Pubdate: Fri, 27 Jul 2012
Source: North Shore News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 North Shore News
Contact:  http://www.nsnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/311
Author: John Goodman

HIGH TIMES IN THE HEART OF DANKNESS

Q&A: Mark Haskell Smith

- - Heart of Dankness: Underground Botanists, Outlaw Farmers and the 
Race for the Cannabis Cup by Mark Haskell Smith published by Broadway 
Books (256 pages).

WHILE Mark Haskell Smith was doing research for his novel Baked the 
Los Angeles Times made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

Learning that he was going to be attending the Cannabis Cup in 
Amsterdam they asked him if he would consider covering the world 
championship of weed for them as well and they would put his findings 
in their Calendar section.

Accredited as a Times reporter Haskell Smith found his life was 
immediately that much easier. People who previously wouldn't give him 
the time of day all of a sudden welcomed him with open arms. His 
latest book - part gonzo journalism, part anthropological study - 
takes us deep into cannabis culture and the Heart of Dankness.

North Shore News: How hard was it to get access to the world you write about?

Mark Haskell Smith: A lot of people in that world really liked that 
article. It was like my golden ticket into that world. The more time 
I spent with them the more they liked me and so they would open up 
even more and show me more stuff. That was the one lucky thing, I 
think, if I had just been some guy saying, 'Hey, I'm writing a book.' 
'Yeah books. We don't read books. We only talk to the High Times guys.'

North Shore News: There's a lot of grey areas involved in the various 
cannabis cultures. Different levels of government all have their own 
ideas about how to handle things.

Mark Haskell Smith: Everywhere you look there's some grey area. It's 
so interesting - like in Oakland, California - it's zoned where there 
are certain areas where marijuana use is the lowest priority for law 
enforcement and then the Feds swoop in and say, 'Hey, it's our 
highest priority. Everyone's under arrest.' We'd go to these places 
in Oakland and people would be pretty much openly smoking. They're 
medical patients - that's what makes it legal there - but not legal 
for the Feds. You get all these problems you know where someone is 
legally growing something in California or Colorado and under federal 
law it's got mandatory minimums of like 10 years in prison.

North Shore News: Things seem to change all the time. Governments 
come in and change the rules.

Mark Haskell Smith: They change almost weekly. You can have state law 
say one thing and then the city changes it and then the local 
neighbourhood council will rezone.

North Shore News: The similarities between wine and cannabis 
cultivation are striking. Growing cannabis has become a real art form 
in some parts of the world.

Mark Haskell Smith: Absolutely. That's one of the things I wanted to 
show in the book. I talked to those growers in the Sierras and 
they're actually talking about the soils. The rock has got some 
minerals that just add a flavour and we're at altitude so the plants 
have more CO2 coming to them so they grow a little more robustly and 
because of the high altitude the sun is more intense so they grow 
more resin around the flowers and leaves because that's a protective 
thing that the plant does. I could have the same conversation with a 
vintner in France or the Napa Valley about how the shale and the sea 
breeze make the Chardonnay superior.

North Shore News: Indica is from cooler climates and sativa is from 
warmer regions. What level of cultivation is done indoors in greenhouses?

Mark Haskell Smith: I think the majority of the high-end cultivation 
is all indoors. It's one of the funny things about prohibition. 
Critics are always saying, 'Oh well, the pot's not what you had when 
you were in college, it's so much stronger.' Yeah, you know why it's 
stronger is because you forced everybody to grow indoors where they 
can really control the environment and the nutrients and the plants 
can express themselves fully.

North Shore News: Is California mainly outdoors? Does it differ from 
B.C. in that way?

Mark Haskell Smith: California is a mix. Even the guys I talked to, 
they do a big outdoor crop every summer but they'll have two or three 
indoor rooms going all year long.

North Shore News: Mexican cartels control California, local gangs 
dominate B.C. Has Amsterdam and Holland escaped much of the 
criminality because of its softer laws?

Mark Haskell Smith: I think so. You know there's some talk among the 
Dutch government about banning tourists from buying cannabis in the 
coffeeshops and a lot of people particularly the mayor of Amsterdam, 
are saying, 'You know we actually got the drug dealers off the 
streets here and if you ban tourists they're just going to go buy 
from guys in the shadows along the canals.'

North Shore News: Why are they thinking of changing the laws? Are 
Amsterdam's laws different from the rest of the country because 
they're talking about starting with coffee shops as private clubs 
outside Amsterdam.

Mark Haskell Smith: The genesis of this whole thing is that every 
Friday and Saturday night, in some of the small border towns, French 
and German tourists come over the border to stock up for the weekend 
and they cause huge traffic jams, and finally the people in those 
towns were like you know, 'I can't even go the local pub because the 
traffic is so bad.

