Destination Cultiva – Cannabis Congress

The destination for the 2017 Medical Cannabis Bike Tour is the Austrian capital, Vienna, and specifically the Cultiva Hemp Expo (or Hanfmesse). This event is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2017 and it is a well established expo in Europe.

Cannabis is legal in Austria until the plant begins to flower or so long as it does not produce THC, which makes for a rather unique quasi-legal status. Aside from the creativity of recreational users to work inside the law, cannabis is available in Austria for medical and scientific purposes and the number of medical users, for a range of illnesses and conditions, is steadily increasing.

Cultiva has established a reputation for highlighting the wider benefits of the cannabis plant. At the heart of this ethos is the Cultiva Congress, where international experts take to the stage to share knowledge about research, developments and current trends in the cannabis world. Presentations encompass medicine, politics, law and lifestyle.

This year, as always, a diverse panel will talk on topics including hemp textiles, hemp as a super food and the paradox of prohibition. However the dominant theme at Cultiva 2017 will be cannabis in medicine. The Congress program features talks on many aspects of this – from cannabis in psychiatry to legal aspects on pharma-grade cannabinoid extracts.

Also speaking at the Congress is Dr Guillermo Velasco, who opens the congress program with a presentation on cannabinoids as anti-cancer agents. Dr Velasco is one of the scientists from the University of Complutense in the Spanish capital of Madrid who will be conducting the clinical trials which will be paid for with money raised by the Medical Cannabis Bike Tour.

Representatives of the bike tour will present Dr Velasco with a check on the first day of the expo, funds that will pay the expenses of the independent clinical trial studying the effects of THC and CBD as anti-cancer agents on patients diagnosed with Glioma (brain cancer).