Everything has slowed right down to where the mood is near-hypnotic. The crowd caught up in the rhythm; tempered by the simmering mix of body heat, mellow reggae vibes, and the wisping clouds of cannabis smoke freefalling through the air; their listlessness only muddled by the crowd’s languid movements and the sound reverberations pulsing steadily through the wall-mounted speakers.
The dancehall MCs, YT and Ras Chanter — my travelling companions from the UK — shuffle familiarly in time to the music. Their performances have been relegated to a dimly lit corner of the floor, next to the sound system unit. I’m told It’s vital that the artists stay on the same level as the crowd. No stages to perform on here. I later learn that it’s always been that way; to reinforce that we’re all equal. We’re in this together. All the same.
Chanter and YT are in freeflow; not to be interrupted. As they instinctively feel their way through the crowd’s vibe, they overlay each beat with a defiant string of vocal declarations and praise. Bless up.
I glance around the floor. While I may be one of the older people here, I’m also participating in the hypno-flow, not just watching. At least two thirds of the crowd are also white and male. Yet there’s an authentic embrace of a non-native culture here. And everyone’s feeling good.
Welcome to Hamburg’s legal cannabis scene.
Grass roots
Arriving in an unfamiliar city on a summer’s Friday afternoon always fills me with a sense of eager anticipation. Things are just about to get started. It certainly feels like that as the taxi wicks its way through the dregs of rush hour traffic. The fun is just beginning. Nothing truer could be said of Germany’s cannabis industry either. Legalisation happened just three months ago, but weed has been here a lot longer.
I’m not just here to bear witness to see how the new cannabis laws are unfolding in Germany; I’m here for HamCan – the city’s international cannabis conference, now in its third year – specifically to moderate a speaker panel on international cannabis patients (more on that later).
I was invited by the show’s organiser, Lennart Tacke — aka Lenny Roots — a music producer who found himself back in his home city after over a decade in Jamaica, where the relationship between music and ganja is symbiotic.
Arriving at the end of Day One, it was pleasing to see the event was still in full swing, with a host of familiar faces from the cannabis industry circuit still enjoying the vibe in the dwindling sunshine. And while I was assured some plugs were still circulating, it seemed like the day’s trading may well have been over.
While there’s no shortage of weed in Hamburg, Germany’s still in a kind of cannabis limbo – in that it’s legal, but other than the medical market (for domestic patients only) and homegrown, there’s no regulated outlet to procure adult-use cannabis. As such.
Berlin’s bohemian vibe might be more at ease with cannabis, but as a port city, Hamburg has its own vices. Aside from the city’s notorious Reeperbahn area (quite a spectacle to witness at 3 am…), more broadly, Hamburg doesn’t seem like the most hedonistic of places. It does however exude importance. It has presence. A significance with which it holds itself. Standards to uphold.
The irony that this year’s HamCan was held in the port’s former customs house – with exhibitors setting up their stands outside, along the banks of the Zollkanal – wasn’t lost on me or others that I spoke to.
Influence & impact
HamCan isn’t a huge event, but it’s growing in both importance and popularity and is still intimate enough to facilitate some good conversations with friends and fellow stoners. Sure, it’s rec market-led, but connections to industry and the medical market are still present; right alongside the graffiti murals and reggae MCs.
For me, it was an opportunity to connect in person with a few people I’d seen at other events, and had been following on social media for a while, but not actually chatted to. People like journalist, advocate, and cannabis influencer, Micha Knodt – one of my fellow panelists. Well-known in Germany, he was one of the first cannabis patients here – number 50 he tells me – gaining special permission to access cannabis-as-medicine in 2009, way before national medical legalisation in 2017.
When I ask him how many patients Germany had accrued before discussions around recreational cannabis began, he tells me 100,000 was the magic number: a figure we haven’t even reached 50% of here in the UK. On the topic of campaigning to raise awareness, I’m told that Micha and other activists simply self-funded their own efforts: collaborating, coming together, and leveraging the outlets and channels available to them. While I’m sure other factors were also at play, it reminded me that collective action can be immensely powerful.
However, those were different times. Legalisation has improved access to medical cannabis too; though I’m reliably told by several people that the current process is by no means perfect (anything involving doctors and insurance rarely is). And yet despite setbacks and somewhat nebulous regulations, it’s working. More and more people are seeing cannabis as medicine. It’s becoming more socially acceptable. In Hamburg at least.
Talking to another of my fellow panellists, Mila Grun, a cannabis patient and editor of Cannabibliotek, who’s based in Munich, I learn that Bavaria has a much less liberal attitude towards cannabis. Tradition runs deep in the southern part of Germany, which is also the economic heart of the country, where a more conservative attitude prevails. Openly smoking cannabis just wouldn’t fly in Bavaria – which is also home to the annual Oktoberfest celebration, where beer is consumed by the stein-full. While these things make a tough crowd for cannabis adoption, normalisation, and legalisation: the fact is, it happened.
More talk, less toke
The panel I moderated was part of a wider speaker platform at HamCan. Though the talks were held up two flights of stairs, it was a hot day, there was live music, and most people were stoned; the audiences were engaged and actively participated in the discussions being had on stage. Alongside myself, Mila, and Micha, were my new pal YT and Stefan MacDonald from Lot 420 – who’d come all the way from Canada.
We shared our respective stories about medical cannabis in our home nations, giving us and the audience an opportunity to compare notes on what was and wasn’t working. What struck me was that both Canada and Germany had robust medical markets in place for at least five years before wider legalisation. We’re approaching our sixth year of medical cannabis here in Britain, and I’d wager that we’re at least another ten years away. That said, California began its medical programme in 1996 – 20 years before rec usage came in.
The panel immediately following ours was the most eye-opening for me. Chaired by Dr Uma Dhanabalan and featuring former professional baseball player, Steven Wright, part of the World Series-winning Boston Red Sox lineup, hearing about the strain we humans put on our minds and bodies, both as regular folks and athletes – it’s clear that we the one-pill/one-cure pedagogy that medical professionals adhere to isn’t sustainable long term. Cannabis in its various forms can be used for both prevention, maintenance, and recovery. And while it isn’t a panacea by any means, its remedial effects have a wide array of applications.
A key takeaway for me was that in order for cannabis – be it medical or recreational – to be accepted, we need to see more people from a diverse array of backgrounds benefitting from it. Culture is critical to normalisation. And while cannabis culture – however it manifests – won’t be for everyone, without it, there’s nothing for people to gravitate towards. There’s no other way to squash the stigma. Hamburg may be in a good spot, but as the Great Green Wave of acceptance permeates across the world, action is still needed after the fact.
It’ll certainly be interesting to see where we’re at in a year’s time.
