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Cannabis edibles. With recipes.

But how? And who?

For an executive MBA study group at the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business, it was one of those ideas that started out as a fun project and quickly became an “ah-hah” moment.

Bake some brownies or cookies, one of the group said, the usual stoner treats, perhaps? A few laughs later and the group started to think more seriously. Maybe there’s more to cannabis edibles than munchie-driven goodies. Maybe there’s a reasonable way to deliver a specific dose of medical marijuana to a patient without them needing to smoke it. And maybe there’s a way to create tasty, recreational treats that consumers would engage with. Let’s call it reTreat Edibles.

A field trip was to do more, ahem, research. So in July of 2016 Brad Kossowan, Stefan Scott, Michael Armeneau and Stephen Tucker headed to Colorado, tasting candies, chocolates, syrups and teas. Products were abundant but variable in quality. So they returned to Calgary with a thought: “We need a chef.”

How about John Michael MacNeil, current executive chef of the Beltliner Diner, former executive chef of Teatro and The Belvedere and a culinary innovator with years of experience in molecular gastronomy. And a card-carrying medical marijuana permit holder. MacNeil jumped at the opportunity to turn his talents to the budding edible cannabis industry.

MacNeil surveyed the market and determined that his cannabis edibles would be both tasty and healthy. That there would be no gluten, no GMOs, no dairy and no eggs. Leaning toward the tasty part of the equation, he developed a flour of rice, tapioca and potato starches and worked on recipes for rosemary-sea salt chocolate chip squares and peanut butter oat squares. Each would be prepared with a specific measure of cannabis oil added by the at-home cook.