CannaFest 2012, Prague

Liberal drug laws, an incredible venue, thousands of enthusiastic growers, barrels of ice cold Czech beer and some of the most beautiful women in the world, all add up to make CannaFest one of the best trade shows ever!

Liberal drug laws, an incredible venue, thousands of enthusiastic growers, barrels of ice cold Czech beer and some of the most beautiful women in the world, all add up to make CannaFest one of the best trade shows ever!

One of the reasons that the Czech Republic is such a great venue for a hemp show is that the country has implemented some very progressive, forward thinking drug laws. Before 2010, the law stated that people caught with ‘small amounts’ of cannabis would not be prosecuted. At the start of 2010, the laws were reformed from ‘small amounts’ to actual quantities giving a clear guideline to the police and public. This means being caught with less than - or up to - the guideline quantity results in a misdemeanour offence, which can lead to a fine, but no actual criminal charge. Drugs are still illegal, but being caught with the following small amounts is not a crime, these personal amounts are decriminalised:

Cannabis: up to 15 grams

Heroin: up to 1.5 grams

Cocaine: up to 1 gram

Methamphetamine: up to 2 grams

Amphetamine: up to 2 grams

Ecstasy: up to 4 tablets

Hashish: up to 5 grams

Hallucinogenic mushrooms: up to 40 pieces

LSD: up to five tabs

So, as far as cannabis goes, you can have half an ounce in your possession without fear of prosecution and you can also grow up to 5 plants in your home. Anything over 5 plants results in a criminal charge. Selling weed is still totally illegal.

For the smoker and home grower, the Czech Republic is an awesome country to live in. Smoking in public is also widely tolerated. We knew before our visit that Prague was a laid back place when it came to smoking joints in public, but we never realised just how open it was. In some of the cooler bars and night clubs the locals were firing up spliffs at the bar and passing them round – there was a real Dutch coffee shop vibe, although obviously there were no menus for buying bud over the counter. The locals were nice and friendly and asking a couple of the right questions will get you pointed in the direction of some nice weed.

Coming from the UK to this was such a massive difference, it made us quite jealous! It’s fantastic that the Czech police are not made to waste their resources by cracking down on people carrying a little bit of dope on them for personal use.

The guideline that decriminalised growing 5 plants for personal use has led to an explosion in the hydro industry; four years ago there were only around 25 shops in the country, now there are over 60 and they are not just centred around the big cities, just like in the UK every decent sized town has a grow shop.

The Cannafest show itself was great, with every major player in the hydro industry in attendance, alongside seed banks and Czech hemp organisations, arranged over three big halls. The organisers had obviously spread the word about the show, because the general public turned up in their thousands. Friday was busy, Saturday was incredible – the place was absolutely heaving with people, all keen to check out the latest grow products and seed strains.

As you can see from the pictures, one thing that set CannaFest apart from some of the other industry trade shows is the stunning Czech women and most of the exhibitors had some beauties on their booth, helping with translations and generally attracting in the visitors by looking gorgeous!

From speaking with some of the exhibitors, the consensus was that the Czech growers love to learn about new things and are willing to try out new products – companies that had exhibited at the previous Czech shows had seen their sales increase afterwards – it’s always nice to hear that the trade shows do work!

The unit looks like a plug-in air freshener and works in the same way, gently heating the essential oils so that they evaporate out into the air. The Neutralizer guys had done some clever marketing and sponsored the exhibitor business lounge, setting up several units in the area. It was truly weird to walk into the lounge, see people smoking and rolling and not be able to smell weed at all. Amazing!

While at CannaFest, we met up with a good mate of ours ‘Jim’ a grow shop owner from the south of England. I thought I’d ask him his thoughts on the show to get a UK perspective:

SSUK: How is the fair different from other fairs that you’ve visited?

Jim: Considering it’s a hemp show, it’s actually very clean and professional feeling – it reminds me a bit of the hydroponics shows in the US and the UK – apart from the bud and leaf pictures everywhere! All the exhibitors seem to have made a real effort with their booths and have spent a bit of cash on them, they must see the Czech Republic and the surrounding countries as a lucrative market, and I can see why.

