420
Founder
Ever wondered how your neighbours managed to afford that Land Rover or the cash to cover their kids' private school tuition? Maybe they have a sideline: a secret, subterranean income booster in the form of a marijuana grow operation.
To some that might sound scandalous, while others might wonder why they hadn't thought of it themselves.
Regardless of your reaction, according to Ian Mulgrew, the author of Bud Inc., a colourful journalistic narrative of Canada's marijuana industry, basement grow ops are flourishing in nice, middle class neighbourhoods from coast to coast. The growers tend to supply themselves and a few friends; the weed they sell takes the edge off the daily grind, and their monthly expenses, as well.
"You can buy a little mini grow op downtown in some of the stores here [in Vancouver] that's really a little light box, and you can stick it in the corner and it will keep you well supplied. It's a little mortgage helper," Mr. Mulgrew says in an interview on the eve of the launch of his new book, which appears in stores today.
Marijuana is a multi-billion-dollar industry in Canada. In Bud Inc. Mr. Mulgrew cites an expert source at the Fraser Institute, a conservative think-tank, who estimates the retail sale of weed (assuming pricing at the top end of the scale) is worth about $19.5-billion in Canada. That's based on 2003 figures, the most recent numbers available.
Use of pot is widespread, and not just by slacker youth and ageing hippies. Last year the late Pierre Burton offered televised "toking tips" on Rick Mercer's Monday Report.
And the 48-year-old Mr. Mulgrew, who is the legal affairs columnist for the Vancouver Sun, openly admits, "I occasionally have a reefer. I go out with a woman who doesn't particularly like the smell of pot. I certainly don't smoke marijuana the way I did some days when I was off with some of these people I was writing about, where you are a bit of a chimney. If somebody offers me a reefer at a party, sure I'll have a toke."
He finds that pot takes the "edge off the world around me in much the same way a really nice single-malt scotch or a nice Cognac or glass of red wine does. And I indulge in those, too."
But Mr. Mulgrew doesn't want talk of his book to degenerate into a puerile s******-fest.
"One of the problems [with] talking about marijuana -- it's a bit like talking about masturbation. It's tough to do without people s******ing."
He sees the book as a platform for discussing what he sees as antiquated and unworkable marijuana laws: In Canada, except for the roughly 800 individuals who have permission from Health Canada to use marijuana for medicinal purposes, pot is illegal.
At the same time, he does not want readers to interpret his book as a paean to the benefits of pot.
"[Through the book] I'm advocating that people take a really good look at the public policy we have right now and the damage it's doing to our communities, the danger it's posing to our children because we don't have good drug education, and the corrosive effect it's having on people's faith in institutions like the justice system and the police, and the boon it is to organized crime. That's what I hope the book forces people to do," Mr. Mulgrew says
While the federal government appears to be leaning toward decriminalization, Mr. Mulgrew thinks legalization is the way to go to kill organized crime's involvement with marijuana.
But he doesn't let his book get bogged down by lofty objectives. He calls it a "guided tour through that world, which, although everyone says is subterranean, and in a certain aspect it is, is right before our eyes everywhere and in particular in British Columbia. You really have to play the three monkeys, be deaf, dumb and blind not to see what is happening," he says.
And it is a good read. Simply put, some of the players in Canada's marijuana industry are fascinating. There's Michael Straumietis, a six-foot-eight American who came into Canada under a false identity to avoid marijuana manufacturing charges back home.
Mr. Straumietis, a member of Mensa and a Mason, then turned around and, with two partners, founded Advanced Nutrients. The British Columbia-based company produces "more than 100 different products for cannabis cultivation and has the largest network of medical marijuana grow operations in Canada."
Another player who goes by the moniker Watermelon is a habitue of Vancouver's nudist Wreck Beach and was busted for selling pot cookies -- her slogan is, " 'my business is rolling in dough.' " While Watermelon's business is small potatoes compared with some of the characters in Bud Inc., her case and the fact she managed to beat charges of peddling cannabis resin are illustrative of the legal quagmire marijuana laws in Canada have created -- one where the courts, at least in British Columbia are reluctant to mete out jail sentences, according to Mr. Mulgrew.
"The courts could fill the prisons tomorrow [with marijuana convictions]. Who is going to be served by imprisoning a bunch of middle-class Canadians who thought they would grow a little dope to make a little money to buy a house, and otherwise are law-abiding, income-earning ordinary people?
"That's by and large who is appearing before [the courts]."
During the two years he researched and wrote Bud Inc., Mr. Mulgrew got an intimate look at the lives of pot advocates, growers and sellers. Though he is onside with legalization and makes clear the current laws are senseless, he is dispassionate enough to paint warts-and-all portraits of many of the players.
Advanced Nutrients' Mr. Straumietis, who was eventually forced to leave Canada because he entered under an assumed name, was refused a discharge by a judge who noted "when [Mr. Straumietis] was arrested in 2001, he possessed a quantity of other false identification documents: for example, driver's licences with his photograph in five other names, and American social security cards in three other names."
The upshot is that many of Bud Inc.'s characters aren't poster children for legalization.
In the book's latter chapters, Mr. Mulgrew records lawyer John Conroy, who represents many pot advocates in Canada, as saying he "feels [Canadians] need a period of desensitization so that people can become more disinterested in what happens with the herb. But this has to happen, he added, because the criminal law is not working."
Mr. Mulgrew also introduces readers to members of the medical marijuana community, some of whom run compassion societies for people who use marijuana to treat the symptoms of chronic and, in some cases, terminal diseases. He and others believe the case for medical marijuana will elevate the debate about pot laws in Canada, and elevate it to a new legal realm.
Either sensing or hoping for a new future for marijuana, Canadian media mogul Moses Znaimer and two other partners created the company Cannasat, which has the end goal of manufacturing new marijuana-based medications.
Legalized or not, pot can't be stopped. While British Columbia is the epicentre of activism and production, Mr. Mulgrew writes that "in Ontario, the harvest has grown by an estimated 250% in the past two years."
"Think about it. [Marijuana] grows really quickly. You can get sometimes four harvests a year. The appetite is huge for it. You can get it anywhere, anytime. That's why everyone is into it. You don't need a lot of expertise to make a dollar at it."
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2005 Southam Inc.
Contact: letters@nationalpost.com
Website: National Post
To some that might sound scandalous, while others might wonder why they hadn't thought of it themselves.
Regardless of your reaction, according to Ian Mulgrew, the author of Bud Inc., a colourful journalistic narrative of Canada's marijuana industry, basement grow ops are flourishing in nice, middle class neighbourhoods from coast to coast. The growers tend to supply themselves and a few friends; the weed they sell takes the edge off the daily grind, and their monthly expenses, as well.
"You can buy a little mini grow op downtown in some of the stores here [in Vancouver] that's really a little light box, and you can stick it in the corner and it will keep you well supplied. It's a little mortgage helper," Mr. Mulgrew says in an interview on the eve of the launch of his new book, which appears in stores today.
Marijuana is a multi-billion-dollar industry in Canada. In Bud Inc. Mr. Mulgrew cites an expert source at the Fraser Institute, a conservative think-tank, who estimates the retail sale of weed (assuming pricing at the top end of the scale) is worth about $19.5-billion in Canada. That's based on 2003 figures, the most recent numbers available.
Use of pot is widespread, and not just by slacker youth and ageing hippies. Last year the late Pierre Burton offered televised "toking tips" on Rick Mercer's Monday Report.
And the 48-year-old Mr. Mulgrew, who is the legal affairs columnist for the Vancouver Sun, openly admits, "I occasionally have a reefer. I go out with a woman who doesn't particularly like the smell of pot. I certainly don't smoke marijuana the way I did some days when I was off with some of these people I was writing about, where you are a bit of a chimney. If somebody offers me a reefer at a party, sure I'll have a toke."
He finds that pot takes the "edge off the world around me in much the same way a really nice single-malt scotch or a nice Cognac or glass of red wine does. And I indulge in those, too."
But Mr. Mulgrew doesn't want talk of his book to degenerate into a puerile s******-fest.
"One of the problems [with] talking about marijuana -- it's a bit like talking about masturbation. It's tough to do without people s******ing."
