How have you been spending the past year? Perhaps you’ve met a few friends, joined some new clubs, and slogged your way through a couple of classes. But you probably didn’t spend the last twelve months working on a documentary about the marijuana industry abroad — that is, unless, you’re film student Shane Robinson.

Last November, Robinson was accepted into a May-mester class offered by the College of Communications. This class culminated in a week-long trip to Amsterdam. This expedition was no vacation, however. This class’ students spent plenty of their time researching potential topics and resources, months in advance.”I began researching this documentary last November,” Robinson said. “And I just added the finishing touches to it about two weeks ago.”

Dutch non profit organisation VOC (Union for the abolition of cannabis prohibition) has launched a campaign called ‘Justice for Johan‘. The aim of the campaign and website of the same name is to draw attention to the plight of Dutch coffeeshop pioneer Johan van Laarhoven, who has been imprisoned under appalling conditions in Thailand since July 2014. On November 10 a verdict is expected in Bangkok. 

AXIM Biotechnologies, Inc. (OTC: AXIM), an innovative company focused on the research, development and production of hemp-based pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmetic products with an emphasis on the well-being of their customers, announced today that it has secured the down payment on land to build a brand new, state-of-the-art facility on 6,000 square meters of land located at the industrial estate of Stichtsekant, in the city of Almere, The Netherlands. AXIM Biotech’s future high-tech factory will be located on the corner of Fort de Gagel and Fort Blauwkape.

If anyone in the world has experience with marijuana legalization, it's the Dutch. For nearly 40 years, the limited sale and use of the plant has been effectively legalized — so-called "coffee shops" are allowed to stock and sell small quantities of cannabis to adult buyers.

If you wanted to grow your own cannabis in the 1970s, your choices for genetics were extremely limited. One could take back seed but the available Columbian, Mexican and Thai were all equatorial sativas, which were not well suited for more northerly climes. Plus, Finishing times were too long to really produce high-grade bud. During the 70s, intrepid travelers began bringing back seeds from Afghanistan. These were short, stocky indicas, traditionally used for hash production. Thus the era of skunk began.

The appeal in the case against Doede De Jong on October 15 has the potential to achieve a sensible government policy on the 'paradox of the backdoor'.

he appeal in the case against Doede De Jong on October 15 will be submitted to the court of Leeuwarden (Netherlands) and has the potential to achieve a sensible government policy on the ‘paradox of the backdoor’, according to Dutch legalization NGO VOC Nederland.

UPDATE 29th of October, 2015: In the verdict against Doede de Jong the court ruled guilty, but no punishment. Case not finished. For more (in Dutch), visit the VOC Nederland website.

Last year around this time, I was in Amsterdam. I had taken a trip with my old friend, Jason, who had become ill with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and was in search of cannabis to help alleviate some of his symptoms. In hindsight, our cannabis-finding mission turned out to be the start of an ongoing journey, on which we’re still traveling today. In fact, this week, we returned to Amsterdam as part of the next phase of our project to explore a more multifaceted perspective of the cannabis industry.

Reporting from a 5 day fact finding mission in the Netherlands exploring the medical cannabis program and the players in the industry, together with Saul Kaye, our CEO and Jason Ryker, our CFO/COO.

Since we announced our partnership with Israel’s Cannabis Medical Unit and our subsequent postponement of the CannaTech Summit until March, we find ourselves with the time opportunity to investigate interesting markets and build new international relationships.