Pubdate: Wed, 28 Oct 2015
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.montrealgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Bill Brownstein
Page: B6

WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE LEGALIZATION

Reefer Riches Provides Useful Primer on Fledgling Legal Marijuana Industry

If election promises pan out, reefer madness could soon be sweeping 
this dominion. In which case, the documentary Reefer Riches should be 
mandatory viewing for all parties.

Talk about timing: Toronto director Cynthia Banks serves up a 
surprisingly balanced and informative peek into the legalized pot 
business in Colorado and Washington, and indicates what beckons 
should Canada follow the weed lead of those states.

Reefer Riches, which makes its world premiere Thursday at 9 p.m. on 
the new CBC series Firsthand, is neither an out-and-out endorsement 
nor a condemnation of legalized marijuana. It simply offers an 
incisive fact-check with insights from authorities on the subject.

Banks makes it clear that with the advent of approved medical 
marijuana in Canada and the U.S., the lines of legality have become 
increasingly blurred. The reality is that it's not difficult to 
procure pot, and, as a consequence, consumption is at an all-time 
high on this continent.

Banks begins her inquiry in Colorado, which more than ever before 
lives up to Denver's Mile High billing. With the legalization of 
weed, a new gold - or green? - rush has taken over the state.

It's big, big money. In the first year of business, more than $700 
million in pot sales were rung up, and the resulting taxes were a 
welcome addition to state coffers.

The new dealers have MBAs. Resourceful pot-trepreneurs have been 
quick to capitalize, offering users a variety of ways to smoke it, 
vape it, drink it and - thanks to cannabis-laden mints - suck on it.

Culinary wizards have brought cannabis-infused caviar, lamb chops and 
clams to their hautecuisine tables, allowing diners to get, well, truly baked.

Specialty boutiques have sprung up all over the state, selling an 
array of tasty pot edibles. There are also BYOC spots (the "C" stands 
for cannabis, silly).

The situation is similar in Washington, where Banks speaks to a 
veteran cop who is a former narc. He notes that in his 40 years on 
the job prior to legalization, neither demand nor supply had been 
curbed. Now that pot is legal, he reports, Washington "hasn't gone to 
hell in a handbasket."

Banks heads north to the bucolic burg of Smiths Falls, Ont., which 
has become particularly blissed-out. That could be because the town 
is experiencing a growth spurt: Smiths Falls is the headquarters for 
Tweed, one of the largest growers and suppliers of medical marijuana 
on the continent. Business is bullish, according to Tweed boss Bruce 
Linton. And not just at his plant - there are more than two dozen 
producers of legal pot in Canada.

"America's gone wild," Linton explains.

As will Canada, the experts concur.

Yet all is not euphoric in Doobieville. Banks sounds a cautionary 
note with testimony from researchers who point out a variety of 
frightening factors.

With advances in production, pot has become far more potent, leading 
to major health issues - both physical and psychological. Also, the 
worry is that adolescent users have a significantly greater risk of 
addiction than adults.

All the same, the consensus here is that it's not a question of 
whether Canada should legalize marijuana, but rather how we should go 
about doing it.

Banks, also the doc's narrator and co-writer, feels there is still 
much to be learned.

"Actually, the initial plan was to have this documentary aired before 
the election, to give people an understanding of what might be 
ahead," Banks says in a phone interview. "But because of network 
programming, it was pushed back to after. That turned out to be a 
good thing, because now it's even more relevant."

Banks requested interviews with Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau a 
year ago for the documentary, but they declined. She says the RCMP 
and Health Canada also turned down her requests.

"I think it really does come down to a health problem," she says. "It 
seems simple enough. But what we do is take money away from 
prevention and treatment. It just doesn't make sense."

When she began work on Reefer Riches, Banks was firmly for the 
legalization of marijuana.

"I saw it as a black-and-white issue, because you want to get rid of 
the black market and you want to make tax revenue. It seemed like a 
win-win situation.

"But then I felt like a Ping-Pong ball. Someone would say something 
and I would go: 'Of course, legalize it.' Then someone else would say 
something and I would go: 'Oh, maybe we had better look at this more 
closely again.' "

Banks is now of the opinion that pot should be legalized, but that it 
should be "somewhere between prohibition and full outright 
alcohol-type commercialization."

There is no question, however, that legalized weed has been a boon to 
once economically depressed towns like Smiths Falls.

"Marijuana production is now the No. 1 source of revenue income 
there, and they're basically concentrating on the Ontario market," 
Banks notes. "It's revitalized the place."

Banks has little doubt that marijuana will become legal in Canada.

"But I hope it will take a while, because I believe this is complex. 
I hope Trudeau will listen to law-enforcement officers, health 
officials and public-policy people. And pro-pot advocates as well as 
industry people from the States, who do not want to harm people or 
increase youth consumption - they just want to open it up to the 
adult market," she adds. "Fact is, I don't think there are a lot of 
people up here who have been studying this."

Banks has her own history of usage.

"I hadn't consumed marijuana for 10 years, but I did before then and 
it had been very difficult for me to stop that habit, even though I 
didn't feel like it was doing me any good anymore."

Curious minds may want to know what it was like for Banks to have 
spent a fair amount of time under a cloud of smoke while shooting 
this doc. Turns out it was no rush for her.

"I actually felt more ill than anything. Even going into the 
(smokeless) grow ops, it got into my windpipe, my lungs. I was 
coughing, I had headaches. It just permeates every orifice of your 
body and everything you wear."

Which could have made the situation a little dicey when Banks and her 
crew had to cross borders.

"I was a little nervous," she says. "I would have to steam my clothes 
all the time."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom