UK’s first cannabis restaurant raided by police
The UK’s first cannabis restaurant was one of three addresses raided by police in Brighton today – but the owners insist the “significant quantity of herbal cannabis” seized is legal industrial hemp.
Officers executed a warrant at Canna Kitchen in Duke Street, along with the Hemp Life head shop in London Road and a home address in North Place where a 36-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of money laundering and supplying class B drugs.
On Wednesday night, she was still being questioned by police.
A spokesperson for Canna Kitchen said: “A quantity of stock was seized from our shop today. Our products are defined as industrial hemp, and are clearly and transparently imported as such, with all taxes and duties paid.
“Our products contain CBD and trace elements of THC in line with the UK legal guidelines for pharmaceutical definitions and UK legal definitions of CBD products.
“If trace elements of THC render these products illegal, then by default all CBD products must be illegal in the UK. This would mean that many large high street chains are currently breaking the law.
“We have never in the past year and a half had any confusion over the legality of these products, and are disappointed with the heavy handed approach of the Sussex Police force today.”
A spokesman for Sussex Police said: “Police in Brighton carried out three raids across the city on Wednesday (May 8).
“Warrants were executed at shops in London Road and Duke Street, and a home address in North Place, in connection with an investigation into money laundering and supply of class B drugs.
“At London Road drugs and cash was seized and one man attended a police station under caution for a voluntary interview.
“At North Place a 36-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of being concerned in money laundering and the supply of class B drugs. She remains in custody.
“A further warrant was conducted at a shop in Duke Street and a significant quantity of herbal cannabis was seized.”
Canna Kitchen opened in December and features vegan and vegetarian food with the option of added cannabidiol or CBD, a non-psychoactive legal cannabis extract.
It also offers other cannabis extracts CBG and CBN as well as cannabis-derived flavours and fragrances.
Diners can also vape on the roof terrace.
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Disgraceful waste of police time and resources.
I just wish Sussex police left the poor drugs dealers alone.
They are doing a public services for ffff’s sake.
In a couple of years all recreational drug use will be legal, and drug dealers of today, will be captains of industry tomorrow.
No thanks. Class B drugs are illegal. If you want to break the law, expect to get locked up. Not interested in your supercilious evangelising. Come down from the clouds and back onto earth.
“who what” I hear idiots say things like that all the time and they always have one thing in common they have never researched anything they just get told things and believe them as the word of god.
Run along to Church ffs. When idiots claim weed is dangerous and then use the GOD card in same sentence……hahaha hahaha PISSOFF you fckn cretin
Yeah, f**k the police, cannabis is good for you whereas the police are just evil bullies and it is they who should be locked up. The UK Government has no legitimacy and will not until it legalises recreational drugs – and so say all of us!
I am disgusted by Sussex Police today. There is a 3 year old child still waiting for her mum to be released. For selling hemp every one. Real heroes.
https://www.clear-uk.org/warning-cbd-flowers-buds-weed-hash-not-legal-uk/
All because the government is still kicking the can down the road and causing all this grief. Disgraceful! This is to do with greed and power! GW pharma get to grow cannabis and sell its products around the world whilst the shareholders get richer and innocent people trying to make a living from Hemp and CBD get raided….I smell a rat! The UK is so far behind the rest of the globe it’s ridiculous.
What bunch of buffoons. I thought the police were low on resources? Still got timme and money for unwarranted actions harrasing people going about their lives.
Good that the police are taking this seriously and are trying to stem drug use in Brighton. There are too many zombies in Brighton who have had their brains and lives destroyed by taking cannabis which has now been genetically modified to be many times stronger than the mild stuff that was sold 30 years ago. I’m sure the restaurant will end up being in the clear and publicity is always good for restaurants. Very nice food and pleasant people running it.
Genetically modified? Do some research instead of repeating the drivel shoved down your throat by mainstream media. 30 times stronger would suggest cannabis had only 1% of thc in “your day” and that’s still a massive push. Simple maths defy that illogical statement from the media. People are growing in tents in their rooms. Not in labs. No one has ever genetically modified a cannabis plant. Don’t be so ridiculous.
‘Genetically modified’ doesn’t account for how the plant is grown, it’s about the seed that is modified for different strains and reasons prior to growing. A GM seed can still be grown in a tent or windowsill but the properties of the final plant have been amended.
Catherine is right, many of my friends lives have been destroyed by their addictions! If you walk around Brighton late at night, you will see no end of zombified drug addicts walking around, shouting things, causing chaos, and generally being antisocial.
It’s about time the police and government cracked down on alcohol, it’s disgusting. Cannabis on the other hand, is far safer and should be legalised ASAP.
