Wernard Bruining - Cannabis Pioneer and Activist
by lazystrain
With a career spanning more than 30 years working as a Cannabis Activist, Author, Connoisseur, Breeder, Dealer, Political Leader, Growshop Owner, and Coffeeshop Pioneer, Wernard Bruining has given cannabis culture his all. A forefather of the cannabis normalisation process in Europe Wernard created the worlds very first coffeeshop in the heart of Amsterdam. Since then Wernard Bruining has been working towards educating a mostly unconscious society about the consciousness of smoking and growing with cannabis.
By placing the lifestyle of this extraordinary character into a biographical context, we didn't want to pay Wernard any discredit. As the person responsible for giving cannabis such a respectable image it was always important that we captured his side of the story, in his own words. The measure of the man himself trails way beyond the surface of cannabis culture and into its very pockets. Soft Secrets then arranged a telephone interview with Wernard at his home. What follows can therefore only be regarded as a snippet of what Wernard Bruining has so far achieved.
The Pioneer
Wernard Bruining was born in Dutch New Guinea, now Indonesia. His upbringing in the friendly laid-back atmosphere of the former Dutch Colony is what Wernard accredits making his transition into the Dutch hippie Society so easy.
While studying to become a school teacher in 1969 Wernard first got involved with the Student Revolutions that were occurring across Amsterdam's Universities. A year later Wernard went to a New Years Eve party at a youth club called '2nd Home'. The Laid back atmosphere reminded Wernard of the East, and that made it easy for him stay in this hippie world. Soon the visitors staged their own revolution because the leaders of the Youth Club " - smoked to much Hasj, (and) dropped to much acid, and weren't doing a good job in organising the youth centre".
In Wernard's own words "I had entered a as big a world, with less people and no rules. I learned that you can only enjoy this freedom in the cannabis world by designing your own new set of rules" These rules involved consumption of cannabis and LSD. The essence of coffeeshop culture was then slowly starting to unfold.
During the early 1970's Wernard adopted a Hippie lifestyle, living in communes with friends sometimes as many as nine people to one room. In 1972 he moved into a "squatter-house" where most of the residents were dealing to get their own smoke for free. Back then he explains "the smoking and dealing went together". In 1973 Wernard opened his own "Tea House". The worlds first officially recognised Cannabis Coffeeshop on Amsterdam's Weesperzijde 53, the 'Mellow Yellow'.
Mellow Yellow was "a way of organising things in a polite and civilised manner". The "tea house" only allowed one "house-dealer" who had a variety of cannabis products prebagged in 10 or 25 guilder deals, so there was never any mistake about the price or quantity of hash or grass on offer. This system of just one dealer, who was protected by the coffeeshop, became known as the "Golden Coffeeshop Formula". The visitors of the coffeeshop were protected, as was the shop owner, since the police could only arrest the house-dealer. The Golden Coffeeshop Formula Wernard created in turn allowed hundreds of other coffeeshops to open their doors to the public of Amsterdam.
The varieties of cannabis available back then were mainly imported from third world countries, Wernard explains. The grass had lots of seeds in it and was of average quality compared with the top quality hashish that was available. Wernard travelled to America in 1978 and discovered growers using the 'sinsemillia technique' of farming cannabis. He then asked Old Ed 1916-2007, to come to Europe. Over the next 4 - 5 years Old Ed. lived with Wernard at his house in Amsterdam and the 'Green Team' was founded. The Green Team, old Ed, Wernard, and friends, had a vision of turning Amsterdam into the Jamaica of Europe. Check out: http://www.cannabisconnections.nl/olded.html
He started the Lowland Seed Company in 1980. Holland's first seed bank. Lowland Seed Co. was used as an advertising vehicle to promote the Sinsemilla idea. Wernard came up with the smart idea of selling seeds, biological fertilizers, and an instructions poster in a cardboard box for 25 guilders. The motivation behind the venture was to encourage smokers to start growing their own cannabis plants, all at the same cost of a coffeeshop bag. The idea caught on and thousands of people across the Netherlands and Europe starting growing their own cannabis.
During those pioneering years of the Sinsemilla Guerilla the Green team did a lot of growing and dealing in order to support their operations. Each year the Green Team produced more product, up to 200 kg a year, that Wernard had to sell to the Coffeeshops.
