' at St Lukes in Glasgow on the…

Today's episode features Phil Monk, founder of We The Undersigned, a community group a "united in the shared belief in the most ancient, traditional and fundamental human right to be free to sow the seeds of the highly nutritious herb of the cannabis family, to care for and nurture, then harvest, prepare, medicate, enjoy and share, free from the fe…

After more than 20 years as a director of UK and Australian Stock Exchange quoted companies, mainly focused on the acquisition, structuring and financing of natural resources deals across Africa, in 2018 Melissa Sturgess turned her attention to medical cannabis. Following a deep dive into the cannabinoid science gained in Israel, she founded UK bas…

Healing leg ulcers and wounds is one of those unsexy areas that rarely get spoken about possibly because most people that have them are elderly and immobile. But as Dr Vincent Maida, a Canadian palliative care physician explains, right now current protocols do for treating these painful and debilitating wounds overall do not have successful outcome…

This week's episode is dedicated to Project Twenty21, the UK medical cannabis registry collecting data on safety and efficacy, while offering the participants subsidised medical cannabis prescriptions. I speak to Anne Katrin Schlag, Head of Research at Drug Science, and overseeing the research side of T21. She explains how the project came about, w…

Kyle Esplin, a professional musician by trade, discovered CBD and hemp after becoming severely debilitated by post viral fatigue. Where conventional medicine failed, CBD and hemp extracts gradually brought Kyle back to health, so he decided to harness his new found passion and create his own CBD brand, Holistic Highland Hemp. A vocal challenger to …

Professor Javier Fernández-Ruiz is Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine at the Complutense University of Madrid. He is currently the Principal Investigator of the “Cannabinoids and Neurological Disorders” research group at the Complutense University. Professor Fernandez is also a member of the Edito…

Some of us come to the power of plant medicine relatively late in life (me for example), while others are practically born into an appreciation of their medicinal benefits. Sarah Russo falls into the latter category. As the daughter of respected cannabinoid researcher and neurologist Dr Ethan Russo, since being a child she has shared his fascinatio…

Dr Evan Lewis is a Pediatric Neurologist and Clinical Neurophysiologist with expertise in epilepsy, epilepsy surgery, and medical cannabis for the treatment of neurologic disorders. He is the director of the Neurology Centre of Toronto (NCT) which he established in January 2017. At NCT, Evan treats children with a variety of neurological disorders …

Justin Kander is the founder of the Cannabis for Cancer Declaration, an initiative that lists medical professionals who support the use of cannabis to treat cancer. He is also the author of Cannabis for the Treatment of Cancer, a free book that deeply analyses the scientific and human evidence showing how cannabis can fight cancer. He has spoken at…

Dr Sandra Carrillo, a Colombian born physician living in Panama, is a driving force in cannabis education, not only in Latin America, but across the globe. Before cannabis, Sandra had been an ER doctor as well as specialising in aesthetic and anti-ageing medicine. However, it was when working as a volunteer with children with epilepsy that Sandra w…

Recorded on Earth Day, this podcast is dedicated to the tremendous potential hemp holds for a more sustainable future for our planet. With all the hype around CBD oil, the fact that hemp holds so many potential solutions to the environmental crisis we are facing, rarely makes it to mainstream discussion. But as Rebekah Shaman, Managing Director of …

Martin A. Lee is an award winning journalist and author who as well as cannabis has written about fascism, media fairness, drug policy and the social history of LSD. Most people in the cannabis industry know Martin as the founder of Project CBD, a respected educational cannabis nonprofit that promotes and publicises research into the medical uses o…

What better way to mark International Women's Day than listening to this inspiring interview with Francesca Brivio, a well known actress and TV presenter from Peru. Francesca decided to use her celebrity to campaign for legal access to medicinal cannabis after going public about how she successfully used cannabis to manage the debilitating symptoms…

Tom Curran is a prominent medicinal cannabis activist in Ireland, a cause that became close to his heart supporting his partner Marie Fleming through multiple sclerosis. Marie had struggled to manage the excruciating muscle spasms commonly experienced in MS, and when she finally tried cannabis, it was the only thing that brought her relief. At the …

There are few voices more recognisable across the cannabis-curious world than John Malanca's. With his wife and love of his life Corinne, John fronted the global docuseries, 'The Sacred Plant' that's been seen by over 600,000 people worldwide. Their introduction to the healing powers of the cannabis plant came when Corinne's dad, given just months …

Tannine Montgomery is one of those special breeds of super mums you only find in the medical cannabis world. When her first child Indie-Rose developed Dravet syndrome, a rare and untreatable type of epilepsy as a baby, Tannine and her husband decided to do everything within their power to give her the best chance of a happy and healthy life. Like m…

In this fascinating interview, Justin Clarke gives a unique insight into how cannabis helps him cope with the sensory overload and anxiety commonly experienced by people with autism (ASD). When we hear about cannabis and autism, it's often the experiences of parents caring for children with severe ASD that get shared. So it is refreshing to hear fr…

Happy new year everyone. I'm sure most of us are glad to see the back of a year that was largely dominated by Covid 19. Last year year wasn't all bad for me personally as I wrote and had published my first ever book - 'The CBD Book: The Essential Guide to CBD oil' (Harper Collins). In what is essentially a roadmap for anyone curious about trying CB…

