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April 20, 2021 93 mins
Amsterdam’s Cannabis Revolution - featuring “The Potfather” - Dutch cannabis pioneer Wernard Bruining (Episode 12). In our new episode of Cannthropology, we explore the origins of how Amsterdam became the cannabis capital of Europe, from the perspective of one of the Netherlands’ most pivotal cannabis pioneers–Wernard Bruining. He’s known as “The Potfather,” and with good reason: in 1973, he opened Amsterdam’s very first coffee shop, the Mellow Yellow; in 1980, he started the world’s first commercial cannabis seed company (Lowland Seed Company), and five years later he opened Europe’s first cannabis grow shop, Positronics; a decade later in 1995, he founded Europe’s first medical marijuana foundation—Stichting Mediwiet. Host Bobby Black speaks with Wernard about how the Provo movement helped instigate the Netherlands’ policy of cannabis tolerance, how the coffeeshop industry first began, how his “Green Team” of legendary growers/breeders helped turn the world on to sinsemilla, and how learning about Rick Simpson inspired him to switch his focus to the medical side of marijuana.  
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