By profession, “cannabis taster” in Germany

The cannabis industry is waiting in Germany. Sooner rather than later, the coalition of social democrats, environmentalists and liberals led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected to legalize cannabis for recreational use. Among those waiting, due to the business opportunity that this legalization will entail, is Tim Dresemann. He works for the company Sanity Group, dedicated to the exploitation of marijuana for medicinal uses. The legalization of cannabis for such purposes dates back to 2017. Those were the times of the last ‘grand coalition’ of conservatives and social democrats led by Angela Merkel. Three years after that legalization for medical purposes, Dresemann arrived at the Sanity Group, where he is now developing a such a new task that, as far as he tells NIUS, nobody else does it in Germany. At Sanity Group, Dresemann is a “cannabis sommelier”, according to one of the professional titles given to him at this Berlin-based company. As such, he is the specialist who, when his company has to buy cannabis, tests it to contribute to the purchase decision, reporting its quality, characteristics and other relevant information when Sanity Group makes the payment. Despite what can be understood from the professional title given to him in his company, Dresemann is much more than a mere professional “cannabis taster”. This 36-year-old man, born in the small town of Heiligenhaus, in western Germany, very close to the German border with the Netherlands, should not be judged by his messy-haired surfer appearance. Unsurprisingly, he defines himself as a cannabis “enthusiastic”. But Dresemann is more than that. He is a unique professional. Among other things, because it is not known that there are many more people like him in Germany, carrying out “cannabis sommelier” tasks. “I have no equivalent in other German companies, at least that I don’t know about,” he says. Nor should Dresemann be expected to spend his leisure time tasting cannabis variants. On the contrary, he says he hardly has any free time. “I barely have time for leisure. I work a lot. We make a lot of trips to visit suppliers, and on those visits there are a lot of things to check,” he explains. “In addition, I also do training workshops in the company, and then there are other issues that I deal with, beyond my activities as a sommelier. Building a network of providers is something that takes a lot of time,” he adds. Of the estimated 600 different types of cannabis plants that exist, Dresemann cannot say how many he has tried. As a declared “lover” of marijuana use, he has bought on the black market. “But you never know what you’re buying there,” he says. Now as a sommelier, he is responsible for ensuring that the Sanity Group plant catalog includes different types of marijuana. Choosing a marijuana: a matter of effects, and aroma“There are some with a calming effect. Others have an activating effect for the person who takes it, and it helps them, for example, to work if they have to do it in pain”, explains Dresemann. “Another factor to consider for the catalog is the aroma. Because you don’t want all variants to have a citrusy or floral flavor. There are different aromas to consider”, points out the “cannabis sommelier”. That factor, in his opinion, is not so important for people who use cannabis for medical reasons. But it may be, however, in the future, for those who want to enjoy a particular experience once the recreational use of marijuana has been legalized. The addiction to cannabis that Dresemann reports is nothing more than a detail that explains why what has become a sommelier at Sanity Group. Dresemann is, above all, an agricultural engineer and passionate about botany. “When I was little I liked to have plants and do experiments, for example, growing a watermelon from a watermelon seed that was eaten at home and things like that. Then, when I was 15 or 16 years old, I had a cannabis plant. But then consumption did not interest me, ”he says. Already in high school, he chose biology as the strong point of his training. In his college years, he started biology but later changed to specialize in what they call here “agricultural sciences”. Successfully completing that other career was the one that gave him the title of “agricultural engineer”. At that stage of his studies, he says, Dresemann was already fully aware that he would work in the cannabis sector. “I decided to focus all the courses I gave at the university on the cultivation of cannabis,” he recalls. “For example, I chose plant nutrition, how to make greenhouses or soil studies, because, in my opinion, the health of the plant begins in the roots,” he says. Travels around the world in search of suppliersAfter his university years he worked for the Canadian company Aurora, a firm with a license to produce cannabis and in which Dresemann was in charge of being aware, to keep the company updated, of the studies that were being published on cannabis.That experience has also helped him to forge a profile of specialist.As such, he often travels with one of the founders of the Sanity Group, Finn Hänsel, around the world looking for growers to supply the company with cannabis for its medicinal products.Dresemann joined the company in 2020, and has already visited South Africa, Portugal, Macedonia, Denmark and Canada, among other countries. “We stayed in Canada for a long time. In ten days we visited fifteen producers. Cannabis there is fully legal, it costs production is higher than other countries, but there they already have a tradition and the market is much more mature than in other countries”, describes the Sanity Group expert. Of course, whenever they visit producers, they do so to meet with representatives of companies that work with licenses from the authorities in their respective countries. “You have to know that the market is extremely guarded. Export and import licenses are required, among other things. There is a lot of paperwork”, underlines Dresemann. “The country has already opened the door to legalization, it will happen” Knowing the taste that the German authorities usually have for bureaucracy, despite the fact that one of the eternal electoral promises of the liberal party, The FDP of the German Vice-Chancellor and Finance Minister Christian Lindner, is to eliminate bureaucracy, in Germany there could be a legalization of cannabis for recreational use with plenty of “paperwork” that Dresemann talks about. “In Germany, with legalization, we are preparing for all scenarios. It may be that the legalization of the German government says that only cannabis that is grown in Germany is legal”, says Dresemann. That could be bad news for your company in view of the many international efforts it has launched for some time now. What Dresemann has no doubt about is that legalization for recreational use in Germany is going to take place. . “The country has already opened the door to legalization, it will happen. That door is not going to close. It may last a year, or two years. But it doesn’t matter, it’s going to happen and that makes us expectant”, he concludes.