Cannabis museum set to open
A hemp food eatery and emporium, plant-medicine shot bar and cannabis dispensary could be the latest additions to a boutique cannabis museum opening in Christchurch.
Called Whakamana, the New Zealand Institute of Cannabis Education, Research and Development, the museum will open in Shand’s Emporium today, creating a cannabis institute in two heritage-listed buildings on Manchester St.
Founders Michael Mayell and Abe Gray hoped to eventually grow their empire to an expanded version of the same curated museum created in Dunedin, with a cafe and restaurant selling hemp food, a boutique with a range of hemp products and an alcohol-free plant shot bar – should next year’s cannabis referendum allow for it.
Hemp seeds would be cultivated and used to make milk for ice cream, butter and cheese and the bar would have kombucha on tap, medicinal teas and mushrooms in the diner.
Mayell, the Cookie Time founder turned hemp environmentalist, teamed up with Gray, a botanist, to establish what the pair believe is New Zealand’s first ‘‘cannabis social enterprise’’.
The Christchurch version of Whakamana, which will feature displays from the original Dunedin museum, will open for a gold coin donation for the restoration of the former Trinity Congregational Church.
It is the first time the city’s oldest wooden commercial building has opened since the September 2010 earthquake and it moved from Hereford St to Manchester St after Christchurch Heritage Ltd paid property developer
Michael Mayell, right, and Abe Gray have teamed up to establish New Zealand’s first cannabis social enterprise.
Abe Gray
Antony Gough $1 for badly neglected structure.
Interactive exhibits, such as a microscope showing the essential oils of the plant, would be kept in the back room, Mayell said.
Gray, former deputy leader of the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party, said the focus would be on education, and re-opening Shand’s was an ‘‘important step’’ in that plan. ‘‘Being informed and understanding the issues related to cannabis is absolutely essential to making good decisions.’’
If the public endorsed cannabis legislation was successful, it would legalise personal use and
the
purchase at age 20, allow sale and consumption at licensed premises and allow limited home-growing. The referendum will be a simple yes/no question on a piece of draft law that had not yet passed.
A company set up by Mayell and Gray entered into an agreement with the Christchurch Heritage Trust to lease the nearly 160-year-old Shand’s building, which the trust painstakingly restored beside Trinity Congregational Church. A two-storey annex connects Trinity, which dates back to 1875, and Shand’s.
The pair planned to use both buildings; Trinity will be for the museum during the day, an education space Mayell dubbed ‘‘cannabis university’’ in the evenings, and the plant shot bar at night. They envisaged the institute being a hub of cannabis innovation, and a co-working space for entrepeneurs in the sector.
Mayell said a Pledge Me campaign to raise at least $1m to transform the adjoining Trinity into a cannabis educational experience will launch on November 11. Whakamana shares will be available to buy.