By Luke Sumpter

Funnily enough, Milan, a town with a worldwide commercial and cultural reach, has been out of the cannabis loop. Or at least, it was until last year, when Marco Russo, a newbie grow shop owner decided to challenge both the market and the politics.

Thanks to Marco, as well as the many other people and companies involved in his project, the second edition of the Italian 4.20 celebration victoriously took place again in Milan. 4.20 European Psychedelic HempFest 2017 is the name of the first Italian cannabis day, adding up to a few specialised trade fairs across the nation. It was a free, though responsible, cannabis feast. It was a big success and a political victory for the legalisation movement.

hemp fest milan 2017

AN INFORMATIVE DAY AND A PARTY ALL NIGHT LONG

From 4.20 pm to 4.20 am, a few thousand people of different ages and cultures crowded the Lambretta studios at the ex-industrial East end of town. This was the place where the Lambretta scooter used to be built, and these were 12 long hours dedicated to fair information on cannabis, experience exchange, and fun. Dozens of local and international companies from all the subsectors of the cannabis industry-sponsored the event. Some of them had their products and information points available for the public. We at Royal Queen Seeds was among the sponsors! Food and drinks were all based on hemp.

Milan is a business town. Many of the companies participating at this cannabis event were born over the last 2 years, they already employ dozens of people, and they demonstrate competence and innovation. That’s what the town ultimately likes. Here at 4.20 HempFest, both start-ups and consolidate businesses presented their latest cannabis genetics, new vaporizers and smoking devices, innovative garments and textiles, and co-friendly and healthy building materials, 3D prints with hemp composites. Conferences and workshops on industrial, nutritional and medical cannabis took place together with discussions on homemade cultivation in the main hall, while the free vape and chill out areas were steaming and the stage was being set up for a night of live music. This is also a party town.

Hemp Fest Milan 2017 Indoor

THE POLITICAL REACTION

A couple of day before the event, all the political forces embodied in their municipal, regional, and media representatives felt like declaring their position on the event. This fact immediately confirmed that 4.20 HempFest 2017 was perceived to be much more than a stoner’s celebration.

Milan’s major Giuseppe Sala once again admitted to having smoked cannabis “when he was young”, and he was neutral, if not supporting, towards the 4.20 event in the town he is representing. The fragmented democratic and liberal areas were all somehow sponsoring the event, while the actual main party in the country, Movimento 5 Stelle, was present at the feast, fully endorsing the cannabis normalisation and the civil right to grow for personal use. In the eventuality that political parties actually do reflect the public opinion, this means the vast majority of Italians do support the legalisation of cannabis.

While 4.20 was lighting up on the muddy shore of the Lambro river that gave its name to the scooter, close to the central railway station a radical political representative was planting cannabis seeds in the Regional Government Palace front garden. He was identified by the police, giving the prohibitionists a further hint to mark this celebration as disadvantageous, illegal and dangerous. Catholic and extreme right wing believers are still opposing the normalisation of cannabis in Italy.

The same old political expression of a religious morale keeps slowing down the cultural and scientific progress, the economy, and the civil rights in this country. It happened in the seventies when the Church and its political arm tried to prevent legalisation of divorce and abortion, and it is happening once again now. The “official” Italian Catholic party passed away in the nineties, crumbled under the burden of criminal convictions for corruption. Since then, the religious ethics are shared, spread and forcedly inserted into the Parliament by various and eventual political characters. Now they demonise euthanasia, artificial insemination, and of course cannabis. With the majority in favour, though, they can stop progress; other 2 new and big trade fairs are scheduled in Milan by the end of 2017.

Hemp Fest 2017 Milan Outdoors

THE MEDIA COVERAGE

Almost all the Italian media covered the event. Lately, even some conservative newspapers or newsletters seemed to sport more open-minded opinions on cannabis, making us think that finally, the power of science must have opened their publishers’ eyes too. However, what’s really nice is that the three most culturally authoritative Italian newspapers gave full voice to this 4.20 event in their local and national news. Here is a photo album by Corriere della Sera titled “Cannabis, the party is in Lambrate”. Here is another slide show shoot by La Repubblica. The third main liberal media, il Fatto Quotidiano, has always been a strong supporter of cannabis normalisation, and used to cover this and other cannabis events with informative articles. A lot of TV channels were also reporting the 4.20 Hemp Fest, so here is one of the videos. Needless to say, no police presence or medical intervention was needed, and no issues were reported from the neighbourhood or the participants.

