Reacts to Cannabis in cook show

Reacts to Cannabis in cook show on Netflix

In Netflix’s new cook show, experts teach the audience to cook with marijuana. Actis fears that the Cannabis industry in the United States is gaining stronger influence in Norway.

 

The TV program “Cooking on High” was launched on Netflix on June 22nd with a 16 years viewer recommendation.

On the Norwegian Steaming giant’s Norwegian website, the program is described as follows:

“For the first time, you’ll see a televised cooking contest where two chefs make delicious marijuana dishes before a panel of judges consisting of really laid back celebrities.”

– We fear that this type of program helps to increase the social acceptance of Cannabis among young people. In the United States, we are seeing the emergence of a commercial industry that has few scroules in promoting a product that can lead to addiction and health damage, says acting Secretary General in Actis, Pernille Huseby, to NTB. Actis is an anti-drug umbrella organization.

Cannabis is big business in the USA

Cannabis is legalized in several states in the United States. Huseby points out that the sale of cannabis now begins to be a big industry in the US. Finance newspaper Business Insider estimated in December that Cannabis, and related products, were sold over US counters in 2017 woth close to $10 billion – a growth of 33 per cent from 2016.

Head of the Mareketing Department at BI, Bendik Meling Samuelsen, says it is natural for an industry to promote its own interests. In Netflix’s food show, professionals associated with the cannabis industry in the United States, present different types of marijuana.

– By demonstrating an object, you will teach the viewers about that object. Concerning Cannabis is product placement through television shows and movies a way for the industry to promote Cannabis in a consumer, as opposed to an abuse, context, Samuelsen tells NTB.

– When an industry grows, one can have several communication goals. One is to display the product, the other is to try to do things in a regulated manner. This makes the market possible to handle for the players.

No wall of morality surrounding Norway

Four out of ten Norwegians use Netflix weekly, and an overview published in Dagens Næringsliv shows that the streaming service will reach approximately 776,000 paying subscribers in Norway by 2020.

– You can not ne so naïve as to believe that just because something is illegal in a country, the communication effect will not occur. Norwegians are for example gambling quite a lot online. There is no wall of morality surrounding Norway, Samuelsen point out.

Actis notes an increasing normalization of cannabis in society as such and fears the pressure from American popular culture. Huseby points out that programs are free to broadcast the content they wish to, but believe that the adult culture must be conscious of its responsibility towards the young.

– We know from the United States that the industry is advertising heavily for different types of cannabis products, ranging from cannabis chocolate to wine. There is every reason to believe that the industry also makes use of product placement. We need to provide good lessons that teach the youth the difference between reality and TV series.

A natural development

Chairperson in the organization “Normal”, Ester Nafstad, stated to Dagbladet in June that a television program like “Cooking on high” represents a natural development where the legalization culture from the United States eventually comes to Europe.

NTB has tried to get a comment from Netflix in connection with this case, but the company has not responded to the inquiry.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today