GRAND FORKS SUBJECT OF DOC

It's showtime.

CannaBiz airs tomorrow (Thursday) night on the CBC documentary
program Doc Zone. The film made this past year by Lionel Goddard is
about the economic impact of the marijuana industry in B.C. Goddard
told the Gazette that he wanted to avoid the contentious moral issues
and present a fair, honest and accurate portrayal of what has become
the province's most lucrative business. We'll see. "Fair, honest and
accurate" often interfere with "sensational, salacious and profitable."

Promotional material for the film claims that Mayor Taylor is
"campaigning to make Grand Forks the medical marijuana capital;" that
isn't true. It also states that Grand Forks is where "draft dodgers
planted the first 'BC Bud'." Very doubtful.

Mr. Goddard seems to be an honest enough person, but he also has to
sell his film in a market that demands more and more outlandish
spectacle and bizarre behaviour in its "reality" TV.

The fear is that in a small town like ours, the treatment given to
the subject and the local individuals that appear in the film will be
inaccurate, incomplete or edited for the purposes of the filmmaker.

It's true the marijuana industry is huge. There are people in Grand
Forks and all through the Boundary-Kootenay region who have made and
are still making a lot of money feeding an enormous illegal market
here and in the U.S.

But even though the moral battle lines seem clearly drawn to some,
the legal issues, the health issues, the social issues are in fact
not quite so clear.

Watch CannaBiz tomorrow. You may well learn something new about an
industry that, like it or not, is helping keep the province afloat in
tough economic times. But as you watch, remember that Goddard just
made a few bucks from it as well, and he isn't waking up in Grand
Forks tomorrow.