Why this billionaire feels it’s high time to sell Scots his cannabis chocolates...
ONE of the world’s richest men is setting up a business in Scotland selling cannabis products with ‘miracle’ properties.
Greek billionaire Alki David – a prominent figure on Hollywood’s social scene – runs a company that bottles and distributes Coca-Cola in 28 countries.
Last year he set up a separate business selling oil extracted from cannabis plants, which he markets as a treatment for a range of conditions – with the endorsement of celebrities including rapper Snoop Dogg and fashion designer Donatella Versace.
Now, flamboyant Mr David has told the Scottish Mail on Sunday Scotland is his next target market.
The 50-year-old plans to open a shop on Edinburgh’s Princes Street within the next three months, along with a hub to distribute his cannabis products to the rest of the UK.
Mr David is even hoping to collaborate with the NHS to increase the use of cannabis oils by the health service and make them more widely available to patients.
His business plan is founded on the belief that cannabis oil has powerful medicinal properties.
Mr David said: ‘Plant medicine is revolutionary. It has improved so many lives to the point of miracles happening. It’s helped my mother and my friend has even been cured of MS through regular use of strong cannabis oils. There are heaps of arthritis cases, too.’
Mr David’s Scottish plans have been inspired by his 20-year-old son, a student in Edinburgh.
He said: ‘Scotland is very strategically placed. We have a model that we set up in the US and that’s what we’re going to start emulating in Edinburgh.
‘Our second store in LA is small but it has more a medical, pharmacy style rather than a café style – and that’s the sort of thing we’re looking to open in Edinburgh.
‘We’re actively looking on Princes Street at a couple of opportunities. He added: ‘Our customers range from kids to octogenarians, sports people, even pets and animals.’
Alkiviades David was born in Lagos, Nigeria, to a trading and shipping family of Greek Cypriot origin, and attended high school in Switzerland.
The family business has manufacturing, property and shipping interests, and owns Coca-Cola Hellenic bottling plants. Mr David also owns an internet TV company, a homeshopping website, a video-streaming site and modelling agency.
Now based in California, he has had small parts in movies and TV shows – including alongside Jason Statham in 2008’s The Bank Job.
Mr David founded the company SwissX last year to sell cannabis oil globally. In the US the firm offers different varieties of cannabis oil. Some contain concentrations of a chemical called THC – the psychoactive ingredient that gives cannabis its mind-altering qualities.
Such products would be illegal in the UK. Instead, the company would offer a different form of the oil which is not mind-altering but still contains a compound called cannabidiol (CBD).
There is an ongoing debate about the beneficial properties of CBD, which is classed as a food supplement and not a medicine.
Some hail it as an effective treatment for arthritis, anxiety, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis – claims some doctors regard with caution.
Swiss X products include cannabis oil syringes for squirting the oil into your mouth, gel capsules with the oil inside and CBD chocolates.
Some items include psilocybin – found in magic mushrooms.
Mr David said he hoped to persuade Scots of CBD’s healing powers – and that his Paisley-born friend Gerard Butler, star of blockbuster 300, will back his plans.
He said: ‘My mate, the Scottie Gerard Butler, loves Swiss X and use the products. I’m going to encourage him to speak up for our Scottish move.’
He added: ‘One of the opportunities we’re looking at in Edinburgh is to find a place with a hospital nearby and apply for a cannabis distribution licence. Then we’ll be well placed to become a cannabis dispensary as the law evolves in the UK, as no doubt it will.’