Category: cannabis congress

blowende bejaarde

Baby boomers smoking in Artis, Tesla boss smokes joint, and cannabis becomes the green gold

The 50-plus generation appears to have started blowing considerably more in recent years. It may not be such a bad idea to do it in Artis. Smoking weed is apparently permitted in the Amsterdam Zoo. Also this month: more commotion around the weed-smoking Tesla boss, Elon Musk; and investing in cannabis is insanely popular.

From our journalistic editors

Growing number of blowers among baby boomers

The 50-plus generation has started to smoke significantly more cannabis over the past ten years. This has become evident from an American study that was published recently.

Weed is becoming increasingly popular among ‘baby boomers’, which is what the generation born after the Second World War is commonly referred to. Ten years ago, only 4.5 percent of those aged between 50 to 65 smoked, but that number has almost doubled in recent years. The growth rate is even more spectacular amongst people aged 65 and over. Ten years ago, only 0.4 percent smoked cannabis, but today it is up to 3 percent.

What’s learned in the cradle is carried to the grave

Baby boomers generally have more experience in the use of drugs. They grew up in the post-war period and became adults during the turbulent sixties and seventies of the last century. Those were the decades of secularisation, sexual revolution, flower power, hippies and drug use.

Baby Boomers smoking weed

The study also shows that a large proportion of baby boomers have previous experience with smoking marijuana. More than half (54.5 percent) of the group aged between 50-65 smoked a joint when they were younger. This can be compared to the 22.4 percent of those above 65.

Cannabis use

The study surveyed a total of 17,608 adults about their cannabis use. Cannabis (medicinal) is being legalised in a growing number of American states. The researchers suspect the increase in the number of seniors smoking cannabis is partly due to this fact. Incidentally, it appears that alcohol and drug abuse, as well as hard drug use, is also more common among the group of older people who smoke cannabis.

The research was carried out by the NYU School of Medicine and the Center for Drug Use and the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research (CDUHR) at the NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing.

Tesla boss Elon Musk smokes joint on radio

Elon Musk blowen

Elon Musk

Tesla boss Elon Musk continues to cause a stir. Everyone was talking about him last month because he wanted to buy back all the Tesla shares on the stock exchange for 420 dollars per share. This month, the CEO of the car brand eagerly picked up a joint during a radio interview.

joint

“Elon Musk’s new advisor: cannabis” was the headline in De Volkskrant on 13 September. Musk was offered a joint during a two-and-a-half-hour podcast show with Joe Rogan. He immediately accepted, even though opinions were divided about whether or not he had actually inhaled. As a result, two high-ranking Tesla employees promptly handed in their resignation after the event.

420

Musk was recently forced to take a step back at car brand Tesla. The American stock market watchdog, the SEC, forced him to do so after he tweeted on 7 August that he intended to buy back all the shares of the car brand on the stock market with a bid of 420 dollars per share (please note the figures 420, which refer to cannabis use). Musk was apparently stoned out of his mind when he made the proposal.

Tesla

The stock market watchdog, the SEC, was not amused. In addition to a fine of $20 million, Musk had to resign as chairman of the supervisory board. He will however remain on as CEO. The stock market watchdog hopes to protect investors against the erratic behaviour of the unconventional 47-year-old Tesla boss.

Watching monkeys with a joint

Artis Zoo appears to tolerate cannabis smoking! The smoking ban is not (yet) valid in the zoo; so, the authorities are allowing cannabis smoking by turning a blind eye to smokers.

Smoking cannabis in Artis

Watching elephants, giraffes or monkeys with a joint? It’s allowed at the Artis Zoo in Amsterdam. The zoo has no clear smoking policy, as a result of which cannabis smoking is tolerated. This is a very active topic of discussion on social media and tourist forums.

Smoking

Artis director Rembrandt Sutorius only expects Artis to be completely smoke-free in 2020. To accommodate the regular smoking visitors, the zoo is introducing the smoking ban step by step. Smoking has already been banned on the terraces, in the playgrounds and in covered areas since the beginning of the year.

Because Artis doesn’t draw a distinction between smoking tobacco and smoking cannabis, you’re still allowed to light a joint in most places…for the time being.

Weed as the new Bitcoin

Investing in cannabis is hot. The fact that a growing number of countries is legalising cannabis means it is becoming more interesting for companies to go public. Cannabis oil, cannabis candy or beverages; more and more companies see money in weed. Stock market analysts predict that the green gold is set to become the new Bitcoin.

Weed Grower

Anyone who bought shares in the Canadian cannabis company, Tilray, on their initial public offering is now cashing in. The medicinal weed producer went to the stock exchange on 19 June 2018. The initial price per share was $16 (about €14). The price is currently fluctuating around €135! The EFT cannabis fund in North America has also been hugely successful. The very first European cannabis grower also went to the stock market on 24 September: the Danish company, StenoCare.

Cannabis Products

Investing in legal cannabis producers is a relatively recent development; the reason being that the trade in cannabis products is rapidly being legalised internationally. Analysts see similarities to the hype around Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency, where prices seemed to rise unstoppably for a long time.

