Chris Palliser Presentation

Steve Webb on local business
Tommy West, Feb 5th, 2019

Steve Webb’s authentic approach to business, a catalyst in Metropol’s great success

Webb began his entrepreneur career with humble beginnings, promoting shows for clubs around town. He found that the local promotional climate was warfare where promoters would fight over space on advertisement polls throughout town. Webb came up with a solution. Regulate all the polls for equal promotional rights among all clubs and promoters to go through him, and he would put the posters up himself, creating equality amongst the promotions. Metropol was born. Today, Webb is the CEO of Metropol and hold 100% of the companies shares.

“Vancouver Island businesses have an advantage” Webb claims. The idea of your company being a part of the local economy promotes locals to use your service before going to an online distributor. This is the advantage to being a business on the island. Community is an essential part of the islands ecosystem and having a business thats run in Vancouver but provides a service on the Island doesn’t feel like part of the community.

“Did you have to take a boat to get here? If so you’re not local” claims Webb “we are island owned and operated” and they do not plan to expand into the mainland. The company will however be expanding into a bigger facility in Victoria and doubling its current staff numbers.

Webb recounts “going up to the counter” of other print shops and saying “I’m not really sure that this file is right” and the person at the counter would sigh, complain, and “make you feel like you’re some kind of idiot” even though you were there bringing them your business.

“It was those experiences that shaped Metropol into a place where the person who is helping you, thats their entire job. All they need to do is help you get your file to a point where they can send it off to print” says Webb “customer service is number one.” 

Steve Webb Presentation

Steve Webb on local business
Tommy West, Feb 5th, 2019

Steve Webb’s authentic approach to business, a catalyst in Metropol’s great success

Webb began his entrepreneur career with humble beginnings, promoting shows for clubs around town. He found that the local promotional climate was warfare where promoters would fight over space on advertisement polls throughout town. Webb came up with a solution. Regulate all the polls for equal promotional rights among all clubs and promoters to go through him, and he would put the posters up himself, creating equality amongst the promotions. Metropol was born. Today, Webb is the CEO of Metropol and hold 100% of the companies shares.

“Vancouver Island businesses have an advantage” Webb claims. The idea of your company being a part of the local economy promotes locals to use your service before going to an online distributor. This is the advantage to being a business on the island. Community is an essential part of the islands ecosystem and having a business thats run in Vancouver but provides a service on the Island doesn’t feel like part of the community.

“Did you have to take a boat to get here? If so you’re not local” claims Webb “we are island owned and operated” and they do not plan to expand into the mainland. The company will however be expanding into a bigger facility in Victoria and doubling its current staff numbers.

Webb recounts “going up to the counter” of other print shops and saying “I’m not really sure that this file is right” and the person at the counter would sigh, complain, and “make you feel like you’re some kind of idiot” even though you were there bringing them your business.

“It was those experiences that shaped Metropol into a place where the person who is helping you, thats their entire job. All they need to do is help you get your file to a point where they can send it off to print” says Webb “customer service is number one.” 

Why Health Canada must continue the medicinal marijuana system

The Canadian Medical Association wants to phase out the medicinal marijuana system now that recreational marijuana has been legalized. 

The CMA claim that they want the system gone because some physicians find that a patient coming to them to ask about medicinal marijuana puts the physician in an awkward position. They feel as though they’re acting as a gatekeeper, which is not necessarily the case.

Marijuana has been used for a variety of reasons throughout history. One of the earliest mentions of marijuana was in Chinese medical transcripts in 2737 B.C.E. for its use as treatment of afflictions such as gout, malaria, and joint pain. 

It arrived to the Americas in the 16th century and grew alongside tobacco, but only grew in popularity substantially in the early 20th century where it was used recreationally in bars and jazz clubs and medicinally in cases of labour pains or nausea. In 1923 marijuana was added to the confidential restricted list in the Canadian Narcotics Drug Act. Even so, in the 60’s the plant became a symbol of the social movement of that time. Marijuana was only legalized medicinally in 2013 which kickstarted the industry.

Many Canadians have found using marijuana medicinally has yielded fantastic results in their quality of life. According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, Medicinal uses for marijuana nowadays usually include; reducing nausea, promoting appetite, reducing pain and inflammation, controlling epileptic seizures, and the treatment of some mental Illness like depression or insomnia.

“Recent animal studies have shown that marijuana extracts may help kill certain cancer cells and reduce the size of others” according to the National institute on Drug Abuse, “extracts from whole-plant marijuana can slow the growth of cancer cells from one of the most serious types of brain tumours.”

However, with the legalization of recreational marijuana in 2018, access to Marijuana has become both easier and harder for Canadians. One main reason it’s easier is because Marijuana can now be purchased online and be delivered within a few days. However it has also become harder because, in British Columbia, the sales and distribution of recreational marijuana is controlled by the BC Liquor Distribution Branch. The LDB only has one physical store in the province, and it’s in Kamloops. The only real solution for anyone who can’t get up to Kamloops is to buy online. 

Buying online doesn’t sound like much of a hardship, however if a medicinal marijuana user has to purchase through the recreational markets, they could face some real issues. Not everyone is capable or comfortable ordering marijuana online. Seniors who use medicinal marijuana as treatment but are not online, as studied by the Pew Research Center, would have no access to the LDB website. Also, different forms of cannabis do different things with different treatments and if there is no medical professional prescribing dosage amounts or assessing potential dangers, that patient is at risk of underusing or overdosing. 