Doctor Mariano Garcia de Palau es uno de los doctores más reconocidos y especializados en terapias con cannabinoides, por haberse volcado en dar una nueva visión del uso de cannabinoides como tratamiento paliativo y coadyuvante en padecimientos huérfanos en opciones terapéuticas. Graduado de la Universidad de Barcelona en 1979 como médico cirujano …

Vera Twomey is perhaps one of the most recognisable 'Cannabis Voices' featured in the podcast series so far, thanks to her determined and very public fight with the Irish government to get legal access to medical cannabis for her daughter Ava. Ava has Dravet Syndrome, a rare and catastrophic type of epilepsy that pharmaceutical drugs have no answer…

Paul Bregman was a successful radiologist when his bipolar disorder forced him to retire early at 45. His depression and suicidal ideations didn't respond to the medication he was prescribed by his psychiatrist who was at a loss of what to try next. Living in Colorado, cannabis was never far away, so Paul gave it a try having a few puffs in his gar…

Dr Cristina Sánchez, Vice Dean of Research at the School of Biology at the Complutense University in Madrid, is a world renowned molecular biologist specialising in the study of compounds in the cannabis plant as anticancer agents in breast cancer. Cristina has been involved in researching the antitumoral properties of cannabinoids for over twenty …

Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency is a term regularly used in the medical cannabis world and refers to a collection of illnesses where low levels of endocannabinoids and their receptors contribute to disease development. So who better to speak to for a deep dive into endocannabinoid deficiency than Dr Ethan Russo, the neurologist and cannabinoid …

Lucy Stafford is no ordinary 20 year old. She's dynamic, intelligent and passionate science student, but growing up, numbed by the increasingly heavy doses of opiates she had received since the age of 12, Lucy believed otherwise. Lucy has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome - a debilitating and extreme painful condition caused by a lack of collagen in connectiv…

80-year-old Tony Bevington is no ordinary retiree. A paramedic in his youth, Tony spent his 50s and 60s volunteering with the VSO teaching agriculture to communities in Papua New Guinea and Botswana. Unfortunately in his 70s, ill health caught up with Tony and he developed kidney disease, glaucoma and arthritis. With his experience in self sufficie…

Dr Max Alzamora, a physician of over ten years with a background in functional medicine and occupational health, has been prescribing medical cannabis since 2017. Dr Alzamora now runs CannaHope, a busy private practice specialising in treating patients with cannabinoid, is Medical Director at Cann Farm, Advisory Doctor at the NGO Gotas de Esperanza…

Professor Mike Barnes and Hannah Deacon are two names that are synonymous with the road to medical cannabis legalisation in the UK. Their paths crossed when Hannah was campaigning for her son Alfie to get legal access to medical cannabis at a time when cannabis remained a schedule 1 drug and its prescription illegal. Thanks to Hannah's tireless cam…

Dr Callie Seaman has a unique voice in the cannabis industry. Diagnosed with epilepsy as a teenager, it was Callie's dad who suggested she try cannabis as an alternative to the prescription meds that were wrecking her academic career. This started a life long relationship with cannabis which included Callie working in the local grow shop as a Satur…

In Episode 14 of Cannabis Voices I speak to Dr Wai Liu, Senior Research Fellow at St George's, University of London who after a chance conversation with an oncologist, came to specialise in studying the anticancer effects of the cannabis plant. Not only has Dr Liu's work, which is so far preclinical, highlighted the exciting antitumoral effects of …

Michelle Kendall is a woman on a mission and with a fire in her belly. Diagnosed with ovarian cancer, Michelle has been successfully using cannabis alongside chemotherapy and surgery to manage her cancer. As a lover of data, Michelle has been meticulously recording the results from her blood tests. Turns out, taking cannabis oil high in THC reduced…

Imagine being the doctor responsible for prescribing high CBD/ low THC cannabis to Charlotte Figi at a time when very little was still known about CBD's anti-seizure effects in children. That was Dr Shackelford back in 2012, when he was approached by Charlotte's mother Paige. Rather fortuitously, as Dr Shackelford puts it, he had just read Professo…

In today's episode of Cannabis Voices, Richard Lanigan shares how despite being given a prognosis of 22 months when his rectal cancer had returned, six years later he's still very much with us, much in part to the cannabis oil he was taking. A chiropractor by profession with a masters in health promotion, Richard talks with great passion and humour…

If you work in the cannabis business, you've probably heard of the endocannabinoid system, you might even talk about it in your marketing materials to explain why customers should buy your products. The sad truth is though, for the vast majority of the population, doctors included, the endocannabinoid system isn't even on their radar. If you're lis…

We are living in unprecedented stressful times with levels of uncertainty never experienced in our life times. It's vital we find ways to manage our stress so that it doesn't turn into its close cousins depression and anxiety. That's why today I've chatted to Dr Julie Moltke, a medical doctor with a special interest in stress management, mental hea…

Back in November 2018, parents of children with epilepsy in the UK who'd been fighting to get legal access to medical cannabis were celebrating the prospect of finally getting the medicine they needed. Over eighteen months later, thanks to some extremely restrictive guidelines from NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence), very few …

Episode 7 of Cannabis Voices is dedicated to the memory of George Gannon, the 30-year-old British man who sadly lost his battle to cancer in March this year. Told through the words of his partner, Natalie, she bravely shares their journey through cancer, how the medical profession gave up on George, and how if it were not for Natalie's determinatio…