BUD LIT: THREE BOOKS ON THE GREEN WEED

EDMONTON -- The world of the future as seen by author Ian Mulgrew
will have pot stores in your neighbourhood, marijuana plants as high
as an elephant's eye replacing the zucchini in the garden, and a
legal multi-billion-dollar industry making significant tax
contributions to health and education.

While his vision may seem dopey to some, Mulgrew insists that
response to his book Bud Inc.: Inside Canada's Marijuana Industry
(Random House, $35) has been positive from both sides of the
political spectrum. In its 275 pages, Mulgrew makes an articulate and
coherent argument for legalizing a drug that is not only harmless, he
says, but also of significant medical value.

Mulgrew, who writes a thrice-weekly justice column for the Vancouver
Sun and worked as a reporter for The Journal in the early '90s,
revisits many of the familiar arguments in favour of legalization.

But one of his most important points is that the marijuana industry
follows the economic law of supply and demand.

Many of the kingpins in it are savvy entrepreneurs, Mulgrew says, and
he compares them to the booze barons of the prohibition era, many of
whom went on to mega-fortunes when that misguided law was repealed.

He also suggests that legally rolling a joint of your favourite
Colombian or Afghani dope in legalized cannabis cafes across the
country is inevitable.

Give it 10 years, he says, 15 at most, and getting high will be as
acceptable, nearly, as an after-work pint.

He sees the government itself involved in the retailing of marijuana,
much like the Alberta Liquor Control Board sold booze in the days
before privatization.

"Canadians have to become comfortable with all the new information
and new views of marijuana, and they have to be comfortable with the
people selling it," Mulgrew says in an interview.

"They're concerned about those things now, and rightly so, because
marijuana is a cash cow for organized crime. It's their Wal-Mart,
their profit centre."

But once marijuana is legalized, Mulgrew predicts that consumers will
be able to buy their pot with different cannabinoid -- the active
ingredient -- levels.

"It will be just like beer is right now, where you can buy at
four-per-cent alcohol or seven-per-cent alcohol."

What's more, he says, smart marketers will realize that quality sells.

"We're going to have people like the Gallo wine producers who will be
making lots of your standard schwag, your sativa and indica, and then
you're going to have boutique growers, producing Congolese, Thai,
Colombian and Panama Red for niche markets."

No Need To Advertise Pot

Also expect to see seed packets at your local garden centre, stocked
next to the onion sets and Nantes coreless carrots.

Mulgrew, however, does not think that pot should be advertised.

"It's a vice, and we don't need advertising and promotion. I don't
think advocating getting high or intoxicated is good public policy,
but I also don't think there's anything wrong with those things. But
we don't need to put those messages in front of our kids."

Support for legalization comes from both the right and the left, he says.

The Fraser Institute, a Canadian right-wing think tank, agrees with
him, Mulgrew says, as does the British Columbia Association of
Medical Officers of Health. They are, he says, "hardly a group of
raving lefties."

Nevertheless, there is always the position of the American government
to consider, and they are conducing a war against drugs. Mulgrew
calls it a "jihad."

"Let's face it, the federal government is very concerned about any
irritant to the most important relationship we have, so the cabinet
isn't going to push the issue," he says.

However, he points out that many jurisdictions in the U.S. have de
facto legalization right now.

"I was stunned to go to Oakland and see downtown cannabis clubs
operating in the open with some 80,000 medical patients in California
licensed to use it.

"In places like Oakland, Denver, Seattle and Chicago, the police have
been told not to enforce the marijuana possession laws."

Law Not Applied Uniformly

Like the U.S., the law is not applied uniformly in Canada.

"The situation is horrendous in this country," he says. "If you're
busted in New Brunswick or Saskatchewan for a grow op, you're going
to do 18 months in jail while in B.C., it's a probationary offence. I
don't think you can have a federal criminal law in a country that is
so capriciously enforced. It's not fair. It's just downright wrong."

Mulgrew is an occasional user himself, he says, and "if I'm at a
party and someone passes me a joint, I might take a toke."

However, there were times during the two-year period in which he
worked on the book, when he was spending a great deal of time with
pot growers and pot smokers, "that I smoked like a chimney."

But the father of four says he has never smoked pot in front of his children.

"My eldest is 32, and doesn't smoke, my 31-year-old daughter does and
my 26-year-old son does.

"My seven-year-old hasn't started yet," he says with a laugh.

He acknowledges, however, that he grew a lush marijuana plant in his
south-facing apartment in Edmonton when he lived here.

When he put it out on his balcony, his neighbour, who just happened
be a provincial cabinet minister, congratulated him on his green thumb.

"I told her they were tomatoes," he says, "just tomatoes."