Thanks to Uncle Sam
After 1985 de quality of Nederwiet improved tremendously. Currently "our" wiet is considered to be the best. Is that because of Sam Selezny, alias David Watson, the super breeder from the states? Or is he under orders?
Report: Bas Barkman and Gert Hage
It was a lovely day, spring 1985, when a heavily built American landed at Schiphol airport. He wore glasses, his long blond hair kept together wih an elastic band. Without problems he passed customs and shortly afterwards received a warm welcome from another equally heavily built American.
Seemingly nothing special, certainly not in the crowded arrivals area of an airport. No one could have known that the lugage of the ponytailed man contained a box full of seeds- Cannabis seeds.
The box was the reason for Sam Selezny's trip to Holland. He was here by invitation from two pioneers in the weedgrowing industry. Two companions: Michael Taylor and Wernard Bruining, the owner of the first coffeeshop in Amsterdam. Although they already grew some nederwiet, the quality of it was not particulairly special, the knowledge they possessed of growing wasn't extensive enough.
During that time in Holland, there were probably no more than three big growing sites, covering a total a maximum of two thousand square meters. In coffeeshops Marrocan hash was still the most popular.
Sam Selezny, the super grower from the states, as Taylor had announced him to Bruining, would change this.
It proved to be true. Hardly three months after his arrival the first harvest from Fat Sam's seeds could be smoked. The connoisseurs where excited, the wiet tasted good, with a "high" high.
Hardly anyone knew at that time, especially not in Holland, that Sam Selezny, who in Holland presented himself mainly under the name David Watson, was arrested on the 20th of march that same year in Santa Cruz, California.
It was nine years later in the summer of 1994, when Mario Lap, at that time working for the Dutch Alcohol and Drugs Institute, tapped Hedy D'acona on the shoulder in Brussels.
"Hedy, can you tell me why you provided David Watson with a license (to grow)?" Lap asked the newly appointed MEP and former minister of Health. Lap had only just before that found out, to his utter astonishment, that Watson, who he only knew by the name of Selezny, was granted a license to grow marijuana for scientific purposes.
Why on earth Watson, a man with what he had heard a shady past in the states as illegal grower, a man who also had been detained and who certainly was not a scientist?
And why not the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, which had been after a license for years to research the medical workings of the plant?
MEP D"Ancona didn't know.
The ministry itself couln't provide Lap with any clearance on the licence which had been granted on 16th of september 1994, signed by "plaatsvervangend" director general of health, Drs RJ Samsom.
Lap; "I couldn't find out how it had happened. Very strange. A bit scary too."
In two big greenhouses in Rijsenhout, a village near Schiphol airport, the process was already under way to develop a cannabis plant with a high THC content, which in due course could be used as a basis for medicine. Or rather, it was on those terms that, after years of negotiating, the license was granted.
Three years, with limiting conditions; only chemical analytical research, not more than 10 grams of THC and a spotless administration.
The office and lab of Hortapharm are based in Schinkelhavenkade in Amsterdam. A little green building, a big window which in the evenings is covered with a steel sliding door. Inside it smells of fresh wiet. David Watson is on his guard. He wants to talk, but demands the final say on every sentence written about his firm. It is the end of September and Watson is waiting for the decision on the renewal of his license. "I want to continue with my research" he says, "I cannot use any publicity which might be possibly disadvantageous to my business.
He is startled when he hears we know the location of his greenhouse. "There are millions worth of plants and apparatus, no one is allowed to know."
Hanging on the wall behind him are 5 licences, granted by the DEA, a worldwide operating organization, whose task it is to fight drugs.
Watson doesn't receive his longed for renewal of his license.
The ministry announces at the end of September that, since the minister forbids the medical supply of cannabis, a license to grow cannabis is no longer in line with the health ministries' policies. Besides that, during repeated inspections of Hortapharm, it was found the Admin was not run according to the requirements. The decision is definite, the two locations where hortapharm is based have to close their doors. On 29 October the Ministery confirms their decision in writing to Hortapharm: The head officials of Justice in Haarlem and Amsterdam have been informed of the fact the license has now expired.
On Schinkelhavenkade however, it is business as usual, the director and only shareholder told us last Monday. He saw the decision of the minister in a different light. "There are people who want it that way" he said, was his cryptic explanation, but there are also people who want it in a different way"
From his point of view nothing has changed, an "on-going situation". "There is info, and there is correct info. They are false statements from the ministry and it's not the first time. "
He didn't want to comment any further on the matter.
It is not surprising Watson, Alias Sam Selezny is not very willing to talk. Him and his firm came under fire only recently during a broadcast from the VPRO. This broadcast even lead to questions being asked in Parliament (about the licence)
The radiomakers had contacted the sheriff of Santa Cruz, who confirmed the arrest of Watson on March the 20th in 1985, in relation to illegal cannabis growing.
