EKIP– Expert Club for Economics and Politics A Different Opinion
Anyone who saw the first Steve Jobs biopic (Pirates Of The Silicone Valley) remembers the scene where he and his garage company debuted at the 1977 San Francisco Computer Expo and realized they were on their way to becoming a hit in a nascent market. That's probably how 29-year-old Ivan Malik from Slovakia must have felt when dozens of people surrounded his father's booth to learn more about their new product. The place is Prague, and the occasion is the annual cannabis and medicinal herb fair - Cannafest. Under the hood of the largest and most famous expo hall in the Czech capital - Incheba Expo - Ivan demonstrates how his machine makes a clean extraction from cannabis by simply pressing the "On" button. The machine is compact, easily portable, extremely simple and, of course, cheap. This news would hardly move the average Bulgarian, but here comes the interesting thing - the device, this "personal computer" of the new and exploding cannabis industry, was designed by Bulgarians. And not by some random "smokers", but by academics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
Yes, that's right. Slovaks are selling a machine designed and assembled in Bulgaria at a Czech cannabis expo. It sounds almost surreal, but it's not.
Иначе обстановката на Канафест 2015 е нормална. Хора с червенясал поглед припкат щастливи с пазарски торби пълни със семена, бонгове и тор за насажденията си, а топлес мадами раздават безплатни аксесоари в опит да те привлекат към щанда на тяхната компания. Щастливи хлапета се наслаждават на приятна музика в приятна компания и довършват цигара декриминализирана трева, докато посетители от всякакви възрасти са се събрали в конферентната зона, за да разберат последните открития при използването на марихуаната за лечебни цели.
In the Czech Republic, everyone can grow a few plants at home
Nothing that is happening is unusual for a Czech. There, weed has not been stigmatized as something bad for years, and possession of up to 10 grams for personal use and up to 30 grams per month for medical use is not prosecuted by the law. Everyone is free to grow it at home, so as not to resort to the services of street dealers, and "boasting" about your production has become as normal as it is in Bulgaria to try your neighbor's homemade brandy and give him a tip on how to brew it better next time. And here it is appropriate to clarify that weed is not legal in the Czech Republic. You cannot sell weed containing the psychoactive substance THC in a store, and you cannot do it during the Canafesta.
Entrepreneurship and....Cannabis
Judging by what is happening and the huge interest in the event, it is not necessary. It is quite enough to stop chasing and throwing people into prisons to shelter the youngest and most explosive business in the world. Yes, right now the fastest growing business in the world is related to marijuana. Any product that has “Cannabis” in front of its name suddenly becomes desirable to everyone. At the fair you can find cannabis flour, cannabis beer, cannabis ice cream, even cannabis burgers… and they are quite tasty. Are they really useful? Is their price justified? Does it make sense to put crushed hemp seeds in your ice cream? Nobody is interested in this, just like nobody was interested in the personal computer until Steve Jobs created it and opened this new niche, this new need. As long as there are people willing to buy it, there will be people willing to sell it and this will be a good deal, both for the buyer and the seller, and for the Czech Republic as a country.
And that's exactly what distinguishes Sofia from Prague. One city is a hub of entrepreneurs, of dreamers, of people who struggle to make a better product at a lower price, of the next Steve Jobs... the other is a hub of organized crime, of street dealers, of teenagers who end up in the hospital after using anonymous Chinese synthetics because they can't afford the expensive street weed. At the Cannabis Festival, there's no talk of THC, there's no talk of getting high, intoxication is not something you're going to buy there.
Cannabinoids are used for medical purposes
Всички коментират другия основен канабиноид в растението – CBD (канабидиол). Неговите чисти екстракции бяха хита на фестивала, а цената им достига 30 000$ на килограм. И кой не би харесал CBD?! Веществото има направо чудодейни способности: намалява гърчовете при епилептици, потиска гаденето при раково болни, бори депресивни състояния и шизофрения и всичко това с минимални или никакви странични ефекти. Направо трябва да си пълен идиот да забраниш CBD и да не допуснеш пациентите да се лекуват с него. Или луд. Или злонамерен. Или и трите.
A question whose answer I still don't know, because (hold on, this news probably won't surprise you at all) CBD extraction is practically banned in Bulgaria. In Bulgaria, you can legally grow hemp for industrial purposes, which does not contain more than 0.2% of the prohibited, illegal, "high" THC, but at the same time is rich in the useful, medicinal, "non-high" CBD. By growing it, you can quite safely make yarn from it, use the seeds in your daily diet, and you can even sell it abroad. What you can't do is extract CBD, because some anonymous Bulgarian official, out of idiocy, madness, evil intent...or all three, has allowed your garden hemp plant to have up to 0.2% THC, but has banned you from processing it into oil, resin, or anything else. I really want to know who the official in question is.
Meanwhile, the young farmers from the Bulgarian Industrial Hemp Association, led by Alex Chervenkov, will continue their unequal battle with the Bulgarian administration to do business in Bulgaria and not export their production to the Czech Republic, the scientists from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences will continue to export their know-how to Slovakia and the Czech Republic instead of Bulgaria, and we as a society will continue to shoot ourselves in the foot out of idiocy, stupidity, malice... or all three together.
Remember the last time you visited an industrial fair in Bulgaria. One that captivated both exhibitors and participants, a forum where the passion for entrepreneurship is in the air, one where you know the next Steve Jobs will appear. I tried and failed. Bulgaria has long since become the country that, instead of being in the hands of creators, is in the hands of officials and their difficult-to-explain decisions…
Instead of a postscript: What didn't happen at Cannafest
No one died from an overdose.
Nobody stole their grandmother's TV to buy a dose of marijuana
No one developed schizophrenia
It never occurred to anyone, after getting high, to go and do heroin intravenously.
No one went to jail for a weed cigarette
No one was able to understand what kind of distorted system we have in Bulgaria...
*The author is the creator of the Liberty420 campaign
The situation on the topic is Bulgaria is simply one of the symptoms of the disease that has massively affected our people.
I strongly hope that the few people who cannot stand this unconscious stupidity called state and government will unite and finally begin to create a new order, with new values and goals.
Let's have goals again!
Goals and dreams!