Cannabis Capital Convention

The European première recently took place in Amsterdam: The investors’ congress, Cannabis Capital Convention, is dedicated to investment opportunities in the explosive cannabis growth market.

obesitas blowen cannabis

Does smoking weed help combat obesity?

This was one of the most remarkable reports presented this summer. We always thought that smoking weed gave people the munchies, but apparently cannabis also affects our metabolism. Also this month: a stoned Tesla boss, investment conference on the “green gold”, and a kind of e-cigarette as an alternative to the traditional joint.

By our journalists

Tesla boss stoned out of his head?

Elon Musk stoned

Elon Musk

Recently, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, announced that he was going to buy every share of his company that was on the stock market, with a bid of 420 dollars per share (note the number – 420). Immediately, everyone got on his case: Musk must have been stoned out of his head when he made this proposal.

420

On 7 August, Musk tweeted to his 22 million followers: “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured”, he wrote on Twitter. Musk wanted to buy all the shares on the stock market with a bid of 420 dollars per share, about twenty percent higher than the going price at the time. Musk came to this remarkable decision due to his conflict with shareholders about production of the new Tesla Model 3. It didn’t take long to make the link with 4:20 or 4/20, a reference to cannabis use.

Smoking weed

In an interview in the New York Times a week later, the unconventional Musk said that he works bizarrely long days, clocks up 120 hours a week, and can only sleep with the help of pills; apparently this includes cannabis, because in the same interview he said that his share decision was not caused by the weed he’d smoked.

He was criticised following his Twitter campaign for manipulating the share price. Stock market watchdog SEC even announced a fraud investigation.

Elon Musk (47) was born in South Africa and became a millionaire through the sale of his internet companies. In 2003, Musk founded Tesla Motors.

First European Cannabis Congress

eye filmmuseum cannabiscongres Amsterdam

Het filmmuseum EYE in Amsterdam

Amsterdam honoured with a European first: on 26 September, the EYE Film Museum will host the Cannabis Capital Convention investors’ congress, which is entirely dedicated to cannabis. The idea is that processing this “green gold” in all kinds of products will offer great investment opportunities.

Legalisation of cannabis

According to “The Cannabis Industry 2017 Annual Report”, the sale of cannabis, both medical and recreational, will only increase in the coming years. One of the main reasons for this is the legalisation of cannabis use in Canada and several American states. In the US, weed is already seen as a “profitable emerging market”. The Netherlands and the rest of Europe, where more and more countries are amending cannabis legislation, are benefitting from these developments.

Green gold

Cannabis has also gained the name, “green gold”, full of business opportunities. Take Heineken for example: Legunitas, a Californian beer brewery owned by Heineken, is going to brew HI-FI HOPS. It should result in an alcohol-free beer containing THC and CBD. Another example is the development of Grön Chocolate, an American chocolate brand full of CBD.

The aim of the Cannabis Capital Convention, during which various workshops and lectures will be held, is to bring North American cannabis investors and companies into contact with the European cannabis market.

Smoking weed in The Hague

It’s not the first time we’ve mentioned it: The Hague is banning joints from the city centre. However, it looks like a company from Delft has now come up with an effective alternative: an aluminium pipe that uses a cannabis-filled ‘coffee capsule’.

The system, which looks a bit like an e-cigarette, goes by the name of Jack-Pods. The Delft company that designed Jack-Pods is called E-Njoint, and has, according to its own blurb, the perfect solution to circumvent the ban on smoking joints. Their slogan: From stash to stoned in three easy steps.

Ban on joints

There are three types of metal pipes: The Weezy, The Hero and The Rebel (priced from €9.95). All three work with ‘coffee capsules’, which you put your own weed into. If the Jack-Pods don’t turn out to be the solution to the Hague ban on joints, they might be a solution to the Dutch smoking ban. According to the company, no smoke or weed fumes are released during use.

Reduced body mass index in cannabis users

Smoke a joint to lose weight? Well it’s not quite that simple, but scientific research has shown that cannabis users suffer less from excess weight than those who never consume cannabis. Perhaps further research will show that cannabis can help in the treatment of obesity.

The report by the American Indiana University goes by the long-winded name ‘Theoretical Explanation for Reduced Body Mass Index and Obesity Rates in Cannabis Users’. It provides evidence that joint smokers suffer less from obesity.
Cannabis

CB1

The technical explanation is complicated. There are receptors in our cells that send all kinds of signals to our brains. The receptor with the name CB1 is often overstimulated in Western countries, which causes an increased intake of calories, delayed digestion, and an increase in weight. The researchers discovered that cannabis consumption suppresses the stimulation of this CB1 receptor.

BMI

Previous studies endorse these results. A study of 4,743 people aged between 20 and 59, carried out by Oregon’s Health and Science University in 2017, came to a similar conclusion: people who use cannabis more than five times a month have, on average, a lower Body Mass Index (BMI) than those who never consume weed.