Ein nettes Presseecho zum mittlerweile Drei Jahre zurückliegenden Besuch der DHV-Delegation, die sich vor Ort einen Eindruck über die Legalisierung in Colorado gemacht hat. Vize-Geschäftsführer Florian Rister wird hierbei mehrfach zitiert.
“A lot of people think if we fully legalize cannabis then we will have it in the supermarket at a low level so that the children can grab it,” says Florian Rister, vice CEO of Deutscher Hanfverband, the German Hemp Association.
He added: “We tell people that we can create a system like Colorado did where there are dispensaries for cannabis where you only go if you want it and there’s no other reason to go there and there are no children. For a first mover, where the eyes of the whole world are watching, I think Colorado did it great.”
As one of the loudest and most persistent voices pushing for legal pot, Deutscher Hanfverband traveled to Colorado for boots-on-the-ground information. The result is a documentary on America’s great marijuana experiment. The camera follows Rister, breathless with excitement, as he lands at DIA and then appears in a pot shop where a tie-dyed budtender lays out various jars of bud.
Rister chooses “African Tangerine” over “Pineapple Express” as a joint-smoking Mona Lisa looks on with those sideways eyes. Showcased in the German-made doc are Colorado-familiar dispensaries like River Rock and Legal Eagle, meetings with industry leaders like NORML and a sit-down at ClubNed.
For the record, Rister is not a fan of Colorado pot.
“Mostly, I would say it’s not too good. I was complaining because it’s dry! You have that low humidity in Colorado. Your skin is always dry there, and so is the pot! You touch it and it goes to dust.”
He prefers pot grown in Germany, where humidity is high and the consistency is “fluffy.”
When he lobbies at the Bundestag, the German parliament, Florian Rister makes the same argument Coloradans heard when Amendment 64 was on the ballot.
“We say, ‘Hey there’s something wrong here!’ We tell people cannabis users shouldn’t be treated harder than alcohol users in a safe and legal system. Of course, I’d like to see full legalization, but that’s long-term. That’s why we are here.”