How it was possible Watson could set foot in Holland a month later, no one understands. Why wasn't he, caught red handed, in prison? As a rule the American Justice system doesn't show clemency to drug criminals.
There are presumptions, also mentioned in the radioprogramme. Is it possible Watson struck a deal with American Justice, mainly the DEA? In other words, has he, in exchange for his freedom agreed to cooperate with the justice system from time to time?
Questions which are left unanswered.
The DEA never talks, something the enquetecommitee "van Tra" discovered too.
On the 5th of November, Minister Borst answered the questions in Parliament.
No, there had not been a antecedenten (?) investigation in regards to the person requesting the license.
There had been doubts though about the reliability of the request, especially wether the cannabis would only be used for scientific purposes. But there was no proof to turn these doubts into hard facts. On the basis of doubt a license could not be rejected, in the court of law.
Actively requesting personal information from the police register had never been done, but she was planning to do so in due course.
Subject closed.
But the case is even stranger than it actually seems.
How did Watson acquire the funds to found Hortapharm? After some research it shows Watson wasn't only involved in illegal weed growing in the USA, but in Holland too. Not weedgrowing as a hobby, but on a grand scale, a business worth millions.
It was clear the Dutch Wietgrowers caught a big fish with getting David Watson on board. A man fascinated by the secrets of the cannabis plant. A man on a mission, convinced of the blessings of cannabis.
Like every American, he thought big. Just like Michael Taylor, also known as Michael Rich. They became companions, throwing themselves on the big scale growing of nederwiet.
Wernard Bruining declined. "It became too big and too fanatic. They wanted to be the best and biggest, which wasn't necessary for me."
It was annoying for him though that two of his greenhouses were busted shortly after wards. A coincidence, the police told him, they just happened to come across it. "But it was the first time they busted a big greenhouse. Before that they had never managed to do so"
In the summer two big sites where busted, the third empty upon arrival. Various employees where arrested, Watson and Taylor stayed out of sight. In the "us knows us" world of growing they were already for some time known as people who pulled the strings. Shortly after wards stories circulated the two Americans had started again. Within a few months they had set up a new greenhouse. This one was busted too, but again no sign of the Americans.
Were they simply too smart, or was it something else, something invisible (untouchable)?
No one paid too much attention to it. There were suspicions, but the were erased when the two continued a few years later, undisturbed.
It was the era when partially thanks to Watsons' seed, Holland's masses switched to nederwiet.
It became an internationally recognized product, the new pearl of the dutch horticulture.
But in 1992 the calm tide turned, when in the vicinity of Tilburg two massive growsites were busted, with according to the police 40.000 plants.
Sirens, squat teams, broken doors and a lot of screaming. Two of the approximately fifteen suspects broke down practically straight away under questioning and mentioned the name Watson as the big man and investor behind the wiet operation. Justice didn't act. Didn't ask questions about him, didn't even investigate the large amount of funds which apparently left the country via Luxemburg.
Watson was and remained, to the surprise of many, a free man and founded Hortapharm that same year.
Supported by advisers he started negotiating with the health ministery about acquiring a license. One of these advisors was ex police commissioner (?) K Sietsema, at that time already active as Private detective. "If I know Hortapharm? If we're talking about the same firm then yes, " Sietsema says; "but I don't talk about my clients, a kind of code of honor"
In the world of the wiet growers suspicion arose. One after the other growsite was busted, tens of people disappeared behind bars, but one of the biggest and probably best could continue without any disturbances.
That the American Godfather of Nederwiet had such good contacts that he could continue to practice his profession legally for three years, the ultimate breeders' dream, was considered utterly strange.
Coincidence?
The arrest in 1985, the large scale busts of grow sites without any consequences for Watson or his Companion, Hortapharm and its first license, the advisor Sietsema, it was too much of a good thing.
Were Watson and Rich DEA informers after all, as some people had claimed them to be before?
"They started at the right side, but Watson had little choice" Bruining thinks; "It was or going to jail or cooperate with the American Justice system."
Mario Lap, who amongst other things advices the PVDA (dutch political party) on drugs problems, is sure of his case.
His last bit of doubt dissapeared upon discovering that the Australian Police was in possession of a list, compiled by Watson, of renowned Dutch breeders, including a precise description of their products, even mentioning the genetic codes. Handy with the eye on the plans of the ministry of health to make growing indoors illegal.
"Instantly those creeps have the monopoly, later on they'll be the only ones allowed to breed the seeds, which is what it is about" lap says bitterly.
Which would make the DEA mission successful. They have the names of the breeders, their products and eventually the market of neder weed in hands.
The DEA has thus proven not only to be champion of controlled drug flow, but has also proven itself to be the best wiet grower in the world."
Copyright: HP/De Tijd 5-12-1997.
and noticed that the link jesse posted was actually the full version of what i did. I wouldnt put too much faith in what you see in movies, but yeah police... there is a reason they get insulting nicknames. Its pretty obvious that alot of what they did was illegal, as evidenced by the number of dropped cases.