He sees the book as a platform for discussing what he sees as antiquated and unworkable marijuana laws: In Canada, except for the roughly 800 individuals who have permission from Health Canada to use marijuana for medicinal purposes, pot is illegal.
At the same time, he does not want readers to interpret his book as a paean to the benefits of pot.
"[Through the book] I'm advocating that people take a really good look at the public policy we have right now and the damage it's doing to our communities, the danger it's posing to our children because we don't have good drug education, and the corrosive effect it's having on people's faith in institutions like the justice system and the police, and the boon it is to organized crime. That's what I hope the book forces people to do," Mr. Mulgrew says
While the federal government appears to be leaning toward decriminalization, Mr. Mulgrew thinks legalization is the way to go to kill organized crime's involvement with marijuana.
But he doesn't let his book get bogged down by lofty objectives. He calls it a "guided tour through that world, which, although everyone says is subterranean, and in a certain aspect it is, is right before our eyes everywhere and in particular in British Columbia. You really have to play the three monkeys, be deaf, dumb and blind not to see what is happening," he says.
And it is a good read. Simply put, some of the players in Canada's marijuana industry are fascinating. There's Michael Straumietis, a six-foot-eight American who came into Canada under a false identity to avoid marijuana manufacturing charges back home.
Mr. Straumietis, a member of Mensa and a Mason, then turned around and, with two partners, founded Advanced Nutrients. The British Columbia-based company produces "more than 100 different products for cannabis cultivation and has the largest network of medical marijuana grow operations in Canada."
Another player who goes by the moniker Watermelon is a habitue of Vancouver's nudist Wreck Beach and was busted for selling pot cookies -- her slogan is, " 'my business is rolling in dough.' " While Watermelon's business is small potatoes compared with some of the characters in Bud Inc., her case and the fact she managed to beat charges of peddling cannabis resin are illustrative of the legal quagmire marijuana laws in Canada have created -- one where the courts, at least in British Columbia are reluctant to mete out jail sentences, according to Mr. Mulgrew.
"The courts could fill the prisons tomorrow [with marijuana convictions]. Who is going to be served by imprisoning a bunch of middle-class Canadians who thought they would grow a little dope to make a little money to buy a house, and otherwise are law-abiding, income-earning ordinary people?
"That's by and large who is appearing before [the courts]."
During the two years he researched and wrote Bud Inc., Mr. Mulgrew got an intimate look at the lives of pot advocates, growers and sellers. Though he is onside with legalization and makes clear the current laws are senseless, he is dispassionate enough to paint warts-and-all portraits of many of the players.
Advanced Nutrients' Mr. Straumietis, who was eventually forced to leave Canada because he entered under an assumed name, was refused a discharge by a judge who noted "when [Mr. Straumietis] was arrested in 2001, he possessed a quantity of other false identification documents: for example, driver's licences with his photograph in five other names, and American social security cards in three other names."
The upshot is that many of Bud Inc.'s characters aren't poster children for legalization.
In the book's latter chapters, Mr. Mulgrew records lawyer John Conroy, who represents many pot advocates in Canada, as saying he "feels [Canadians] need a period of desensitization so that people can become more disinterested in what happens with the herb. But this has to happen, he added, because the criminal law is not working."
Mr. Mulgrew also introduces readers to members of the medical marijuana community, some of whom run compassion societies for people who use marijuana to treat the symptoms of chronic and, in some cases, terminal diseases. He and others believe the case for medical marijuana will elevate the debate about pot laws in Canada, and elevate it to a new legal realm.
Either sensing or hoping for a new future for marijuana, Canadian media mogul Moses Znaimer and two other partners created the company Cannasat, which has the end goal of manufacturing new marijuana-based medications.
Legalized or not, pot can't be stopped. While British Columbia is the epicentre of activism and production, Mr. Mulgrew writes that "in Ontario, the harvest has grown by an estimated 250% in the past two years."
"Think about it. [Marijuana] grows really quickly. You can get sometimes four harvests a year. The appetite is huge for it. You can get it anywhere, anytime. That's why everyone is into it. You don't need a lot of expertise to make a dollar at it."
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2005 Southam Inc.
Contact: letters@nationalpost.com
Website: National Post