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Privacy Policy - Royal Queen Seeds

To ensure a safe online environment and guarantee adequate data protection, we strictly comply with all legal requirements. In this privacy statement, we provide information about how and for what purpose data is collected, safety measures, storage periods and contact details.


COMPANY NAME: SNORKEL SPAIN, SL (hereinafter ROYAL QUEEN SEEDS)

C/ Vilar d'Abdelà, 5 (nave 1) CP: 08170 de Montornès del Vallès

+34 937 379 846

support@royalqueenseeds.com


The present Privacy Policy sets out the terms on which we will treat personal data at ROYAL QUEEN SEEDS; this includes any personal data collected through our website https://www.royalqueenseeds.com/ as well as any other data we process in the course of our business activities.

ROYAL QUEEN SEEDS collects the following personal data for the purposes listed below:

SECTION 1 – PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

1.1 Account purchases

Account purchases can only be made if you are in possession of a personal account. When you create an account or purchase something from our shop, as part of the buying and selling process we collect the following personal information that you provide to us:

This information is required for delivery. In addition, when you browse our shop, we automatically receive the Internet Protocol (IP) address of your computer. Based on this information, we can optimise your online experience and at the same time protect our online environment.

Purpose of data collection

We collect and store account-related data for the following purposes:

(a) to carry out obligations arising from any contracts between you and us, and to provide you with information, products and services that you may request from us;

(b) to set up, manage and communicate with you about your account and your orders;

(c) to conduct market research and analysis;

(d) to confirm your age and identity, and to detect and prevent fraud.

1.2 Newsletters

With your explicit permission, we may send you newsletters about our shop, new products and other updates. We send newsletters based on your explicit consent. In the event that you purchase a product, and in accordance with current regulations, we may send you commercial communications in accordance with the legitimate interest of our company, always about products or services similar to those you have purchased or contracted. In any case, you may exercise your right of opposition through the channels announced in this Privacy Policy. The following information is collected in relation to the newsletter:

We do not need to know the sex of the person in order to send the newsletter (data minimisation: by law we must ask for data that is strictly necessary to provide the service, and in this case knowing the sex is not necessary to send the newsletter).

Purpose of data collection

The data collected is used to:

(a) personalise our emails, including your name and gender;

(b) provide gender-specific content.

You can withdraw your consent at any time by using the link provided in the newsletter or the contact information provided in section 2.

1.3 Customer service and contact form

In order to provide appropriate support, our customer service employees have access to information related to the account. Consequently, their support will be highly effective and friendly. The data provided in our contact form is used by our CRM provider, SuperOffice. We will only use your details to respond to your message.

SECTION 2 – LEGITIMATE INTEREST

If you have purchased any of our products, please note that we may process your personal data for promotional purposes, based on Royal Queen Seeds' legitimate interest only to offer you products or services from our company and about products or services similar to those you have purchased. You may exercise your right to opt out of future messages by the means set out in this Privacy Policy or through any notification you receive.

2.1 How do you withdraw consent?

If you change your mind, you can withdraw your consent for us to contact you for the purpose of collecting, using, or disclosing your data at any time by reaching out to us at: support@royalqueenseeds.com.

SECTION 3 – DISCLOSURE

We may disclose your personal information if we are required to do so by law or if you breach our Terms of Service.

SECTION 4 – HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR DATA?

At Royal Queen Seeds, we will not retain your data for longer than is necessary for the purposes described in this Policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of data; however, the longest period we will normally hold any personal data is 10 years.

4.1 Account information

Data relating to the account remains relevant for as long as the consumer is in possession of an account. Therefore, the data remains documented for as long as the account exists. When our customers delete an account, the associated data will be deleted within a reasonable period of time. Requests regarding the inspection or correction of stored personal data or the deletion of an account can be sent to support@royalqueenseeds.com.

4.2 Newsletters

In the event that you give us your consent to inform you about our products or services, we will keep your data until you express your wish not to receive any further communications from us. However, we regularly (every month) carry out a relevance check. Registered customers (and their personal information) will be deleted whenever customers do not reply to our request. In addition, our newsletter mailing has an opt-out feature. Consumers can withdraw their consent by using this opt-out feature.

