The Hemp Connoisseur April/May 2013, #6 | Page 66

Life on the Road: The Journal of Mila Jansen

My good friend Alex planned a Tricoma Tour of South America. He invited Jorge Cervantes, Don Wirtshafter and me.
The main focus would be a meeting with the Junta de Drogas de Uruguay, to discuss the legalization of cannabis.
There would be also be expo’ s in Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo, Rosario, Capilla del Monte, Mendoza and Santiago.
Then, all of the sudden, Jorge backed out, saying he was not well enough to travel and several of the Expos got canceled. However, at the last moment, Simon from Serious Seeds asked to come along and on the 9th of December 2012 we arrived in Buenos Aires to an enthusiastic welcome. Alex was standing there with a big bunch of flowers!
Whisked off straight away to a grand hotel, I was shown into a queen’ s suite. Great! Also awaiting me was a private stash of Dulce de Leche, the best hashish smoke on the continent! Then, after a huge lunch with Alex’ s full family and friends, I finally met Laura Blanco and her husband Juan. She is the president of the AECU( Asociacion de Estudios del Cannabis del Uruguay) and both are very active in the legalization of cannabis process in Uruguay.
Soon after we all set off for the First Clinica Internacional Cultivo Indoor in Buenos Aires. Even with all the confusion of Jorge Cervantes not coming it was a great affair, with a couple of thousand visitors, and twenty-odd booths. Not speaking Spanish, it soon became clear to me that if I just hugged everyone, most people were very happy. People from all over South America came by, pictures were taken, and it was all a whirl. Having not slept much on the plane, and it being twenty-eight degrees hotter than in Amsterdam, I was not in the greatest shape when it was my turn to give my slideshow presentation. The pictures seemed jumbled and it was new to work with a translator. Poor Mike Bifari had a hard time that first day!
The next morning we took the boat to Montevideo. It was a choppy ride and it was dangerous even to go to the bathroom, I smashed into the wall a couple of times, ouch! It was pouring rain when we arrived and we rushed to Hotel Splendida. Our group took over the whole hotel and the breakfast room
66 April / May became our temporary office. There all the discussions were held on the upcoming talk with the government about the legalization of cannabis here in Uruguay.
The following morning, a golden van was waiting outside for us all and off we went on a Magical Mystery Tour. An hour later we arrived at the Uruguay Agricultural Research Station where we were given an official tour of the various facilities. Everything there was pretty modern; greenhouses for cloning, vegetation, flowering, seeding and even temperature and humidity control. We imagined getting the go-ahead from the Uruguay government after they legalized cannabis and how good these greenhouses would look filled with marijuana plants!
From there we drove on to visit Laura and Juan’ s farm, another hours drive away. They had not been there for nearly a year and, as windows were lacking, there were a couple of birds’ nests in the living room. Outdoors we found a shady place to sit and smoke and get to know each other a bit better. Alex, Simon, Don Wirtshafter, Laura and Juan were there and I was also introduced to Dr. Pablo Ascolani, who we were to visit later in Rosario. Also there that morning were Lupo, from Pure Sativa and Mike Bifari, a local activist and founder of the first legalize association in Uruguay, Cogollos. These two stayed with us until the end of our journey. After a picnic lunch we worked our way through wild woods and marshes full of frogs, to look at some rather sad marijuana plants that were well hidden from prying eyes. The first attempt at home grow this season had led to disaster, with Juan off in jail. The plants we were looking at now were generous gifts from his friends. Back at the farm with time for a smoke, that Dulce de Leche, from Columbia, was really wonderful.
For the next few days Laura was behind the computer non-stop. The news that Uruguay was seriously considering the legalization of cannabis was world news. There was a television interview, lots of talking and a letter for the U. N. Don Wirtshafter was for the growing of hemp, but all the others were hoping the AECU would somehow be involved with the government growing of marijuana. Who knows?
That Friday at four o’ clock, we met the Junta Nacional de Drogas de Uruguay. Upon arrival we were ushered into a conference room. Mr. Julio Calzada came in and introduced himself to each of us individually, mentioning he had seen Mr. Hoogevorst here recently.( That was the former Dutch Minister of Health, here no doubt to sell Dutch medical marijuana as they were producing too much for the Dutch medical consumption. Most Dutch patients prefer going to a coffee shop where there is more choice and the prices are usually better.)
Dr. Pablo Ascolani gave the first talk about medical marijuana, followed by Don Wirtshafter, describing the benefits of hemp and how he could help set up an Uruguay industry. Then my PowerPoint presentation came, Laura had translated the written text into Spanish and some relevant notes concerning the present day local legal situation had been added. It led to plenty of questions and a lively debate.
Mr. Julio Calzada explained they would go forward with the legalization plan that the texts would be ready in March to be voted in, but that much had to be decided on before then. Don then presented some quality hemp pants, a gift for the president, but the latter had already left for the weekend, and it was already almost six o’ clock.( The president is El Pepe, who sold his presidential palace to raise money to house the poor, who lives on a small farm with his wife and their little three-legged dog and gives up 90 percent of his wages. He must be a special man and may be the first to legalize marijuana. Bless him!!)
Phew! That was over. Let’ s party! We ate great food, stayed up till the early hours and prepared ourselves for the Montevideo AECU Cultivation Fair the next afternoon.
What a great location for a fair! Several hundred people turned up; there was great music from a stranded U. S. traveler and such very welcoming people. I hugged so many. It was so great to be there but with it being so hot I had to do my best to stay cool. But our presentations went well and everyone was happy.
Afterwards we had a memorable night in the back streets of Montevideo, listening to throbbing drums, watching the girls and children dance at one in the morning, sharing an ice cream that was half a meter high. Great fun!
During the next days almost everyone