GRAND FORKS IN NATION'S SPOTLIGHT

Boundary-Based Doc Cracks Truths Of 'Cannabiz'

Next Thursday, Jan. 28 at 9 p.m., Grand Forks will be front and
centre across Canada in a CBC Doc Zone documentary called CannaBiz.

Promotional material by the film's producer, Omni Film Productions
Ltd., call CannaBiz "the inside story of Canada's secret $20 billion
dollar marijuana industry."

Indeed, according to Lionel Goddard, the film's director, it is the
economic aspect of the marijuana question that needs to be told.

"What I tried to do with this film was steer it away from the moral
debate," Goddard said. Instead Goddard hopes that his film will get
people talking about the economic reality.

"Here is a town (Grand Forks) grappling with the issue. And from the
standpoint of not whether it is good or bad, but this is a reality.
Marijuana is part of our local economy. How can you pretend that your
largest resource industry doesn't exist?"

Grand Forks Mayor Brian Taylor agrees, though he was quick to point
out the inaccuracy of some of the promotional material generated for
the film which said that he was "campaigning for medical marijuana as
a prescription for economic recovery."

"I see more of it as the recognition of the economic impact and our
need to address that in our community," says Taylor.

Grand Forks resident Mel Bell, who appears in the film because of his
past connection with the industry, has his own take on the economic reality.

"It's part of our culture. When you have a high period in the
economy, people grow pot; if you have a low time in the economy,
people grow pot. It has always been around for thousands of years. It
has always been there; it always will be there."

Bell believes that the forces behind the current prohibition of the
drug are also largely economic. Pharmaceutical companies, alcohol
companies, indeed everyone selling the growers supplies are in favour
of keeping the price high, he says, because that results in increases
of profits for everyone.

Goddard has a similar take.

"All that (prohibition and increased criminal penalties) is going to
do is raise the price and increase the incentive for those who are
willing to go in and take the risk. It's the tax payers who are
paying the risk premium for this.

"Another hypocrisy is that we have an increasingly legalized market
for it," Goddard adds, "and we have an increasingly criminalized
production of the product. So you have a legal demand and an illegal
supply, and that's just a recipe for organized crime to move in."

Where Bell and Goddard disagree is the extent of organized crime in
the industry.

Bell believes that small, backyard grow operations are still the main
part of the marijuana culture.

Goddard disagrees.

"The ma and pa operations are starting to disappear. It's
capitalisim, The industry is falling into the hands of fewer and
fewer people and the nature of organized crime is that it is organized."

Both Bell and Taylor hope that the film will present a fair and
accurate picture of both themselves and the community.

"I believe that CBC said there was a potential for nine million
viewers We couldn't pay for the advertising we are going to get," says Taylor.