“The medical profession, as a whole, has really struggled with the whole concept of medical cannabis. There's definitely some physicians who feel comfortable in that area but most don’t," argues Dr. Jeff Blackmer, vice-president of medical professionalism for the Canadian Medical Association. 

A physicians discomfort is no excuse for denying someone a medical service when there are obvious benefits to using marijuana. Now that it is no longer necessary to see a physician in order to get marijuana at all, that discomfort should pass as patients would only see physicians when they are genuinely curious about health benefits and their personal well-being.

Rather than phasing out the medicinal marijuana system entirely, the medicinal and recreational systems need to work symbiotically in providing a product that works on a medically beneficial and recreationally enjoyable level. More medical research should be conducted to discover more potential uses of marijuana and physicians should continue advising their patients on the risks and benefits of using marijuana.

References:

CBC Radio. (2019). Doctors' group wants to scrap Canada's medical cannabis program | CBC Radio. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/scrap-medical-weed-women-in-space-and-more-1.4636793/doctors-group-wants-to-scrap-canada-s-medical-cannabis-program-1.4636810

Dormer, D. (2019). Medical marijuana system will continue after legalization, says Health Canada | CBC News. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/health-canada-medical-marijuana-continue-1.4820377

Dormer, D. (2019). Doctors want medical pot phased out after legalization: Canadian Medical Association | CBC News. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/canadian-medical-association-cannabis-legalization-1.4772000

Dixit, P. (2019). How cannabis was criminalized | The Telegram. Retrieved from https://www.thetelegram.com/living/how-cannabis-was-criminalized-260749/

Geary, A. (2019). Medical marijuana: Should it stay or should it go after pot is legalized? | CBC News. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/canada-medicinal-cannabis-regulations-1.4789307

Kalvapalle, R. (2019). Where can I buy pot? A coast-to-coast guide for marijuana legalization day. Retrieved from https://globalnews.ca/news/4557947/where-to-buy-marijuana-cannabis-canada-provinces/

Narconon. (2019). History of Marijuana. Retrieved from https://www.narconon.org/drug-information/marijuana-history.html

NIDA. (2018, June 27). Marijuana as Medicine. Retrieved from https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/marijuana-medicine on 2019, March 14

NIDA. (2018, June 25). Marijuana. Retrieved from https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana on 2019, March 14

Older Adults and Internet Use: (Some of) What we know. (2019). Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/10/21/older-adults-and-internet-use-some-of-what-we-know/

Rough, L. (2019). The History of Cannabis in Canada | Leafly. Retrieved from https://www.leafly.ca/news/canada/history-cannabis-canada

Wikipedia. (2019). Legal history of cannabis in Canada. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_history_of_cannabis_in_Canada

Free Tuition in BC

To every person on earth, education is the most important element of living in modern society. Knowing how to read, write, calculate and speak are all necessary skills needed to function in this world. These are all things that we need to be taught and the education system provides it, for a hefty price. 

British Columbia should provide free tuition to post-secondary students to reduce student debt’s and increase the well-being of BC residents. 

“Access to education is not a privilege, it’s a right,” according to the Global Partnership for Education. “Educating children no matter where they are is one of the biggest steps we can take toward ending extreme poverty.” But, if education truly is a right and not a privilege, why is tuition so expensive?

“Student loan debt in the U.S. has reached a staggering $1.2 trillion, and the average graduate will have to repay more than $35,000,” says NJ Lechnir, “high tuition allows colleges to “shape” their student bodies.” Doing this means institutions can essentially select which students they do and don’t want, however, this doesn’t discourage students from going to school, it only makes their debt’s even higher. 

“I went to graduate school in 2001. It was the greatest mistake I have ever made,” says Denise from Seward, “I also chose not to have a family because I simply cannot afford it, and I am never home because I have to work two jobs.” 

If education is a right and not just a privilege, access to it shouldn’t be ruining lives. We can change that here in British Columbia. Many European countries already provide free tuition such as Norway, Germany and Finland. Plenty of students from North America choose to study in these countries rather than at home to avoid the costs of tuition and student debt.

“In Finland, education is regarded as a fundamental right and the Finnish education policy emphasizes equal opportunities for all,” according to the University of Eastern Finland.

Free tuition in British Columbia would profoundly change the North American education system. The students that work through the system would graduate looking into the future with bright eyes, not in fear of their debt’s massive shadow over them. For the sake of our students lives, it’s time to extradite the absurd prices over education and become a bit more like Finland. 

Sources List

https://www.uopeople.edu/tuition-free/what-is-tuition-free/

http://www.uef.fi/web/mns/tuition-and-scholarships/why-is-education-free-in-finland

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/mehrnaz-bassiri/canadian-education-problem_a_23049792/

https://studentdebtcrisis.org/read-student-debt-stories/

https://www.globalpartnership.org/blog/education-right-not-privilege

https://thescholarshipsystem.com/blog-for-students-families/the-real-reasons-why-college-tuition-is-so-high-and-what-you-can-do-about-it/

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