CITY FEATURED IN DOCUMENTARY

In the aftermath of the CBC documentary CannaBiz that premiered last
Thursday night, a few of the local people featured in the film were
upbeat. Local medical marijuana grower Brian McAndrew said, "When I saw
it, I was extremely happy overall with the whole thing. I couldn't believe
it. I think they really caught the atmosphere of what we were trying to
tell everybody."

Grand Forks Mayor Brian Taylor, a former medical marijuana grower who has
since quit after having his operation ripped off by thieves, agreed with
McAndrew. "The topic in general was handled fairly delicately," Taylor
said. "It got the story without incriminating a whole bunch of people and
without everybody blowing smoke in someone's face. That was nice for a
change."

For McAndrew the finished product and the reaction of others to the film
was a pleasant surprise. "A lot of the reaction has been phenomenal
actually," McAndrew said. " I couldn't believe it. At first I was
extremely nervous because you never know what they are going to do, you
know what I mean?"

"Overall I think it went really well," Taylor said. "I don't think anybody
so far has told me that it brought ill repute on the community, and a lot
of the shots were good panoramas, so that part was worthwhile."

Local resident Mel Bell, also shown in the film, reflected on the reaction
of viewers. "I just feel that hopefully the film will open the door, open
the window, let some fresh air in and that we will support one another,"
Bell said. "We need to create jobs, and hopefully we will have artistic
people move in because of that film. It is a nice community, and we do
help each other."

Both McAndrew and Taylor commented about the amount of film that director
Lionel Goddard shot that was omitted from the final one-hour production.
Taylor, who invited a number of those who had been filmed for the movie to
his home for the premier, said, "Everyone was a little shocked about how
little goes in after all the filming. They filmed days and days of things
they didn't use at all. So that was a little disappointing that it didn't
cover more people."

McAndrew made similar comments. "They took fifty hours of filming and they
were around for about a year," he said. But despite having the film of a
number of those originally interviewed end up on the cutting room floor,
both men were pleased with the way people were portrayed, including
Corporal Venema of the RCMP, whom both men credited with having a balanced
approach to the issues.

McAndrew said that there were some other positive benefits to the
documentary for him. "In the last couple of days I've been contacted by
people that I haven't seen in thirty years or more. Everything that has
been happening and all the reactions have been positive about it." The
film may help change attitudes and lead to changes in legislation as well.
"We are all looking at the fall of prohibition, you know?" McAndrew said.
Already attitudes are changing in states like California, and might, he
added allow changes here that would bring marijuana cultivation into line
with another important B.C. crop. "The same kind of model that the wine
industry has would be almost perfect," McAndrew said. "Just like you have
your wineries and your grape fields, you could have your grow ops that
supply different kinds of strains. You know when you are talking about
marijuana, you talk about it in the same way that you talk about wine:
fragrance, taste, half-taste, all that kind of stuff.