CANNABISNESS: SPRINGING UP

Suzie, 36, is a respectable mother of three who left accountancy to launch
a successful landscape gardening business. But it is the healthy crop that
she cultivates in her own flower beds that might surprise her well-to-do
clients, among them a judge and a number of police officers and solicitors.

For lovingly tended at the back of her 40ft garden in suburban
Southend-on-Sea sits an elegant grove of Cannabis sativa - still an illegal
Class C drug, according to David Blunkett's reclassification, but soon, if
Suzie is right, just another social relaxant to go legally on sale.

Once the law changes, as she believes it will, Suzie plans to launch her
own cannabis cafe so she can profit from the expected boom in demand. "It
will cost me about UKP 7,000 to open my Southend coffee shop, and I've
already had offers of backing," she says. "I'd be hesitant about supplying
the shop myself, but I do have a friend who would grow for me."

As debate intensifies over what many see as the inevitable
decriminalisation of cannabis, small-scale entrepreneurs like Suzie are
vying with corporate investors to gain a foothold in this
multi-billion-pound market. From cannabis cafes to cannabis vodka, the new
commercial opportunities of "cannabisness" are spurring hundreds of
business plans and countless board meetings - and all despite the
Government's insistence that legalisation is not on the agenda.

Simon Woodroffe, founder of the Yo! Sushi restaurant chain, is among the
investors standing by - among them pop stars, venture capitalists and even
a television racing pundit. While most established businesses are keeping
silent on their plans, Woodroffe is looking to create an "elegant" range of
highclass cannabis bars that would redefine the drug's image.

He wants to create a fashionable space - call it Yo! Blow - for urban
sophisticates to meet for a smoke. "I'd hope licences would go to people
who have a proven record of operating restaurants or bars," he says. "I'd
just find it a fascinating thing to do, and we'd all be better off if we
drank less."

He has even proposed pumping cannabis smoke through his buildings to save
customers the trouble of rolling their own - a joke, he says, that has
taken on a life of its own. But he is serious about the business
opportunities a change in the law would provide. "It will definitely happen
in time," he says.

Another eager cannabis investor is Jamiroquai singer Jay Kay, who has
invited concert audiences to share an oversized joint, and admits to being
a former dealer himself. Today, if the law allowed, he too would like to
back a London cannabis bar - and, according to some suggestions, he would
be prepared to spend UKP 1 million to secure the right property. "Jay Kay
has considered investing in such a venture if the time was right," his
spokesman confirms.

David Dundas, the Seventies pop star who found fame with the song Jeans On,
has not only invested in cannabis, but is already reaping the financial
rewards. Dundas was one of the initial investors in GW Pharmaceuticals
(GWP), the first company licensed to grow cannabis in Britain for medical
use, and when the company floated last year his 40,000 shares initially
grew five-fold in value. Other investors included John Francome, the former
jockey who now commentates on Channel 4, children's campaigner Lady
Chadwyck-Healey and City investors Peter Mountford and Adrian Bradshaw. Not
a bad rollcall for a company that grows 15 tonnes of cannabis a year.

Protected by heavy security, somewhere in the South of England, GWP is
today cultivating more than 40,000 cannabis plants. Assuming its research
trials are successful by late next year, the company expects to have
cannabis medicines legally on sale in early 2004. "Cannabis is a very
versatile plant," explains GWP's spokesman, Mark Rogerson.

"We're looking at it for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, cancer, a
wide range of intractable painful conditions, even arthritis. It's not a
question of if these medicines become legal, but when. That doesn't require
any change in the law, just a decision by the Home Secretary to alter the
medical schedule of drugs that doctors are allowed to prescribe."

The drug's active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), will be delivered
not by smoking, but through such mechanisms as a spray aimed under the
tongue. And if the company's founder, Dr Geoffrey Guy, is correct in his
conviction that the trials will show cannabis to be "a remarkably safe,
very worthwhile medicine", other pharmaceutical companies are certain to
follow in pursuit of a huge potential market.

Exactly how much that market is worth is open to debate. Campaigners for
legalisation claim that nine million British smokers currently spend around
UKP 3.5 billion each year on the unlawful trade. Even according to the Home
Office, which commissioned its own sober assessment last year, some 2.6
million users in England use the drug on average 78 times a year, spending
UKP 6.40 a time to get high.

Edward Bramley-Harker, the economist who prepared the Home Office survey,
estimates the total UK market at UKP 1.6 billion. For regular users, that
typically means a UKP 1,500 annual habit - a sum that legitimate
organisations, from the tobacco industry to the Treasury, would like to get
their hands on.

They will not acknowledge it, of course. The Treasury will not comment, and
no tobacco company contacted by the Evening Standard would admit to making
plans to sell cannabis products should they be legalised. But every now and
then, a document slips out that suggests how advanced these companies are
in their plans. One internal British American Tobacco (BAT) memo draws
attention to "the undoubted opportunities which exist in the development of
future products ... If the use of [marijuana] was legalised, one avenue for
exploitation would be the augmentation of cigarettes with near-subliminal
levels of the drug."

In another memo, a certain DE Creighton of BAT warns that tobacco products
could expect "competition from cannabis ... We must find a way to appeal to
the young ... so that the product image, and the product will satisfy this
part of the market". And although the company denies it, Philip Morris,
which makes Marlboro, reportedly applied in 1993 to trademark the brand
name "Marley" - Marley, that is, as in Bob Marley.