SECTION 5 – COOKIES

Cookies are small information files that notify your computer of previous interactions with our website. These cookies are stored on your hard drive, not on our website. Essentially, when you use our website, your computer displays its cookies to us, informing our site that you have visited before. This allows our website to function more quickly and remember aspects related to your previous visits (such as your username), making your experience more convenient. At Royal Queen Seeds, we use two types of cookies: functional and analytical.

5.1 Functional Cookies

Functional cookies are used to enhance your online experience. Among other things, these cookies track what is added to your shopping cart. The use of these cookies does not require prior authorization.

5.2 Analytical Cookies

Analytical cookies are used for research and market analysis. The data collected with these analytical cookies is anonymous, making it unusable for third parties. The use of these cookies does not require prior authorization.

SECTION 5 – THIRD-PARTY SERVICES

Third-party services are required to conduct transactions and provide our services. In general, the third-party providers we use will only collect, use and disclose your information to the extent necessary to enable them to perform the services they provide to us.

However, certain third-party service providers, such as payment gateways and other payment transaction processors, have their own privacy policies regarding the information we must provide to them for your transactions.

We encourage you to read the privacy policies of these providers so that you can understand how these providers will handle your personal information.

In particular, certain suppliers may be located or have facilities located in a different jurisdiction than yours or ours. Therefore, if you choose to proceed with a transaction involving the services of a third party, your information may be subject to the laws of the jurisdiction in which that service provider or its facilities are located.

Once you leave our website or are redirected to a third-party website or application, you are no longer governed by this Privacy Policy or the Terms of Service of our website.

Web analytics service (anonymous data)

On this website we have integrated an element of a web analytics service (with anonymisation functionality). Web analytics can be defined as the gathering, processing and analysis of data about the behaviour of visitors to websites. An analytics service collects, among other things, data about which website a person came from (the so-called referrer), which sub-pages they visited or how often and for how long they visited a sub-page. Web analytics is mainly used for website optimisation and for a cost–benefit analysis of internet advertising.

Courier service

To complete deliveries we use a courier service. This courier service carries out the delivery between our company and the consumer's home. To complete these logistics, the company requires access to the consumer's name and address information.

Mailing service

Royal Queen Seeds uses a third-party mail service provider to send its newsletter. This provider has access to limited account information related to opt-in consent (e.g. email address).

Marketing services

Royal Queen Seeds has the support of a company that specialises in marketing and communication activities. Their access to personal information is very limited and mostly anonymous.

Payment services

At Royal Queen Seeds we use external payment services to handle our transactions (e.g. credit card payments).

SECTION 6 – SECURITY

To protect your personal information, we take reasonable precautions and follow industry standard best practices to ensure that it is not inappropriately lost, misused, accessed, disclosed, altered or destroyed.

If you provide us with your credit card information, the information is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL) and stored using AES-256 encryption. Although no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, we follow all PCI-DSS requirements and implement additional industry standards that are commonly accepted. Information related to the account is protected with a hashing method. This method transforms the information into a generated hash. As a result, confidential information is protected and invisible, even to us. In addition, our databases are exceptionally protected against unauthorised access. For example, access to the database is only possible and permitted via approved IP addresses (e.g. from Royal Queen Seeds headquarters). Other attempts and addresses are rejected at all times.

Furthermore, data is anonymised as much as possible, so it cannot be directly linked to a specific consumer. With this data, however, we may be able to carry out market research and analysis. In addition, the third parties concerned (e.g. mailing service) are examined prior to our collaboration, comply with the GDPR from the EU and receive a processing agreement. Within Royal Queen Seeds, employees are assigned different access permissions. Specific permission provides access only to information that is strictly required to perform a task. Digital security measures are subject to change and must meet high requirements to ensure the safety of online customers. That is why, at Royal Queen Seeds, we appoint a security officer. Regular verification and improvement of security measures (where necessary) are part of the role.

SECTION 7 – CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, so please check back regularly. Changes and clarifications will be effective immediately upon being published on the Website. If we make substantial changes to this policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated so you will know what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances, if any, we use and/or disclose it.

SECTION 8 – YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO: