“Welcome to Paradise”: The First Croatian Cannabis Museum

Opposite the main police station in Zagreb, you will now find the first Croatian cannabis museum, with exhibits that explore its many uses, from the intoxication sought by stoners to the fibers used to weave clothes.

“Welcome to paradise,” said a young visitor with a smile, opening the door of the Croatian cannabis museum which opened its doors recently, the latest of the unusual museums that have appeared around the Croatian capital after that of the hangover or destroyed loves.

This Croatian Cannabis Museum Is an Educational Experience

Under a tent in the Croatian cannabis museum, there is a giant cannabis plant as well as all the explanations for growing it. Spread out over approximately 250 square meters, we find videos, posters, and photos presenting the long history of hemp.

Cannabis has been domesticated in Asia for several thousand years, Tvrtko Kracun, the owner of the Croatian cannabis museum, told AFP. Hemp, marijuana, and cannabis belong to the same species. The difference lies in their THC content, the psychoactive substance appreciated by lovers of euphoria.

“The plant is present in the history of humanity in almost all civilizations and undoubtedly deserves a museum”, says the 35-year-old curator of the Croatian cannabis museum. “We just don’t learn this at school.”

Explore the History and Recreation of Cannabis at the Croatian cannabis museum

The curator of the Croatian cannabis museum assures us that the first object sold online in the 1970s on what was the ancestor of the Internet was a small packet of marijuana.

Alongside warnings about the health hazards of excessive joint consumption, the place gives prominence to the “recreational use” of the product.

There are exhibits of waterpipes, stories about the famous 1969 Woodstock music festival in the United States, above which hovered “a cloud of cannabis produced by the many participants”.

But hemp has many thousands of uses, which are also exhibited by the Croatian cannabis museum. It is used in the manufacture of oils, flours, cosmetics, animal feed, textiles, ropes, or building materials.

Igor Lokotar, a student in political science, says he appreciates the historical explanations, in particular a note on Napoleon Bonaparte’s soldiers who brought cannabis from Egypt to France at the beginning of the 19th century.

“These are things you never learn in school,” he says.

Croatia Still (mostly) Prohibits Cannabis

Curiously, the Croatian cannabis museum exists in a county where cannabis is still mostly outlawed. Croatia prohibits “narcotic” cannabis but, like many other countries in the European Union, authorizes the sale of derivative products with a low THC content (up to 0.2%).

Products for therapeutic use are also permitted for certain serious illnesses and on medical prescriptions.

The Croatian cannabis museum offers for sale legal products based on cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychotropic molecule sometimes touted for its relaxing or anti-inflammatory properties, such as drinks, oils, or vaporizers.

The opening of the Croatian cannabis museum just a stone’s throw from the police station is a pure coincidence underlines Tvrtko Kracun, who adds however that the entrance is free for the employees of the ministries of the Interior, Health, and Agriculture, all responsible for sector regulation.

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(Featured image by Shelby Ireland via Unsplash)

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