In 1985 Wernard realised that the "Sinsemilla Guerilla" had grown up and no longer really needed his help. So in1985 he left the Green Team and opened Europe´s first grow shop Positronics. As an enthusiastic table-football player Wernard's momentous behind opening Positronics was to fund the construction of what he called "the ultimate table football machine". Originally, Positronics sold seeds, clones, lights and fertilisers. As the company developed Wernard started to experiment by designing his own reflectors that indoors growers still use today. Positronics went from strength to strength ending up with 60 employees and even a newspaper called 'Soft Secrets'. The ultimate table football machine was also finally constructed from American Oak, costing around 6,000 guilders to make.
In 1984 Wernard realised that clones made it so much easier for people to grow their own plants. So he did the next logical thing and added 'The Sensimilla Fan Club' in 1985 to Positronics. The Sensimilla Fan Club stocked between 40-50 varieties and operated on two levels. Firstly visitors had to be a member of the club, which helped protected the constitutional rights of its members from the police. Secondly the issue of membership deterred profit hungry commercial growers from submitting their details and abusing the facilities Wernard was providing. The police later raided The Sensimilla Fan Club, confiscated 10,000 plants and demanded a list of the clubs members from Wernard. To which Wernard said "No". This was respected by the police who advised him to start all over again. "You must have copies of your clones somewhere, and we wont´t be coming back for at least a year or so they said". A promise that was kept, they never came back.
The Activist
Wernard's passion for cannabis didn't stop there. As one of the worlds leading cannabis activists Wernard is as much a pioneer of the liberalisation process as he is a grow guru and coffeeshop pioneer. One morning in 1994 Wernard awoke with a line in his head - "Medi Wiet is a must". He got out of bed and phoned a few coffeeshops asking them to sell cannabis to certified medicinal patients at half the normal coffeeshop price. The champagne was a success. At least 50 coffeeshops signed up to the idea until the Dutch Government stepped in and placed their own draconian legislation on things.
Realising that the issue of medicinal cannabis further promotes a responsible image of cannabis use within society, Wernard is still an active campaigner for the rights of medi. patients via his website www.medi-wiet.nl . As Wernard puts it "The Medi-patients are the Commandos of the Pro Cannabis Army". Some of his work there is involved in helping doctors to acknowledge the lifestyle of their patients. A paper, (down-loadable from the medi-wiet website), can be submitted to a Doctor or Physician for his/her signature, which in turn acts as a statement of intent/proof for the police to act upon if they so care. Thus helping to make the whole process of growing medicinal weed in the Netherlands a lot more transparent and official.
Wernard supports Adriaan Jansen's theory of the 'Green Avalanche' - whereby the estimated uptake in home-growing coupled alongside the ignorance of politicians will witness a green avalanche of decriminalization and a normalization process will result in the global emancipation of cannabis. Check out: http://www.cedro-uva.org/lib/bruining.how.html
Wernard's prediction is that "In 10 - 20 years, a combination of youth, the internet, and lots of free information will see a different Europe. The foundation of Christian beliefs are based on God. Cannabis is a entheogene. An entheogene opens people´s eyes for the God in themselves and others. Religions like to hold a monopoly on these things". Religion to Wernard is a fairytale of misguided beliefs that automaticly leads to "The fairytale of a drug-free society".
As the Political Leader of 'Green Free', the Dutch Cannabis Party whose own slogans include "Blow those crazy baldheads out of the Dutch Government!' Wernard remains politically active. Aiming to bridge the distance between cannabis users and the 25% of the general Dutch public that "disapprove" of cannabis, or simply remain ignorant to its uses, is half his aim. On the 1st June 2008 a proposed ban on smoking in coffeeshops comes into place and coffeeshops may well be reduced to selling points. Wernard sees that this will only force smoking onto the streets and the government will finally "have to" impose an outright ban.
Always on the look out to explore new ideas and formulas to bridge the gap between the civilised and the insane Wernard is always on the case. "The era of the coffeeshop is almost passéé" Wernard cheerfully laments. "The problem with coffeeshops is they offer scary access to the big public. Cannabis clubs that are only open to members would be better for the cannabis scene in general. Each drug is as safe as the set of rules that surrounds its consumption. Coffeeshops provide Cannabis such a safe set of rules. A potential consumer can enter a coffeeshop and see what cannabis does to you, you either like it, or you don´t. At least as a consumer you have an honest choice. Remember, Cannabis products are relatively innocent, but they are at the same time powerful mind altering drugs".
Soft Secrets would like to say a big "Dank U" to Wernard for sharing his laid-back lifestyle and logical approach towards cannabis with us all.
Wernard.nl
