The story of James Burton: medical cannabis in the Netherlands

by druginc

The story of James Burton: medical cannabis in the Netherlands

The start of the controlled supply chain experiment for cannabis, in which legally produced cannabis is sold in coffee shops in ten municipalities, grown by government-appointed growers, seems to be moving the Netherlands towards cannabis legalization. What many people don't know, however, is that medical cannabis has been legal in the Netherlands for a while. James Burton was one of the first to legally grow cannabis for medical use. This is his story.

Vietnam - 1968

1968 - A group of young American boys sit by a campfire, talk, laugh, and tell stories. You would almost forget they are here to make war.

One of them is James Burton, just 19 years old. It feels good to forget the horrors of war that they experience every day, be it with alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana or heroin. A few nights earlier, someone was murdered in their bed in the middle of the night. So while they may not say it out loud, everyone is afraid to go to sleep at the risk of not waking up. It is better to go to sleep at seven in the morning than at seven at night.

Everyone is stressed and above all exhausted, the danger is that if you are stressed, you make mistakes and when you make mistakes in the jungle of Vietnam, it is at a high price. The group around the campfire passes a shotgun with marijuana in it. They blow and the smoke from the pipe goes into the barrel, while it is sucked out the other end. It feels good: the high makes them temporarily forget about the people they are trying to kill 'out there'.

Bowling Green, Kentucky - 1972

1972 - After returning from Vietnam, Burton discovers he has glaucoma, a degenerative disease that puts a lot of strain on the eyes. If not treated, it can cause vision loss and even blindness. His brothers all suffer from the same disease, which causes them problems with their vision. Burton doesn't need glasses, though. The only explanation he can find is that the marijuana he smoked saved his eyesight.

According to a 1998 study by Keith Green, smoking marijuana causes a decrease in intraocular pressure (IOP), the fluid pressure in the eye, in about 60-65% of users. The problem, however, is that the pressure drop lasts only a few hours, so the consumption of marijuana needed to keep the IOP at a safe level should be quite high.

Police raided Burton's Kentucky farm in 1987

1987 - Eddie Railey, Kentucky state police detective, calls it a one-man operation. "It's not that big, but it's probably the most advanced operation I've seen in this field." When Burton's farm is raided by police, they find an estimated $ 112.000 marijuana and $ 4000 worth of processing equipment.

Burton has been accused of growing marijuana and has been behind bars for over 50 years. He pleads not guilty because of his medical need. The federal jury seems to agree, and finds Burton not guilty of a crime, but of three criminal offenses.

Burton's attorney, Steve Hixson, calls the penalty mild compared to what was initially in store for him, admitting that "it's a win by any standard." Burton is eventually transferred to 6 different federal institutions each year to avoid talking to the press about his 'medical need'.

Rotterdam - 1989

1989 - After leaving prison, Burton has lost everything: his house, his cars, everything confiscated. There are two options: stay in the United States at the risk of going blind, or leave and go to the Netherlands where he can legally obtain marijuana to save his eyesight. Knowing that if he is caught for the third time on marijuana, he is facing a life sentence ('three strikes and you're out'), Burton decides to leave.

He moves to Rotterdam, where he gets a job as a computer programmer, while growing marijuana in his spare time. Due to the high energy bill, it does not take long before the police track him down. When the Rotterdam police chief Jaap de Vlieger finds out that Burton is not looking for profit, but is providing all kinds of patients with his' medicine ', he decides to tolerate the' side project 'and tells him that he is' with three eyes. will love '.

In 1993 Burton started SIMM, the Institute of Medical Marijuana, which only sells to patients with a prescription for only 2,5 guilders (€ 1,15) per gram. After a while, Burton started supplying pharmacies, with Gouda being the first, with its product and countless patients suffering from different types of diseases, from multiple sclerosis and arthritis to cancer and AIDS.


Start of SIMM: legal cultivation for pharmacies - 2003

2003 - Burton receives a five-year contract from the Dutch government to grow marijuana for pharmacies. He becomes one of only two official growers. The Bureau of Medical Cannabis (BMC), part of the Ministry of Health, has officially given him the green light to start growing in larger quantities.

Dressed in a white lab coat, his ponytail barely visible, Burton sets to work in his 1800-square-foot greenhouses in a secret location in the province of South Holland. The complex is guarded by three major German shepherds, and Burton's work is assisted by six full-timers and eleven part-timers.

More than 130 different strains are grown, all with varying levels of THC and CBD (the active ingredients in cannabis). However, a day after the first official state-grown marijuana ends up in Dutch pharmacies, the college of health insurers advises against paying for medicinal cannabis.

Westland, The Netherlands - 2005

2005 - It doesn't take long for the ten to fifteen thousand patients who used to buy the medical marijuana to buy their medicine elsewhere. They are not satisfied with the quality, variety and price.

The state-grown marijuana costs about $ 10 per gram, while coffee shops charge no more than half. Health insurers often do not reimburse medical marijuana because they believe that there is too little scientific evidence for the effect of cannabis as a medicine.

Less than a few hundred patients continue to purchase the state-grown product. At the end of 2004, the government priced itself out of the market and the waste processing plant in Rotterdam must destroy kilos of surplus cannabis.

Not long after an interview with the Dutch current affairs program NOVA, where Burton speaks out about what the government calls 'mismanagement', his opioid license is revoked. The only state grower left now is Bedrocan, owned by Tjalling Erkelens, the brother of Leendert Erkelens, (then) senior official at the Ministry of Justice. Burton loses his institute and has to sell everything.

In the years after Burton stopped growing, business for Bedrocan has been slow, but after about a decade it finally picks up. The popularity of cannabis oil is partly to blame, as the popularity of dried cannabis buds (flos) continues to decline, according to the Dutch Foundation for Pharmaceutical Core Figures (SFK). Nevertheless, the figures have been declining again in recent years, possibly due to the Dutch College of General Practitioners, which advises GPs to be careful when prescribing cannabis because "there is insufficient scientific evidence for pain reduction or improvement of quality of life.

Controlled Cannabis Supply Chain Experiment - 2019

2019 - Almost fifteen years later, the Netherlands is preparing for a new experiment. This time it is not only medical cannabis, but also recreational cannabis. In this experiment, coffee shops in ten municipalities will start selling legally produced cannabis from ten growers designated by the government. The aim is to find out whether it is possible to regulate a quality-controlled delivery of cannabis to coffee shops and to see if the experiment has an effect on crime, security and public health.

While many coffee shop owners seem keen that it could end the current ambiguous 'back door' policy where coffee shops are allowed to sell cannabis but not stock the product, there is still much debate about whether or not stock and whether this experiment is the right choice.

Burton doesn't believe the experiment will be a success, he thinks the same thing will happen as when he was growing: the price will be too high and the variety too low. If one of these factors is completely eliminated, customers will buy their product elsewhere, either in coffee shops that are not participating in the experiment, or on the black market. The experiment will take place next year in 2021.

Sources include CannabisNewsNetwork (EN), Sensi Seeds (EN), Voltface (EN)

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