WRITER'S REEFER MADNESS 'AN EXERCISE' IN CANNABIS RESEARCH AND STRESS AID
HE'S LEFT BEHIND

World Press Freedom Day Is Tuesday, And Brian Preston, Best-Known For A
Book About Pot, Is Giving A Reading Hosted By University Of British
Columbia And The Canada Council. Nancy Lanthier Gets An Earful.

Cannabis culture has a friend in Brian Preston, whose exceptionally lucid
and engaging book, Pot Planet: Adventures in Global Marijuana Culture, sees
the intrepid explorer smoking up in far-flung countries, judging pot
contests on the Sunshine Coast and voicing clear-eyed opinions of pro-tokers.

YOU're Reading On Free Press Day. Is Press Free In Canada?

I'd say so. Anyone can have their own website or blog and say whatever they
want as long as they don't violate hate laws. But in a lot countries I
visited, to publically state an opinion like cannabis should be legalized
was to risk jail time. Just to express a desire to change the law could get
you into major trouble.

Any repercussions from writing a book loaded with your pot experiences, not
to mention growers, reefer revolutionaries and annual marijuana happenings?

Not really.

YOU Were Stoned A Lot For Pot Planet.

It was an exercise. I was hanging out with activists and growers and
connoisseurs and they're smoking it all the time. It made writing less
stressful. For me, I feel liberated and less critical when I'm stoned. Also
it tends to free your mind for word association. Look at the Beatles
lyrics: before pot it was She Loves You; after it's Norwegian Wood.

What Don't YOU Want To Be Doing When YOU're Stoned?

Arranging an RRSP? Well, there are mathematical types who will get high and
become more scientific and more into the numbers. I'd rather avoid
multiplication when I'm high. Although it's good for carpentry.

YOU're Expecting A Child. Will YOU Share Your Book's Clear-Eyed Message For
Kids About Pot?

Oh, definitely. The problem [with global drug policy] is that hard and soft
drugs are lumped together. Kids are taught all drugs are hideous, bad,
never touch them. When they try pot, they realize, "hey, this isn't that
bad; maybe they're wrong about crystal meth, too." You know, Johnny Depp
got in trouble for saying he would smoke pot with his kids when they were
old enough to show them what it's about. The media freaked on him, saying
it's a ridiculous idea, when it's the obvious solution. You should also
have a few drinks with your kids rather than let them go off to some silly
party and get in cars. It's more responsible to teach them what you know
than teach them the big scare.

What's Your Take On Canada Becoming The First Country To Sell A
Cannabis-Based Prescription Painkiller?

Sativex. It's a case of the hippies being proved right [about cannabis'
pain-relieving quality] and still losing to corporate, multi-national
pharmaceutical giants, who make all the profit off cannabis [since they
scored the patent]. Compassion clubs tried to standardize the quality of
their medicine but faced constant harassment from police who busted up
their labs and seized their evidence, while a British company was given
free reign to do exactly that. We weren't allowed to do what the British
allowed this company to do.

How Would It Work If Pot Was Entirely Legalized?

It would be sold in the liquor store, with government controls, or you
could grow it at home, like U-Brew.

Would More People Start Using?

We have the example of Holland; when possession was decriminalized the
number of users didn't go up. It's funny, among younger people there, when
you express your interest in going to pot cafes, they're like, why would
you want to sit in a stinky old bar with a bunch of middle-aged losers?
That completely demythologizes the whole thing. There's such a paranoia
that if you legalize it everyone will smoke their brains out, and our
capitalist society, which is based on the work ethic, will just collapse.
But Holland is one of the most industrialized countries in the world.

Your next book, with Penguin Canada, is about martial arts.

I'm not athletic. It's my last gasp to discover the nature of chi. It's an
overview of the history of martial arts but it's comic, too, because, my
style is generally funny. At one pointing I wanted the subtitle to be:
Turning Your Limbs into Lethal Weapons: A Guide for Seniors.

You're a yellow belt and rarely smoke pot. Are you substituting THC with chi?

With meditation and kung fu exercises? Kind of. Only this way, the body
speaks to the mind; it's comes through the body.