Pubdate: Sun, 28 Dec 2014
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2014 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Garry Steckles
Page: E1

BOB MARLEY, MARIJUANA MOGUL?

Why the reggae legend's fans are so incensed about a new venture

Bob Marley's compelling features - his aquiline nose, soft brown eyes,
slightly sallow cheeks and trademark dreadlocks - have long been used
as a commercial tool, often in ways that the late King of Reggae might
not have appreciated.

The most visible of the products he's been inadvertently marketing
since his death in 1981 are the hundreds of different Marley T-shirts
worn by devoted fans all over the world.

But his image also appears on, among other things (and this is going
to take a while): postage stamps, belts, tank tops, hats, shoes,
wallets, postcards, bumper stickers, wall hangings, posters, hoodies,
tracksuits, drinking glasses, calendars, jigsaw puzzles, hand towels,
blankets, bicycle shirts, iPhone cases, London buses, headphones,
audio accessories, coffee, cosmetic bags, necklaces, shorts, incense
packages, key chains, beach towels, dog tags, car decals, cigarette
cases, flags, sarongs, bottle openers, tattoos, backpacks, baseball
caps, tote bags, wristbands, lamps, kitchen aprons, guitar picks, face
stickers, baby and toddler clothing, purses, cigarette wrapping
papers, lighters and sweaters.

There's a Bob Marley restaurant at the Universal Orlando theme park in
Florida and a Hotel Bob Marley in the remote Nepalese village of Muktinath.

Now, Marley's globally recognized image is being harnessed to tout
something he fervently believed in and used himself: marijuana. But
whether it's been done in a way the world's most famous consumer of
cannabis would have been happy with is open to conjecture.

The Marley family has just unveiled its latest venture in a
decades-long quest to wring every possible cent out of the reggae
legend's name, image and memory. Led by Bob's widow Rita, the Marleys
have teamed up with a cannabis-savvy U.S. venture capital company,
Privateer Holdings, to produce and market a product that, we're told,
will allow marijuana users to savour the delights of "heirloom
Jamaican cannabis strains inspired by those Bob Marley enjoyed." It
will be available for sale, where regulations allow, by the end of
2015.

The new kid on the corporate block is being marketed as "Marley
Natural." And if Canada's anti-marijuana Prime Minister Stephen Harper
loses next year's federal election to pro-legalization Justin Trudeau,
it might not be long before it's for sale, elegantly packaged and
squeaky-clean legal, at an outlet near you.

It's an intriguing prospect. And while it may be part of an
increasingly positive scenario for the millions of people around the
world who feel they should be able to use marijuana legally, there's
widespread concern that Big Business - an entity viewed with suspicion
by a large number of them - is muscling in on the multibillion-dollar
cannabis industry.

The vehicle chosen by Privateer Holdings to launch the Marley brand of
marijuana did little to allay those qualms: it was unveiled on NBC's
Today Show, with Privateer's CEO, Brendan Kennedy, declaring that
"this is what the end of prohibition looks like."

Seattle-based Privateer, it's worth noting, also happens to be the
owner of what it claims is the world's largest legal marijuana-growing
operation - a 60,000-square-foot facility in an industrial park in
Nanaimo on the east coast of Vancouver Island. The $22-million grow-op
is licensed by Health Canada to sell marijuana for medical use, and
the facility is overseen by the RCMP.

Privateer's Marley Natural, one would have thought, might have been
given a cordial welcome by marijuana smokers and advocates.

Not so.

In Jamaica, the Caribbean island where Bob Marley was born, raised and
spent most of his 36 years, the reaction to the news has been one of
dismay.

What irks many Jamaicans most is that the United States has leaned on
their country for decades to stamp out the growing of marijuana, the
island's most lucrative export, and now corporate America is jostling
to cash in on cannabis as more and more states and a handful of
nations declare possession of pot legal. It doesn't help that the
Marley Natural marijuana will be grown in the United States, not Jamaica.

"We see the inevitability of large, well-run companies to sell
cannabis," says Pioneer's Kennedy. "Bob Marley started to push for
legalization more than 50 years ago. We're going to help him finish
it."

"Bob Marley was never about commercialization," responds Herbie
Miller, one of the most respected figures in the Jamaican music
industry and one-time manager of Peter Tosh, the former Marley
bandmate whose song "Legalize It" is the marijuana world's unofficial
national anthem and whose pro-pot campaigning was considerably more
vocal than Bob's.

Miller describes Marley as "a poet, humanist and nationalist as well
as an Africanist and an advocate for improving the sociopolitical
conditions of the Jamaican people and the world's oppressed."

Maxine Stowe, a Jamaican Rastafarian leader, worries that the Marley
cannabis brand will "negatively impact future efforts in Jamaica to
financially benefit from a legalization movement gaining traction
across the globe."

Jamaicans' concerns are shared by Steve Rolles of the Transform Drug
Policy Foundation, a UK-based think tank that campaigns for the legal
regulation of drugs.

"It's a case of Jamaica's cultural legacy being exploited by U.S.
private equity groups to make money," says Rolles. "The Marley estate
may be cashing in, but it's hard to see how Jamaica will benefit at
all. The prime beneficiaries will be rich investors from the U.S."

Misgivings about what has become known as "Big Pot" are echoed by
prominent pro-marijuana organizations in the U.S.

"My concern is the Marlboro-ization or Budweiser-ization of
marijuana," says Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug
Policy Alliance. "That's not what I'm fighting for."

"It's a cultural thing," declares Keith Stroup, founder of the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), the
United States' oldest pro-legalization lobby. "All of us have at least
a little bit of discomfort with the corporate stuff."

Whoever benefits most from the marijuana industry, the number of
countries where possession is legal seems certain to continue to grow,
and the decriminalization issue is expected to play a significant role
in the campaign for Canada's 2015 general election. Liberal leader
Trudeau has declared his support for legal but strictly regulated
cannabis; Conservative PM Harper is equally adamant that legalization
is not going to happen during his watch.

To make the situation even more intriguing, Canada's "Prince of Pot,"
Marc Emery, has promised he'll play an active role in the election
campaign. The country's best-known marijuana activist, still furious
with the Harper government for letting American authorities extradite
him from Canada and put him behind bars for almost five years for
selling mail-order cannabis seeds, has announced his intention of
getting his political revenge by embarking on an anti-Conservative,
pro-legalization pre-election crusade.

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Garry Steckles, a former Toronto Star senior editor, is the author of 
Bob Marley: A Life, an acclaimed biography of the reggae singer-songwriter.
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