This is so true. Totally different reasons to use cannabis. Medical patients like me, have to figure out. Find the right strain, the right extraction procedure, your reason for needing medical cannabis and how it works with your metabolism.
The first Cannabis Capital Convention was held this past September in Amsterdam, and one of the highlights was the presentation by leaders of Dutch cannabis producers Bedrocan. Co-founder and CEO Tjalling Erkelens, along with chief financial officer Mauricio Agudelo, began by debunking a persistent myth regarding the origins of the company’s name.
Legend had it that the company was named in honor of Ben Dronkers, the founder of Sensi Seeds and the Hash, Marihuana and Hemp Museum — as in BEn DROnkers CANnabis. It’s a good story, but it’s not true. Bedrocan actually refers to the names of the two founders, Freerk Bruining (B) and Tjalling Erkelens (E); the Dutch word for dry, “droog” (DRO); and cannabis, natch (CAN).
Regardless of the origin of the company’s name, Bedrocan is a true pioneer in medical cannabis. Upon founding the company in 1984, Bruining and Erkelens initially grew chicory, herbs and potted plants indoors before experimenting with their first batch of cannabis seeds in 1992. Soon after, they decided to focus exclusively on medical marijuana.
The Netherlands introduced its famous tolerance policy for cannabis in 1976, but it wasn’t until 1999 that the government started a medical cannabis program. At that time, there were four companies and organizations that were growing and supplying medical-grade cannabis to thousands of patients. This was technically illegal, but it was tolerated by authorities.
Most prominent among these early pioneers were MariPharm in Rotterdam and the Institute of Medical Marijuana (SIMM), founded by James Burton, a Vietnam veteran from America who fled to Holland in the 1980s. Per the United Nations drug treaties, the Dutch government set up the Office of Medicinal Cannabis (BMC) to be responsible for the production of medical cannabis and to provide dispensations from the Dutch Opium Act that growers require.
Bedrocan, MariPharm and SIMM initially received dispensations, and history was made in September 2003 when the first fully legal medical cannabis went on sale in Dutch pharmacies. But Bedrocan was soon left as the sole legal producer of medical cannabis in the Netherlands when MariPharm and SIMM lost their dispensations within two years. Burton was particularly outspoken against the BMC and predicted that the medical cannabis program would become a fiasco. Indeed, sales lagged far behind expectations, the weed in the pharmacies was expensive, and for years there was only one strain available. Bedrocan was struggling to survive, selling no more than around 154 pounds annually.
The company was — and still is — between two fires. On one side, there are the patients who want more — more strains, more research, and more products like oil, tinctures and concentrates. On the other side, there’s the BMC, which seems to want to keep medicinal cannabis as small and as limited as possible.
There was some improvement in 2009 when Bedrocan received approval to increase the number of strains it produces, so the team worked hard and kept a low profile at the grow facility in Veendam, located in the northeast of the country.
#TjallingErkelens #Bedrocan #MedicalCannabis #CannabisCapitalConvention #SIMM #MariPharm #JamesBurton #Veteran #SensiSeeds
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