You mean drunk zombies or heroin addicts. Shall we start arresting beer drinkers a d raid all pubs? How many violent attacks driven by alcohol happen every single night in Brighton?
And the answer to that is if they have an addictive personality, if it weren’t weed it wd be something else so don’t penalise the vast majority of ppl who are perfectly capable of consuming products of all kinds without becoming addicted. I wd much rather most ppl were smoking cannabis than drinking legal alcohol, I know very very few ppl who become in any way aggressive on simple unadulterated cannabis.
Cath T.
You have no clue.
🙈😆
That is entirely false. I strongly recommend you watch a documentary called ‘Grass is greener’ on Netflix. It highlights much is the misinformation and wives tales like ‘cannabis destroys your brain’ which has been spread ever since reefer madness decades ago. It is entirely false. Cannabis causes no harm to the brain whatsoever in any shape or form. Its side effects can cause short term memory loss with heavy use, but entirely reverses it’s self in under 2 weeks after consumption is stopped. And weed doesn’t turn anyone into ‘zombies’. I bet half the people around you at work smoke and you wouldn’t even know it. People incorporate it into their daily lives and it makes them happier and calmer. The fact that you even think what you say is true leads me to believe that you have been a total victim of misinformation. I strongly recommend you do some real research on the subject and you will 100% change your opinion.
I do pretty alright for myself. I’m not a zombie and I hold down a job as an IT specialist (pretty complex stuff for a zombie). Those of you who think weed is the reason this place is a baren s***hole of drug use and crime clearly don’t know what you’re talking about, you know the names of 3 drugs and you smell weed occasionally so weed MUST be the one. Try ketamine, cocaine, crack, heroin, meth, amphetamines, XANAX, things that are just letters and numbers, THOSE are the drugs being used and ruining people, the users just smoke weed to help the comedown.
Your comment on Cannabis being a drug problem is based on antiquated prohibition propaganda that current research and worldwide legislation is supplementing with its proven benefits and healthy attributes.
Everything you’ve said there is wrong ..the only people selling GM cannabis are the government, that are growing and exporting 95 tonnes of GM cannabis as medicine a year from their farm in Norfolk …
Cannabis is not many times stronger than 30 years ago , 30 years ago ,”skunk#1″ was all the rage ..you know the one that was supposed to make us all go crazy .. yet that was only 5% stronger than it’s parent strains ( the old hippy weed) .and FYI skunk #1 is one if the strains used in the manufacture of “medical cannabis” treatments .. and grown by our government in a secure farm in Kent .
Even today’s “modern weed” is only 7% stronger than the 60s weed and that has nothing to do with being GM..and all to do with advanced growing techniques
Lastly .. Cannabis does not cause people to be like zombies … that’s the modern synthetic “legal highs” ..Cannabis has never been proven to be the cause of a single case of mental health issues..if it was .. why hasn’t there been a single case in the USA, where 300,000,000 people have access to legal cannabis?
“Cannabis has never been proven to be the cause of a single case of mental health issues” ~ ummm, wishful thinking? The evidence is pretty clear for those who look.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(07)61162-3/fulltext
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(07)61162-3/fulltext
No form of cannabis should be illegal. However, it is a fact that all forms of cannabis are, including industrial hemp.
In order to possess industrial hemp a licence is required and without a licence the offence is exactly the same as for cannabis with high THC content.
It is a myth that hemp is legal or that the level of THC has any bearing on the legality of cannabis. Really this is just incompetence on the part of the business owners. I hope they aren’t charged but they only have themselves to blame.
Yes, I agree that the law should be followed. And thank you to the police for protecting the public and their health. We are very lucky in this country that we have such a good police force.
U.K. gov largest producers of this hemp in the world lol and biggest hipocrits in the world too
Possibly, but at least they know how to spell ‘hypocrite’.
As long as he spells right eh 🙈🙈
Dear Mary,
Unfortunately not everyone was able to receive a full education. Unfortunately the needs of those who have different learning styles or approaches were not met.
I think it takes a much braver person to post their view no matter how it is spelt than to belittle someone’s opinion and mock them on a SPAG point.
Prehaps in future you could offer more to the conversation?
If these folk have operated within the law and their stock is legit then surely that will win through. As for the effects of cannabis compared to other legal drugs, I’ve not seen stoners have a fight, or loud arguments or perform ASB in comparison to drinkers or caffine extremists. I strongly believe cannabis should be legalised and regulated.
Shame on the police. Times are changing and they are on the wrong side of history. Go catch some proper criminals, house of commons would be a good place to start.
