Pubdate: Fri, 19 Apr 2013
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2013 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Sarah Boesveld
Page: 6

'MAY BE DOPE HEADS, BUT NOT DOPEY PEOPLE'

Bob Erb has been playing the lottery since he was a young pothead in 
the 1970s, smoking 15 joints a day. Today, Mr. Erb is still crushing 
15 joints a day - except now he's smoking them as a 
multi-millionaire. The 60-year-old Terrace, B.C., farmer and 
grandfather won a $25-million jackpot last November and promptly 
began doling money out to friends, family, charity and hard luck 
cases. Perhaps the biggest recipient, however, has been a cause very 
close to his heart: the legalization of marijuana. Mr. Erb has 
dropped $1-million for the effort, and is probably now the biggest 
financial backer of 420 Day, the annual pot-fuelled haze of a protest 
this Saturday. He spoke with the Post's Sarah Boesveld Thursday about 
his high life and plans for bringing pot legalization to national attention:

Q: Erb is a great name for a marijuana activist.

A: I've heard that before. I've got a couple of buddies and their 
last name is 'Joynt.' They hung around together, they'd be walking 
down the street and we'd say 'Oh, that's just what we were looking 
for, a couple of Joynts!'

Q: And now you will be the big money behind the 420 event this year. 
Have you been to many of those events?

A: The 420 events I've watched on television for years and years; I 
have only attended a couple of them because I'm way up in the 
northwest of B.C. I always thought that they were underutilized 
vehicles for getting across all of the wrongs with marijuana prohibition.

Q: Do you mean that they've just been big pot parties?

A: No, in the sense that you had people there who were passionate 
about their advocacy for legalizing marijuana, but they were loosely 
organized, there were no speakers for the media to talk to, so they'd 
just interview people briefly then go into the crowds filming 
20-year-olds blowing smoke rings. It's a mixed message. Like most 
people when they buy a lottery ticket you have a wish list of all the 
things you'd want to do and that. One of mine was I'd put a 
substantial amount towards marijuana legalization. And so when the 25 
mil come my way, I said I'll throw at least a mil towards the cause. 
I put $125,000 this year to organize the 420 events, $60,000 for web 
design, the other $60,000 accommodation, probably $40,000 in 
merchandising hats and buttons.

Q: You paid for all that?

A: Yes, and I think another $20,000 went into advertising. We have 
about 40 or 50 cities online this year. Come May 1, we start on the 
2014 420 events, and ultimately we'd like to have 150-200 cities.

Q: Why is legalization such a crucial issue?

A: Marijuana legalization would result in income taxes collected, 
increased spending on home mortgages, municipal infrastructure 
upgrades, more money for healthcare, education, pensions - all 
without raising taxes. The revenue from B.C.'s marijuana industry's 
estimated at $12-billion annually. Not only that, there would be a 
huge drop in crime of all types. Of course that's not good news for 
police because pot crime is their bread and butter. Several medical 
studies show that people who use pot regularly are usually of higher 
education and IQ. Pot smokers may be dope-heads, but they're not 
dopey people. Prohibition is the biggest social injustice of my lifetime.

Q: Have you always been a dope smoker?

A: I started smoking pot in 1968 at age 16 and by the time I was 21, 
five years later, I was probably smoking 15 joints a day - still do. 
I'm usually up at 4 a.m. and smoking my first one by 4:20 a.m.

Q: How has your life changed after becoming a millionaire?

A: I have to correct you. I'm a multi-millionaire. I'm not doing 
anything different, I bought a vehicle, my other ones were OK. I've 
got a 2013 Lincoln Navigator that I picked up, I have a couple of 
Shelby Supersnakes - souped up Mustangs - being built in Las Vegas. I 
don't work for pay, but I do work for free. I've given $7-million to charities.

Q: You could be lying on a beach somewhere just sitting on a pile of cash.

A: Hey, my conscience wouldn't allow it and there's next year for the beach.
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