MONEY'S IN THE POT

BUD INC.: INSIDE CANADA'S MARIJUANA INDUSTRY by Ian Mulgrew, Random
House Canada

Marijuana is a billion dollar industry-- so begins the tome of
Vancouver Sun writer Ian Mulgrew's exploration of the marijuana
industry in British Columbia. Bud Inc.: Inside Canada's Marijuana
Industry offers a compendium of pot knowledge from the industry itself
to economics, business, folklore and history. In this incisive book,
Mulgrew puts forth a very cogent and sensible argument for the
legalisation of marijuana in B.C. and around the world.

It begins by comparing the current legal situation of pot to the
prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s and then goes on to paint a
picture, through interviews with well-known figures in the industry,
of how it all works and the constant battle that its illegality
entails. The book works to humanize the "criminals" of the industry
who grow and sell the drug. It portrays them as businessmen and family
men, simply trying to make a living while working under hostile
conditions, created by a system that Mulgrew convincingly argues does
not make sense.

He also writes about the battle for decriminalisation of the drug,
providing recent examples of civil disobedience and lobby efforts by
people within the movement who are committed to effecting change. This
is a very young movement (the book gives little information that
predates the 1960s) in which some of these people, mostly men, are
treated by the author as living history and figures striving forth in
a hard-fought battle. For Mulgrew, Vancouver is a marijuana mecca with
a history tied deeply to the plant.

This is the story of marijuana as seen through the eyes of a
long-respected journalist who has become a distinct writer, known for
taking strong positions on controversial subjects. Bud Inc. offers the
unfamiliar a closer look into a subculture that exists on the edge of
society and is sometimes mixed with society in an attempt to gain
legitimacy. While interesting, the book is as disparate in focus as
are current efforts to legalize the drug. Unless the reader is really
into pot, because you have to be a serious pot smoker to appreciate or
understand a lot of the references in the book, this one is hard to
get through. The pace of the book is slow and stalls at some points,
but it does take you on a journey into a world that doesn't see
marijuana as a demon plant out to confuse our children and destroy
society.

Bud Inc. offers a perspective about the drug that takes it out of the
shadows of the black market and back alleys and into a place of
serious and open discussion about the potential of the plant. This is
something very new and while I don't smoke reefer myself, in a strange
way, I have a renewed respect for it. Even for me, it was well worth
the read.