Danny Kushlick, of drugs campaign group Transform, is convinced that
tobacco companies, pharmaceutical firms and distilleries have developed
"scenario plans" in case of legalisation. "Obviously the tobacco companies
will leap on this with enormous verve," he says.

But Clive Bates, director of Action on Smoking and Health, believes this
market may not in fact be ripe for cigarette firms to exploit. "My guess is
they'll be very wary of getting into cannabis," he says. More likely, Bates
believes, will be the well-funded launch of a cannabisbased gum, rather
like nicotine gum, or new food products such as hash biscuits. Mr Kipling's
Exceedingly Good Space Cakes, perhaps?

Breweries and pub chains have themselves been discussing the potential
impact on profits of legalisation, notably cannabis smokers' tendency to
consume less alcohol.

The drinks firm Diageo, which makes Guinness and Smirnoff, insists with
typical firmness that "this is not something we consider relevant for our
business".

Yet the Evening Standard understands that Britain's first cannabis cafe The
Dutch Experience in Stockport, was approached some months ago to see if it
would stock Guinness. The offer was refused; Guinness says it is unaware of
any approach.

Sir Richard Branson, an active supporter of decriminalisation, believes
that the legal cannabis market will actually favour small traders rather
than huge conglomerates. He, for one, is not sure that the Virgin empire
would ever wish to sell the drug. "I believe it's a product that should not
be too commercialised," he says, "and is better suited to being marketed by
small cafe-style specialists."

This is where Nol van Schaik fits in. Van Schaik, a 48-year-old Dutchman,
is a founding father of "cannabisness" in Britain. The owner of three
coffee-shops in Haarlem, he has since March been training British
entrepreneurs to open their own cafes, and personally backed The Dutch
Experience in Stockport.

His five-day "Cannabizness Workshop" costs UKP 575 a head, and topics
covered include "How to make Netherhash", "The joint-rolling machine in
action" and "How to differentiate and value the range of weeds and hashes".
Van Schaik believes Britain is ready for a wave of new cannabis cafes, more
per head even than in Holland.

"The charm of coffee shops is that they're independent," van Schaik says.
"I don't see that Starbucks doing marijuana would succeed, though I'm sure
they'll try it."

Van Schaik has been trading since 1991, and would now be "a very rich man"
if he sold up: his shops each take around 500,000 euros (UKP 330,000) a
year. And though the sale of cannabis is tolerated rather than legal in
Holland, the tax office is rather pleased with him: he pays income tax on
his joints as well as 19 per cent VAT, and employs 30 people directly and a
further 70 indirectly - many of them "aunties and grannies" who grow weed
at home.

One of his workshop graduates is David Crane, a 38-year-old website builder
from London who after eight months' work is hoping to open his own coffee
shop in Hackney. It will cost Crane UKP 250,000 to open The Hempire, which
will be aimed at the over-25 crowd.

A week after finalising his business plan, Crane attended a meeting with
police officers to discuss his plans, initially for a standard cafe that
would tolerate smoking. The news was not good: "They made it very clear
that we would be referred to the CPS if we opened," he says. "It may be
prudent for us to wait a bit longer - but this is a big industry that won't
go away."

Carl Wagner is already seeing the profits. Wagner, 43, runs the Divine Herb
market stall in Hull's indoor market, selling gro-lights, hemp wallpaper,
cannabis pasta and hemp boots and clothes. He has already rejected a UKP
20,000 offer for the stall. Next January, he plans to open the Divine Herb
cafe, for which he has just had three offers of premises from elderly
medical cannabis users.

"I know of dozens of people who grow it, and I even arranged for a
consortium of eight pensioners to grow it in their sheltered housing,"
Wagner says. "They're looking to supply themselves with medicinal cannabis,
and I've asked them to pass over any spare."

But there are some things even beyond an astute businessman such as Carl
Wagner. "I was approached by a rep to sell Cannabis Vodka," says Wagner, a
reformed bottle-a-day man. "I had to say no - I just didn't want to
associate such a safe plant with hard drugs like that."

More on this Story:

1] Drugs: a fact of student life

by James Tapsfield

Recreational drugs are a fact of student life, and even if you don't intend
to indulge, you're likely to come into contact with them during
university. The best policy is to know what is available and its effects
before either trying anything or meeting those who have.

Cannabis is easily the most popular recreational drug aside from alcohol.
The latest figures show that 44 per cent of people between 16 and 29 have
tried it, and numbers still appear to be rising.

Otherwise known as dope, weed, grass, hash, black and a myriad other tags,
cannabis usually comes as solid resin - hash - or dried plant - grass. It
can be smoked or eaten to achieve a high that lasts for a few hours.
Different kinds have different strengths and flavours, and it costs UKP 15
to UKP 35 for an eighth of an ounce. Some varieties are laced with LSD and
should be approached with caution.

The effects of cannabis vary widely depending on the user's constitution
and state of mind. Some say it heightens their appreciation of music,
others giggle uncontrollably, and a few just feel sick. But, it can harm
your short-term memory and impair concentration - not helpful when you're
trying to focus on exam revision.

Cannabis, along with the other drugs detailed here, is illegal, and looks
set to remain so. However, the Government appears likely to reclassify the
drug from Class B to Class C, which would make it a lower priority for the
police and reduce the number of prosecutions.

2] The side-effects you can expect

CANNABIS: Relaxes and heightens appetite ("the munchies"). Can damage
short-term memory, and is often linked to paranoia and depression in later
life. Smoking increases risk of throat, mouth and lung cancer.