‘Cannabis HQ’ plan in the pipeline
Cookie Time founder Michael Mayell has ambitious plans to make Christchurch the country’s most cannabis literate city.
The entrepeneur turned environmental activist has partnered with Abe Gray, the founder of New Zealand’s first cannabis museum, to create a cannabis institute in two heritage-listed buildings on Manchester St.
Called Whakamana, the New Zealand Institute of Cannabis Education, Research and Development, plans for the complex include an expanded version of the museum Gray created in Dunedin, a hemp food cafe, hemp emporium and an alcoholfree plant shot bar.
‘‘We’re going to take two of Christchurch’s most iconic and oldest buildings and turn them into cannabis HQ NZ,’’ said Mayell. ‘‘We are here to help Kiwis become the most cannabis-literate people on the planet.’’
A company set up by Mayell and Gray has 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.
The pair plan to use both buildings for Whakamana; Trinity will be used for the museum during the day, an education space Mayell dubbed ‘‘cannabis university’’ in the evenings, and for the alcoholfree plant shot bar at night.
However, first they need to raise at least $1 million. Mayell and Gray plan to use Shand’s, the oldest commercial wooden building in the city, as a base for a crowdfunding campaign to launch about October.
Gray was optimistic that goal could be achieved. There was a need for education about the plant ahead of the 2020 referendum, and at least 250,000 regular cannabis users who might contribute, he said.
‘‘They all want to see the mana of cannabis restored, and have it stop being denigrated and insulted.’’
Exact details of the 2020 referendum have yet to be released, but a yes vote would likely result in the sale, purchase and consumption of cannabis being made legal for people aged 20 and over.
If cannabis was legalised, Gray and Mayell wanted Whakamana to become a licensed dispensary.
They envisaged the institute becoming a hub of cannabis innovation, and a coworking space for entrepeneurs working in the sector.
Before the crowdfunding campaign launches, the pair plan to use Shand’s for educational evenings and to set up exhibits from the Dunedin museum Gray ran before he moved to Christchurch. Gray said there was already a network of supporters who were paying a $4.20 weekly subscription.
Christchurch Heritage Trust chairwoman Dr Anna Crighton said the trust was excited to announce Shand’s was fully restored. The lease was initially for five months, with the option to occupy Trinity when it was fully restored.