September 23, 2021 - The first Croatian Cannabis museum will soon open in Zagreb, which will cover more than 400 m2 and have two floors, an outdoor space, and parking for all visitors.
Jutarnji List spoke to Tvrtko Kračun, the founder and co-owner of the Hemps.hr store, where you will find the largest selection of CBD oils and other CBD products.
The museum opening is scheduled for mid-December. It will be located in the building opposite the Ministry of the Interior on Petrinjska Street, which additionally attracted the public's attention.
"We did not intentionally go into it and wait for the space next to MUP to be vacated. We have been looking for adequate space with a parking lot near the city center for a long time because we believe that our museum will be interesting for tourists. We did not want to be in the 'focus' like, for example, on Ilica. Still, we wanted a space that would provide visitors with a 'casual' atmosphere while enjoying educational lectures in the open air," said Kračun, who admitted that the idea of a hemp museum came after visiting the Zagreb Chocolate Museum with his daughter.
"I liked how Mrs. Ružica did it, and I thought why not apply something like that to hemp and educate people. This is one of the changes I want to see, and not for Croatia always to be the one to follow the trends last," he explains.
The first floor will introduce visitors to the hemp plant, its morphology, species, and subspecies and will highlight the history of its use in different cultures. Through the wall of fame and the wall of shame, visitors will get to know various significant figures from history and, for example, find out the status of hemp during the Prohibition era.
"Visitors could be interested in the information that Yugoslavia was the largest producer of hemp in Europe. We will try to educate them about hemp in Slavonia and explain how it turned into a ghost at some point," Kračun explains.
On the second floor, through three separate rooms, the museum will educate visitors about medical use, examples from other countries on the use of hemp, provide information from proven scientific research on the economic impact and impact on human health - both positive and negative. Finally, in the third separate room, the museum will explain what the future holds and in what ways the plant could be used - for example, why eco-blocks are essential and what hemp materials are eco-friendly.
"We plan to use the outer part of the space for lectures and workshops that will be exclusively educational. We plan to bring lecturers with experience, both domestic and foreign," said Tvrtko Kračun, who revealed that they plan to have four employees in the museum.
"Our goal is to educate the public about hemp. I want to emphasize that we do not persuade to consume but present scientific facts and emphasize science, medicine, and the economy. For this reason, we decided to provide free entrance to the museum to employees of the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of the Interior. In addition, we plan to talk to institutions and, if they are interested, include them in lectures that will be held at the museum because our goal is to provide scientifically proven positive and negative facts in one place," explains Kračun, who is pleased with the success of his Hemps stores.
"We worked very well during corona, and our webshop contributed to that. We had a space on Radićeva Street that we exceeded with our products in less than three months, so when more space was freed at the bottom of Radićeva, we moved the store there. Our Cannabis club is also progressing very well; we have several thousand members," he said.
Anyone who joins the Cannabis Club for free, in addition to receiving discounts on Hemps products, will also be able to actively participate in the selection of exhibits at the Cannabis Museum and contribute to its appearance. Namely, they will vote which exhibitions and people are important to the industry that should be prominently displayed in the museum.
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