I Second That Ryan
Most CBD vendors don’t have a clue what the actual law is. I mean these guys are selling CBN extract? That is a class B controlled substance in itself.
And the misuse of drugs regulations 2001 state the maximum trace of THC is 1mg per container, not 0.2% contrary to popular opinion.
But the owner is right, most CBD suppliers are breaking the law in respect of THC, just there hasn’t been a crack down yet.
Waste of time waste of money, get a grip and grow up UK
There needs to be clearer guidelines from the home office to protect retailers and consumers
What a waste of money. When police are at record low numbers, Sussex police are doing raids on PERFECTLY LEGAL outlets selling CBD products while violent crime is on the rise and robberies don’t even get investigated.
Muppets
Also, cannabis does not turn people into zombies – drinking alcohol, taking heroin or spice and GHB does that!
As the government wastes time cracking down on drugs, new, really awful drugs, like GHB have seen a massive increase in use. It’s time to legalize drugs, stop people from drinking DRAIN CLEANER and let them take the pills they want to take, or take the hash/weed they want, knowing it’s all safely sourced and that people are properly educated about it – like alcohol. The substances that replace ‘traditional’ drugs are much worse than those they replace, and it is these we need to actually protect people from.
I worked in clubs when the real crack down on things like dope, e’s, coke and speed were happening. All that happened is that things got worse. Much worse – people were dying left right and centre of things like GHB and crack ODs because they couldn’t get the drugs they wanted/used to take.
We should look toward what Portugal have done – perhaps we should adopt their drug laws in Brighton and Hove? And before anyone bites my head off, look up how it’s worked for them.
I will add that drugs can (including alcohol) be dangerous for those with latent psychosis/mental illness. If you have decided you really want to take something, then do yourself a favour and educate yourself BEFORE you do anything.
So I see that the law is a bit different from what I thought, but stand by what I say. There are much more important things to be dealing with than people wanting to take cannabis.
How did this business get a license to trade in the first place? Clearly the council isn’t too bothered. Head shops bring money into Brighton!
Did you read the article? All products in the canna kitchen are CBD with TRACE elements of THC. By your logic Holland and barrets need closing down because they sell CBD oil which guess what….. HAS TRACE ELEMENTS OF THC IN IT. Actually read the article before posting a comment next time
Rich, the issue is how much of a trace – the law states that up to 1mg trace of controlled substance per “container” is acceptable. More than that is illegal. H&B only sell up to 5% full spectrum oils and these will almost certainly have less than 1mg per bottle at that concentration and is probably why they don’t sell stronger ones.
On the other hand, high mg full spectrum oils often will have more than 1mg THC per bottle, they’re widely available but it doesn’t make them legal. There just hasn’t been a crackdown yet.
But regardless, the issue with Canna Kitchen seems mostly to do with the CBD flowers/buds they were evidently conspicuously selling from their “dispensary”. These are not legal and are highly likely to have more than 1mg THC per packet anyway. This makes them cannabis buds.
Just saying that they’re industrial hemp doesn’t make it so. You need a license to grow industrial hemp and even then you’re not allowed to use the flowers, they have to be disposed of. These businesses selling CBD buds do not have a license to handle hemp in the first place and even if they did that doesn’t allow them to sell the flowers/buds.
I hope these guys don’t get prosecuted, the law sucks but the law is the law and you have to adhere to regulatory matters in any business, that’s life.
As more information is released about this, is sounds more and more likely significant law breaking has happened.
Well done to the police and thank you for taking this seriously.
I wouldn’t buy Philip Mays skunk #1 even if it were reasonably priced due to the hypocrisy of Theresa’s position, but £700 an oz for a private prescription is too much to ask, and locking up the competition for charging less than a third of that price is criminal.. Theresa May should not be profiting from the sale of her overpriced skunk #1 that most people cannot afford whilst those who provide it to patients at a reasonable price continue to be persecuted. I try to forgive those who report the cultivation, use, and sale of cannabis to the police on the basis that they themselves have been lied to, and that they know not what they do. But Theresa and her husband Phillip should be ashamed of themselves and be forced to return any profits gained to those who have suffered as a result of their insider trading, campaign of misinformation, and persecution of the sick.
I keep hearing that Philip May owns a cannabis company and him and Theresa May profit from this, but I’m sorry it’s a myth.
He is simply a relationship manager at a Captial Group. Yes capital group partly own GW who have a cannabis based epilepsy medicine but he’s just an employee, not the owner of the business.
I loath Theresa May and her drug policies but these myths get perpetuated like Chinese whispers and the actual facts need to be remembered.
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