Intro to Top 50 Best Cannabis Dispensaries in Scarborough, Ontario  At Stok’d we know we are swimming in highly competitive waters as the best dispensary Scarborough has to offer. We know that our highly curated menu of top-shelf weed combined with our highly knowledgeable staff and shopping experience puts in a place to welcome all challengers.  However we do have a bone-to-pick with the regulations that allow illegal shops to market and advertise in ways legal stores are forbidden. Simple offers like “free pre-rolls” or major upfront discounts run afoul with Health Canada’s inducem ..read more

You Hashed We Listened  We got so much great feedback about our last Hash deep dive we realized that there’s a lot more left to hash out! In The Top Hash Varieties: A 2024 Guide we want to share with you our experiences on the best hash in Canada’s legal cannabis market has to offer.  Re-hash of Hash 101 Article  As you know from our last article on the sticky black (brown and blond) stuff we are huge (UUUGE) hash fans at Stok’d. Our first and flagship Scarborough location, Stok’d Clairlea is well known for its vast selection of hashish. That said, our locations Cliffside/Spliff ..read more

Opening Day of Legalization  “Lisa, I’m in the parking lot with my wife, I’m having a panic attack, I’ve never had one before and I don’t know what’s happening.” This was what my manager said to me less than 24-hours before my store, one of Ontario’s first legal cannabis stores, opened in June of 2019.  The Back Story  The timeline from the announcement that I’d won the lottery to the approval of the license took from mid January to the end of April. That’s 3.5 months that I was stressed to the max and crying multiple times a day that I was gonna lose everything I invested to ge ..read more

The Big Picture  5 years in and it’s a perfect time to reflect on the good, the bad and the ugly of legal weed. It seems like only yesterday that, after decades of prohibition, cannabis was declared legal in Canada! But hold up—before we get into all that let’s start with some gratitude for living in a country with the courage to legalize weed. It’s not a perfect model, by any means, but there’s one statistic that should shine above all others in this conversation:  In 2017, 16,697 Canadians were arrested for cannabis related offences. In the two years following legalization that num ..read more

Vaping in the 6ix: Master the Art of Cannabis Vaping in Ontario Photo by Elsa Olofsson on Unsplash How did cannabis vaping get so popular? Explain it to me like I’m 40+ In the landscape of cannabis consumption, vaping has emerged as a significant trend, particularly intriguing for those of us over 40 who’ve witnessed its meteoric rise. Understanding this shift requires a look back at the evolution of cannabis use and technology over the past few decades. Let’s start with the basics: Vaping is the act of inhaling vapour produced by a device called a vaporizer or vape pen. Unlike traditional sm ..read more

Woosh there goes another year!  Before we get into all the numbers, events and people we want to highlight in our Stok’d Cannabis Year in Review, we want to start with you.  Yes, you.  Beyond being a cool South Western Ontario independent cannabis brand (if we do say so ourselves ) we strive to be a community.  Not in a culty, weird way like when your corny boss says “we’re all family here” before he lays you off before the holidays. We say community in a way that you genuinely feel like we care about you beyond what you purchase. Because we do. So yeah, we want to start b ..read more

We had the great pleasure of sitting down with Adam Coates, chief revenue officer for Decibel Cannabis. The company is home to iconic brands like Qwest and General Admission. We spoke to Adam about the meteoric rise of General Admission, how they got to be one of Canada’s most popular brands and where they’re going next. Edited for clarity and length  Stok’d: What’s the backstory of General Admission (GA)?  Adam: It’s funny because General Admission is sort of a “little engine that could” in a lot of ways. It kind of started in 2020 when General Admission was just something off to th ..read more

Introduction  One of the most fascinating developments has been the emergence of cannabidiol, aka CBD, onto the cannabis scene. Almost eclipsing legalization itself, CBD is quickly becoming a staple in the well-being and healing of millions. From heart-wrenching and beautiful scenes of children being treated for seizures to helping folks with anxiety to sleep assistance to topical skincare, the list goes on.  Bottom line is that Canadians are embracing the CBD Revolution, the eager beavers that we are, en masse. In this article we want to break down history, science and uses for CBD ..read more

Wow we’ve finally made it to November and the end to another fabulous outdoor growing season. For most of us in the Northern Hemisphere this means that if we want to keep growing our own fire weed, we need to move indoors. It seems like the perfect time to dig into the eternal debate of what’s better, indoor weed or outdoor weed? Of course if you’re a true fan of Mary Jane, the answer is “why not both?” And we completely agree. However there are major differences in both quality, cost and environmental impact so it’s worth digging into don’t you think?  Now we aren’t the experts in growin ..read more

Seriously another f—ng holiday gift guide?!   We know what you’re thinking: Oh boy here we go again with another holiday cannabis gift guide! We get it, we’re kind of burnt out on these guides too. Most of them are pay-to-play. For example, Chatelaine’s list reads like a menu approved by the Toronto Stock Exchange because they made it for their “partners in [corporate] cannabis”. That is to say they were paid to include certain products. We aren’t picking on this publication, you’ll see similar (with even less transparency) games being played across the industry this time of year.&n ..read more