Welcome back to Filipino Fridays! We're about to light it up with today's feature episode (if you know what I mean...) Our special guest is Abi Sampson, Professor of Cannabis Regulations at Centennial College. Abi takes us through her experience leading up to a thriving career in cannabis education and advocacy. She shares with us on the personal relationship between Filipinos and cannabis - how Filipinos are uniquely positioned to succeed in the cannabis industry. She takes us through how to have the "weed talk" with our families, providing data and insight on how we can help them understand the use of cannabis today. We discuss the history of Filipinos with the use of plant medicine and its connection to decolonial work. We also speak at length about how Filipinos and BIPOC folks have been targeted for the use of cannabis due to a history of cannabis criminalization rooted in racism. As published in the Globe and Mail, Abi teaches us "Cannabis 101" and gives advice on how to deal with navigating the sensitive conversation around cannabis.
"Cannabis embodies the same tenets of community, compassion and care - that is the spirit of kapwa and of our Filipino culture (in the same way our people's ability to nurture communities)."
"Filipinos are no strangers to revolutions - as people who are activists, fighters of resistance and our resiliency."
(Quotes by Abi Sampson)
ABOUT ABI SAMPSON
Abi Sampson is a first generation Pinay-Canadian residing on the Native Lands of the Anishnabewaki, the Haudenosaunee, the Mississauga and the Wendake-Nionwentsïo people, colonially known as Colborne, ON.
She began her cannabis career as a volunteer at NORML Canada, the longest running cannabis advocacy group in Canada, where she sat as the Ontario Regional Coordinator and eventually the Executive Director.
Abi has provided expert delegations at the House of Commons before the Standing Committee on Health regarding Bill C-45/the Cannabis Act, at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario regarding exemptions to social cannabis consumption spaces under the Smoke Free Ontario Act and at Pickering City Council, where she presented as both a cannabis industry professional and a city resident.
Abi is currently a Professor at Centennial College, teaching the Cannabis Regulations course through the Cannabis Cultivation and Processing Program. She is committed to cultivating a just and equitable cannabis industry, with a focus on cannabis patient advocacy, social justice issues and righting the harms of the War on Drugs, through education, community engagement and de-stigmatization.
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