CLN caught up with Craig Ex aka the Expert of Expert Joints before he hit the tarmac on his way to Amsterdam for the High Times Cannabis Cup, and he told us about the special “Fridazed” radio show he’ll be doing this Friday live from Amsterdam, what he’s looking forward to in the city famous for its cannabis coffee shops, and more!
CLN: Hi Craig! I heard you’ll be off to Amsterdam and you’ll be doing your Expert Joints LIVE! podcast from there?
Yes, we’re heading to Amsterdam for the High Times Cannabis Cup with Cannabis Life Network and while there we’ll be shooting one of our “Out and About” videos- our classic montages of all the cool and exciting things we do.
Also, I’ll be calling into my new Friday radio show on saveonradio.com to report on the activities at High Times from Amsterdam. While I’m there, DJ Slippee will be in the booth in Vancouver so it will be an international show this week.
How did this opportunity come about?
Several months ago J Swing, who is an old friend of mine and local DJ legend, messaged me that he was looking for a cannabis-related broadcast for his radio station Save on Radio and what we did was air the replay of Expert Joints LIVE! for a few months on Fridays from 2-4pm.
After I went on hiatus and took a summer break after season 3 of EJL, we started up with the actual live in-studio broadcast of the new show on Fridays.
Awesome. Are you still going by the Expert Joints LIVE! podcast name?
No, the new show’s called Fridazed and it runs 2-4pm on Save on Radio. My other show Expert Joints LIVE! is still on Thursdays, and the people at Save On Radio will be changing “Expert Joints LIVE! Podcast” to the new “Fridazed” name sometime very soon.
Do you have any guests lined up or anything special for this show that we can look forward to?
At this point, you can look forward to updates from the ground and a bit of a recap of what’s been happening so far in Amsterdam along with some event details because typically there isn’t a whole lot available in advance
As far as guests and interviews it’s really hard to say, we’ll deal with that when we get there. There’s a few people who’ve said they might be available for an interview but I won’t really know until we hit the ground running.
[**Editor’s note: the musical line-up includes Bone Thugs and Harmony, Afroman, Ty Dolla $ign, the Original Wailers, and more]We will also be taking a look around at the sights in and around Amsterdam and hopefully, it will make for a pretty cool trip.
Have you been to Amsterdam before?
No, I have not. This is my second time in Europe, and after my trip to Barcelona for Spannabis I’m a little bit apprehensive but hopefully, this will be a better experience.
Are you hoping you might actually be able to find some weed this time?
Yeah I’m sure I’ll be able to find some weed and I’m sure I’ll be able to find some food to eat. Fingers crossed it’ll be a good trip.
With Canada set to legalize cannabis in a few months, do you think Amsterdam has lost a bit of its cool factor when it comes to cannabis?
I haven’t been there yet so I can’t compare what it was like before or after, but in international, worldwide recognition, as more places have gone legal, and actually legal like full recreational, I think some of the novelty of smoking in Amsterdam has, to some degree, slightly worn off.
I know at some point Amsterdam was one of the only places you could get cannabis at coffee shops, but I’ve been hearing that accessing the shops and all that may be more tightly controlled now than it was in the past.
I can’t say for sure but with places like Colorado and Washington going full recreational and Canada coming up to go full rec too with so-called legalization, Canada will probably take a pretty prominent role with an international reputation as a place to go to smoke cannabis.
I know you’ve judged previous cannabis cups. Are you going to be judging this one?
No not at this time. Who knows what happens when we get on the ground, like if we happen to make our way into the tents and get a judge’s kit… we’ll see how it goes, but for now we’re there to see the events and sights and just check it out.
Have you been to other High Times Cannabis Cups?
I was invited to host last year’s cup out on Vancouver Island but I was already booked that weekend with the Fore20 Cup in Squamish.
So I haven’t been to a High Times Cup yet but I’ve heard a lot about them and their reputation and I’ll see how it is when I get there.
Do you have any other plans in Amsterdam other than the High Times Cannabis Cup, like hitting up one of the famous coffee shops or red light district?
My first task will be hitting a coffee shop or two to pick up enough supplies to get through the weekend… It might be three or four.
Obviously, we’ll be covering the event grounds on Friday and I’ll be reporting it on the show. On Saturday and Sunday there will be more general filming of the event and hopefully some of the sights and sounds that are Amsterdam.
But then again, we’ll be making it up a bit as we go from the minute we hit the ground.
So how long is your Amsterdam trip going to be?
I’ll be back on Monday. There’s too much to do for Expert Joints LIVE! season four to be gone for too long.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Stay tuned and watch the recap video of the trip. We’ll be doing an Out and About video for Season 4 which comes back in August and we’ll see you soon!
As I like to say, “Tune in to Fridazed at 2 on Fridays on SaveOnRadio.com”.