The show feels pretty different to the Spanish shows because there aren’t many people smoking inside, and I think that’s a really good thing, when I’ve visited the show in Barcelona it can get a bit too much at times and you’re walking through a thick haze of smoke all day! Even though it’s really busy at this show, it’s still pleasant to walk around because it feels, well…. clean, really!

It’s similar, in a way, to the Cultiva show in Vienna; that is a very professional and clean feeling trade show, but CannaFest is much bigger and it’s pulled all of the big names in from the industry. You know that a show is a big deal when Canna turns up with a massive booth!

SSUK: Have you visited any grow shops in Prague?

Jim: Yeah, I dropped into GrowShop and GrowLand, just to have a little look at what the set-ups are like over here. They’re quite similar to the UK shops in terms of the brands that they sell and both were decent sized shops, with friendly staff. The shops that I saw weren’t out of town in an industrial estate like they mainly are in the UK; these were walking distance from the centre of Prague in nice enough shopping or residential areas. They weren’t hidden away; they both had big signs outside the front and glass windows with products on display.

Obviously, one of the big differences with the shops here is that they openly sell seeds alongside the grow equipment. It’s quite interesting to see big posters from the seed banks stuck up all over the shops – would be nice if we could be that open in the UK!

Both shops had a range of budget and high end gear in there; plant lighting, filters and tents. From speaking to the guys in the shop, I reckon that the majority of their customers are into the budget end products – which is understandable, considering the wages are lower here than in the UK, but the price of the grow equipment is pretty much the same. I don’t think they get many people coming in to spend half a month’s wage on a digital ballast! Having said that, they get a lot of people through the door – so although they may not get many big single item sales, they do get a large volume of sales overall. Plus, they sell seeds and there’s a very decent mark up on selling seeds.

SSUK: How do you think the growers in Czech compare to UK growers?

Jim: I think they’ve got a bit less cash, just because the wages over here aren’t as high as they are in the UK, although once they’ve done a couple of grows they’ve probably got a bit more in their pocket… hahah!

The legal situation out here has meant that there are loads of hobby growers. Getting caught with 5 plants or less just gets you a slap on the wrists, no record, so this is what people tend to stick to. From talking to the guys in the grow shops, the majority of their customers are growing under one light in a 1.2 tent. Since the law became more lenient a couple of years back there’s been an influx of new growers into the market, so the shops are shifting lots of pots and all mix because – same as we find in the UK – when you’re learning how to grow and cash is a bit tight, hand watering and using a heavily fertilised soil is the easiest way to start off.

One thing that has surprised me a bit is how widely hydro is used out here, considering that the market isn’t as old as say the UK or France, the guys in the shops said that about half of their customers use pure hydro. I guess because a lot of people in the cities live in apartments, they prefer not to carry loads of bags of soil up the stairs!

From talking to some of the hydro manufacturers that were at the show, apparently the Czech market is really good for them and a lot of NFT tables and aeroponic systems get sold here. The growers seem to be a bit more switched on and willing to learn about new techniques, rather than rigidly sticking to a formula that’s given them a result, they are willing to try something new and will experiment with a few different products to pull a better yield.

As a shop owner, that sounds really good to me. It makes your job more interesting when your customers ask for advice and are willing to try a new product that you’ve got in, rather than turning up with a list of products that they only want because a mate has told them that they got a decent result off them.

SSUK: Any interesting products that have caught your eye at CannaFest?

As far as new products go, I’ve been blown away by The Neutralizer. I’d heard about it back in the UK, but I hadn’t seen it in action before the show. Having a beer in The Neutraliser business lounge surrounded by people skinning up and smoking joints, but not actually being able to smell any weed was a really surreal experience! That product will sell by the truckload!

I tell you one thing though, it was hard not to get distracted by all the Czech promo girls – I’ve never seen so many nice looking birds at a trade show. There’s something about these Czech girls, they’re different to any other European girls. Must be something in the water!

Roll on CannaFest 2013!!