Pubdate: Mon, 13 Apr 2009
Source: Northern Advocate (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2009 Northern Advocate
Contact: http://www.northernadvocate.co.nz/info/letters/
Website: http://www.northernadvocate.co.nz
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2929
Author: Mike Barrington

CANNABIS PAIR SMOKIN' IT OVERSEAS WITH NORTH-HONED SKILLS

Cannabis cultivation skills which could bring brothers Tim and Dave
A'Court jail terms in Whangarei where they lived as teenagers, have
made them successful businessmen in Amsterdam.

The Kiwiseeds company they set up in the liberal Dutch city five years
ago has since won three Cannabis Cups awarded by High Times, a New
York-based magazine with an international circulation advocating the
drug's legalisation.

Tim, 40, and Dave 37, were born in Britain and moved to New Zealand
with their mother when they were infants, living first at Ruawai, then
Dargaville and settling in Whangarei after a brief stint in Tauranga.

Tim attended Kamo High School until 1984, leaving at the end of the
fifth form at age 15. Dave quit Whangarei Boys' High School three
years later.

Tim told the Northern Advocate jobs were hard to come by in the late
1980s and with dole only $40 a week young people needed to find ways
to make cash.

"Some turned to burglary, others stole cars, we started growing weed,"
he said.

Tim was convicted for cannabis offences and served a term in a
rehabilitation centre in Napier.

"But I escaped jail - just," he said.

The brothers moved to Amsterdam in 1995. Tim said cannabis was not
legal but was tolerated in Holland, where a distinction between hard
and soft drugs kept young people away from opiates and other harmful
drugs and out of the overloaded legal system.

"Cannabis should be legalised in New Zealand because prohibition
doesn't work and is dangerous," he said.

"Cannabis is relatively harmless. Decriminalising it would free up
resources to educate the young about harmful drugs such as alcohol and
P."

Tim said he and Dave had never looked back since forming
Kiwiseeds.

"They love us and we're proud to be here flying the flag for every
smoker in New Zealand, which surveys show is about 18 per cent of the
population - three of four times that of Holland," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake