Cannabis cultivation skills which could bring brothers Tim and Dave A'Court jail terms in Whangarei where they lived as teenagers, have made them successful businessmen in Amsterdam.
The Kiwiseeds company they set up in the liberal Dutch city five years ago has since won three Cannabis Cups awarded by High Times,
a New York-based magazine with an international circulation advocating the drug's legalisation.
Tim, 40, and Dave 37, were born in Britain and moved to New Zealand with their mother when they were infants, living first at Ruawai, then Dargaville and settling in Whangarei after a brief stint in Tauranga.
Tim attended Kamo High School until 1984, leaving at the end of the fifth form at age 15. Dave quit Whangarei Boys' High School three years later.
Tim told the Northern Advocate jobs were hard to come by in the late 1980s and with dole only $40 a week young people needed to find ways to make cash.
"Some turned to burglary, others stole cars, we started growing weed," he said.
Tim was convicted for cannabis offences and served a term in a rehabilitation centre in Napier.
"But I escaped jail - just," he said.
The brothers moved to Amsterdam in 1995. Tim said cannabis was not legal but was tolerated in Holland, where a distinction between hard and soft drugs kept young people away from opiates and other harmful drugs and out of the overloaded legal system.
"Cannabis should be legalised in New Zealand because prohibition doesn't work and is dangerous," he said.
"Cannabis is relatively harmless. Decriminalising it would free up resources to educate the young about harmful drugs such as alcohol and P."
Tim said he and Dave had never looked back since forming Kiwiseeds.
"They love us and we're proud to be here flying the flag for every smoker in New Zealand, which surveys show is about 18 per cent of the population - three of four times that of Holland," he said.
