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| No Business Like Cannabizness |
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Posted by FoM on March 27, 2002 at 16:18:50 PT By Paul Gallagher Source: Reuters 
Entrepreneurs and cannabis connoisseurs this week smoked, cut and rolled hashish and marijuana at a five-day "Cannabizness" workshop teaching participants how to run Dutch-style coffee shops abroad.Students at the "Coffee shop College" run by a cannabis cafe owner in the sedate city of Haarlem said they hoped to be able to ply the trade in licensed shops in their own countries as pressure to relax laws prohibiting the drug grows across Europe. The course aims to give its participants experience working in Haarlem's coffee shops serving hashish and marijuana, testing and grading the wares. It also provides information on the unique Dutch experience regulating 900 licensed coffee shops. Seated on plastic chairs in rows of desks in the back-room of the "Willie Wortels" coffee shop -- festooned with tiny lights and covered in cartoon rabbit murals -- some participants smoked cannabis, filling the air with the aroma of sweet smoke. "I'm here because I want to open a Dutch style coffee shop in England," said Chris Baldwin, a long-haired 52-year-old veteran British campaigner for the legalisation of cannabis. "The best part for me is the cannabis because I love it. I have been involved in cannabis for over 30 years... I would say somebody who is a connoisseur of wine is no different to me and my world of cannabis really. Where's the difference?" The British government said last year it wanted to ease the laws on cannabis by no longer making possession of the drug an arrestable offence and allowing its use for medical purposes. Willie Wortels regulars looked on from the alcohol-free bar, casually smoking cannabis by the pinball machine and pool tables as its owner Nol van Schaik asked the course participants to sniff or smoke lumps of brown hash resin in an adjoining room. "You break the hash open and look inside," van Schaik told his class after the intoxicating resin and leaves were handed out to the class in small cellophane bags sporting the logo of a small green cannabis leaf. DREAMS GO UP IN SMOKE Successful graduates can look forward to a lucrative life if Dutch coffee shops are any measure of what awaits them if cannabis is legalised in their own countries. The Dutch shops on average generate an annual turnover of about 400,000 euros (247,200 pounds) a year. Those near the borders with Germany and Belgium rake in as much in just a month. "We are like any ordinary business in Holland. Taxes are being paid, staff are being employed and paid for. We are paying our bills through banks. Our money is accepted everywhere," van Schaik said. Some of the dozen British, French and Swiss participants rolled and smoked joints as they received handouts for their course books on coffee shop history, regulations, security and health while examining resin and leaves under microscopes. "It makes it look like a mountain range you could climb inside and explore," one participant said gazing at a dark brown piece of hashish resin under a microscope on a table covered with metal ashtrays and cigarette papers. "Bit of lemon (scent) in it?" one man asks the teacher, sniffing at a mud-coloured strip of hashish in a class made up predominantly of visitors from the United Kingdom. ROYAL REVELATIONS News that the government wanted to soften Cannabis laws was followed by revelations that Britain's Prince Harry, second son of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles, had smoked cannabis and drunk heavily last year. The news briefly catapulted the issue to the top of the British political agenda. The question of decriminalisation has also been accompanied by a debate about the medical use of cannabis. Canada became the first country in the world to allow people suffering from chronic illness to legally use and grow the drug last year. "I'm a medicinal cannabis user. I've got multiple sclerosis (MS). I use cannabis to combat all the terrible effects that come from MS. It works very well for me and everyone else I know," a British woman taking part in the course said. "Ill people don't want to be traipsing the streets looking for a dealer so coming somewhere like this (coffee shop) would be perfect. I think it is the sensible way to go," she said. After testing and selling cannabis, learning how to roll joints with a machine and hearing about cultivation methods from Morocco to Afghanistan, the participants are to round off the course with a field trip to some of Amsterdam's 200 coffee shops on Friday. The class will also sit a multiple-choice test featuring questions such as: "When should outdoor marijuana plants be put into the ground?" and "Do male plants flower earlier or later than female marijuana plants." Participant Jerry Ham was keen to learn so he can set up a coffee shop and medical cannabis distribution network in Britain when the legal environment makes it possible. "I will need business plans and will need products to sell. This is about coffee shop management. I'm finding this to be invaluable," the 35-year-old from Brighton, England said. Source: Reuters (UK) Related Articles & Web Sites: Willie Wortels Coffee Shop Dutch Experience Cafes To Test Cannabis Laws News Poll Shows Huge Yes Vote for Drugs Café Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #8 posted by FoM on April 01, 2002 at 08:02:52 PT |
| Source: BBC News April 1, 2002 http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1905000/video/_1905102_cannabis10_lawrence_vi.ram [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #7 posted by Rev Jonathan Adler on March 27, 2002 at 23:21:22 PT:
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| Aloha, And what is news? This Friday the Fox Network here in Hawaii is visiting us at the Hawaii Medical Marijuana Institute and Religion of Jesus Church (East Hawaii Branch). Another news story, this time in our completely legal greenhouse with our legal limit of 3 ounces of medicinal cannabis and 3 mature bud plants with 4 immature plants to follow. They will do a cool story on our medical marijuana program and what improvements are possible. Authorized distribution for one. We are ready and active for many registered patients and those referred from mainland clubs. Help is available legally in Hawaii and coffe shops are next. I am running for Governor and that is part of my platfrom for economic growth. Makes sense don't it? See our site adler4gov.com and jump to medijuana.com for the rest of the stroy. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #6 posted by SoberStoner on March 27, 2002 at 20:42:23 PT |
LONDON (Reuters) - Motorists who smoke a cannabis joint retain more control behind the wheel than those who drink a glass of wine, scientists have found. Research from the Transport Research Laboratory showed drivers found it harder to maintain constant speed and road position after drinking the equivalent of a glass of wine than after smoking a spliff, the magazine New Scientist said on Wednesday. Researchers who used a driving simulator to conduct tests on 15 volunteers found motorists on cannabis tended to drive cautiously, aware of their intoxicated state. But drivers given a combination of cannabis and alcohol performed worst of all. Doctors last week called for the development of testing devices to deter motorists from driving under the influence of drugs including cannabis, citing a rise in the percentage of Britons killed on the road who tested positive for the drug. But medical experts recommended the government reclassify cannabis as a low-risk drug, sparking a debate over its decriminalisation. also a nice pic comes with the story [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #5 posted by SoberStoner on March 27, 2002 at 20:37:36 PT:
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| My dream is to open a cannabis cafe in Canada (no chance of doing it in the states) and Nol has been a big inspirition of that dream. I know he gave a huge amount of support to Colin Davies and the Dutch Experience and doesnt ask for much in return. One day maybe I'll get to meet him. Hopefully one day I will attend another one of these classes so I can give my future shop a leg up by listening to what worked for Nol. My dreams seem so far off, yet I can envision my shop within my head now...and i know that someday it will be a reality. I dont know when, and i am not a patient person, so it's hard to think about sometimes, but I know that when i do this, it will be a haven for ALL medical users and my profits will come not from the cannabis, but from the people i meet, and the people i help, and all the other Hemp materials i will carry (smoking accessories, clothing, educational materials, etc) It's articles like this that make me realize why I love the cannabis community so much. In America, a businessman telling others how to run a shop in direct competition with theirs is almost unheard of, yet Nol and the rest of the community realize we are fighting for a larger cause and that for every shop that opens, we are a little closer to winning. This is just what i needed to end my day with..a light of hope in an otherwise dismal day. SS [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #4 posted by FoM on March 27, 2002 at 20:20:43 PT |
| Here is the link to the program! Pot Refugees Canada has a reputation as a safe haven for all kinds of refugees. In the 60's, thousands of those refugees were U.S. draft dodgers fleeing forced service in Vietnam. Now there's another group of Americans seeking sanctuary here, though they're dodging a different kind of war: the war on drugs. Watch the Story: http://www.cbc.ca/disclosure/media/020326_drugs.ram http://www.cbc.ca/disclosure/archives/020326.html#drugs [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #3 posted by herbdoc215 on March 27, 2002 at 20:01:55 PT:
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| sorry FoM but we just got a chance to tell our side on tv and it came out pretty cool for us, nice change of pace and another proof of difference between US and Canada. Maybe we will be welcomed after all as we have gotten allot of positive responses from already. Here is link to show and is last show on page about US refugees up here from DEAth. I was about to give up on ever getting our view seen by public, I guess I could get used to this place if I have to as it could always be worse. 'Oh Canada .....I'm learning as fast as I can!
http://www.cbc.ca/disclosure/archives/020326.html [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #2 posted by Ethan Russo MD on March 27, 2002 at 18:14:00 PT:
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| I had the pleasure of meeting Nol at CannaTrade 2002, and he attended my lecture. No one should think that this man is not extremely knowledgeable, because he is. No one should think that he is not extremely serious, because he is. No one should think that he is not extremely dedicated, because he is. Nol is also a very engaging person, who speaks English as if he grew up in Manchester. Prohibition is on the ropes in Europe, and soon, the world. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on March 27, 2002 at 16:35:33 PT |
| They've got a nice photo on this story [ Post Comment ] |
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