It's gridlock.' So they decided they had to do something, and the 
outlying areas are more conservative traditionally, so they actually 
got this thing to go through but it's just for a couple of little 
towns. But you know typical conservative overreach they decided let's 
do this everywhere. Rotterdam and Amsterdam are like, 'You know it's 
a 400 million euro a year tax base for us so no we are not going do 
it.' I've heard from some people who are very pessimistic who say it 
will and other people say it will but it won't last long and other 
people are saying no it won't ever go through. Or if it goes through 
it won't be enforced.

North Shore News: Heart of Dankness really brings to life the 
different personalities involved in cannabis culture. There is a 
marked difference between the Amsterdam and California people.

Mark Haskell Smith: Mainly because the Amsterdam people are totally 
legit. They're businessmen, they pay taxes, they have employees, they 
have human resource people on their staff. They're really able to 
explore what the plant can do and what combinations of genetics can 
do with impunity. In the States, and I'm sure it's the same in 
Canada, you have to lay low and everything is secret. You don't want 
to get arrested. It just creates different kinds of personalities, I guess.

North Shore News: The Amsterdam guys seem scientific and urban while 
the California group are primarily rural.

Mark Haskell Smith: The guys in California are mountain men. It is 
more urban and science based in Holland. Because the government is 
involved they have a growing facility. They have pharmaceutical grade 
cannabis that doctors prescribe for people in addition to the 
coffeeshops. There's people in California who are doing work that's 
science-based or at least they're trying to. There's a place called 
Steep Hill Lab in Oakland that's at the cutting edge of that stuff. 
Just to make sure that if you go into a dispensary with your medical 
recommendation you won't get something that's got pesticides or some 
sort of bad chemicals in it. What they do is they have new technology 
that analyzes cannabis really quickly. Like you will walk in with 
some bud and they will tell you how much THC it's got, what some of 
the other cannabinoids are and if it's got any pathogens, molds, 
mildews or chemical residues. They're saying, 'Look we're treating 
this as a serious pharmaceutical! herb and we want to guarantee 
safety for everyone. I think they are changing California a little bit.

North Shore News: Are they using the Amsterdam model? Mark Haskell 
Smith: To a degree they are and the science is actually what a lot of 
people are doing in California and Colorado because it's all medical, 
so OK you've got inflamed tendons and a pain in your lower back this 
will help you more because it's got a high CBD which is an 
anti-inflammatory and this if you're depressed you want a sativa 
because it will actually improve your mood. It will give you some 
energy. They're really trying to dial in what different strains can 
do. There's one strain if you're starting to have an asthma attack 
you have a couple of puffs, it's a bronchodilator. It seems 
counterintuitive but it actually can help.

North Shore News: In contrast Canada's cannabis culture seems more 
fractured. Like Reeferman out in Moose Jaw.

Mark Haskell Smith: Well, Reeferman you know had a really bad 
experience with the Canadian government. They threw him in jail and 
then he had to go to Colombia and Mexico but now he's back. I don't 
know if it's because of the geography of the country but it seems 
like a lot of the top growers are in the B.C. area although there are 
some really good growers in Toronto too, and probably in Montreal as 
well, I just wasn't exposed to them.

North Shore News: I don't think you ever mention the name of the B.C. 
grower of Lavender in the book.

Mark Haskell Smith: I didn't know his name and it would

have been hard for me to get permission. I use all fake names for the 
guys in California even though they didn't want me to. 'You're not 
going to get arrested because of my book. You can do something stupid 
on your own.' I suppose I could have found out the guy's name, or 
woman's name, but then I would have to get permission and then I 
would have changed it anyway. They'll know who they are.

North Shore News: Franco and the rest of the group in Amsterdam 
operate out in the open. When they came to Toronto they were very 
conscious of what they could and couldn't do.

Mark Haskell Smith: And for good reason. They don't want to be flying 
in and get stopped at the border because they're on a list. They're 
smart about that first and foremost. Those guys are businessmen.

North Shore News: Closing it down let's consider the big question - 
what about the legalization of cannabis?

Mark Haskell Smith: For me the bottom line is this: there is just no 
justifiable reason why an adult can't smoke a nontoxic flower in the 
privacy of their own home. It's just absurd. The way the laws are now 
the only winners are the private prison companies and the drug 
cartels, organized crime.

North Shore News: You'd think if cannabis use was legalized it would 
have a dramatic effect in some areas of the world - such as Mexico 
where gang violence is out of control.

Mark Haskell Smith: Even Central American states are getting 
together. The presidents of Honduras and Guatemala are 
pro-legalization because now they're getting a huge problem. In 
Mexico, if you legalize it there are still going to be people growing 
and selling it, but if it's legal then the police aren't corrupt 
because you don't have to pay anyone to look the other way. That just 
changes the whole dynamic of that society and it would be good karma 
for us to do it.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart