SMOKING AWAY PROHIBITION

Pot, ganja, hash, kif, mary jane, reefer, bud, weed: whatever you call
it and regardless of whether or not you smoke it, everyone has an
opinion regarding whether or not marijuana should be legalized.

Whether it's an apathetic shrug of the shoulders, a vehement "no" or
an enthusiastic "yes," it's an interesting, complex and deeply rooted
debate that, while nowhere near over, may soon be forced to come to a
head.

The myths of B.C. bud surreptitiously supporting the province through
American exports always intrigued me; so, months ago when I spotted
the book Bud Inc.: Inside Canada's Marijuana Industry I was instantly
compelled to buy it. Written by Ian Mulgrew, and a finalist for the
National Business Book Award, this is not some stoner manifesto, but a
serious, economic and analytical look at the marijuana industry in
Canada and the subsequent fight for legalization.

According to Mulgrew, B.C. exports over $2 billion in pot each year --
nearly three per cent of the provincial GDP. In 2000, Canadians spent
nearly that much again in domestic consumption; clocking in at
approximately $1.8 billion, domestic marijuana sales are just shy of
tobacco at $2.3 billion.

Remember, these are all estimated figures, based on a black market
analysis where the chains of supply and demand are never certain and
any and all investment can -- quite literally -- go up in smoke.

Just imagine the possible tax dollars waiting for collection and
obstructed only by prohibition. From an economic standpoint alone,
legalizing marijuana would be great for our economy.

Just think of all the tourist dollars that would trickle our way from
our neighbours down south, instead of across the Atlantic to our Dutch
friends.

Marijuana has become so demonized in it's 80 or so years of
prohibition that debunking years of fear mongering and misconceptions
may prove one of the hardest parts of the legalization fight. Even
many regular stoners I know accept many negative pot-myths at face
value and regard them with the same kind of disdain as a smoker does
surgeon general's warning.

Did you know that marijuana has fewer side-effects than Aspirin?
Neither did I, but Bud Inc. and numerous other medical sources proved
to me that marijuana is even more harmless than I had previously
believed. There are no recorded cases of overdose from marijuana
alone, there are no proven links to pulmonary ailments and its health
benefits are numerous -- and still primarily unknown.

Marijuana has been shown to help everything from glaucoma to PMS, and
it is suggested to potentially help reduce brain damage when
administered to trauma victims. Mulgrew also stated that when other
countries have legalized pot, reported usage saw little to no increase
once the drug was legal.

Ninety per cent of Canadians agree that medical marijuana should be
legal -- not even 90 per cent of Canadians agree that global warming
is real. Why, then, is the government still persecuting those trying
to supply medical marijuana and putting up roadblock after roadblock
for those who are in dire need of relief?

If medical marijuana is okay, and the Reefer Madness style side-effect
myths are finally being debunked, why is marijuana still illegal?

I spoke to Sgt. Andrew Harrington of the Waterloo Regional Police
Service about this very issue, and he expressed fears to me that
marijuana is a "gateway drug" and that legalizing it would send the
wrong kind of message to our children.

This was, of course, after he had informed me that the regional police
have been keeping large grow-ops out of residential areas and the
subsequent organized crime out of the region -- maybe that's why I've
heard it's been so hard to get pot lately.

Harrington told me that every crack, meth or coke addict he knows
started with pot -- of course they did! Where did they start before
that? It's not as if one day -- unbeknownst to anyone -- little Johnny
spontaneously smoked a huge spliff.

I'm quite sure little Johnny downed his share of Jack Daniels and/or
Marlboros before hitting the bong. Every addict starts somewhere, it's
just a question of when and where.

What they choose to start with, be it cough syrup or a joint is
impossible to control, regardless of whether or not pot is legal.

The phrase "gateway drug" is little more than rhetoric to keep the
conservatives happy and pot out of your local coffee shop. Every
addict starts somewhere, whether it's pot, cigarettes, alcohol or
caffeine -- they're all drugs. Ironically, the only illegal drug I
mentioned is the one with the fewest side effects.

Throughout Bud Inc., Mulgrew likens the current attitude towards pot
with that towards booze during the 1920s prohibition. He even compares
the prohibition-era economic system -- that built such Canadian
mainstays as Molson and Seagram's -- with today's Canadian marijuana
entrepreneurs "running" bushels instead of barrels to our American
comrades.

The many marijuana activists, growers, connoisseurs, specialists and
chefs he interviewed all used similar diction.

They refer to marijuana's current legal state as "prohibition" and see
their fallen buddies in jail as martyr-like crusaders for the
legalization cause.

How and when -- and for Mulgrew and his many interviewees it's a
"when," not an "if" -- is hard to say, but there is something you can
do. Like speakeasies in the roaring '20s, the covert coffee shops
popping up all over Canada hope to take marijuana use to such levels
that the police can no longer enforce against it and are forced to
legalize.

The usage is there; it just isn't documented. In the 1970s, the
government almost legalized pot -- how could it not when Margaret
Trudeau was sparking a joint behind her RCMP escort -- because the
numbers were there to support it. Over the last decade and a half, the
numbers have risen again -- so join the National Organization for the
reform of Marijuana Law (NORML) or the Canadian Cannabis Coalition.
Make your voice heard and let the government see that the numbers are
there.

Until marijuana isn't taboo, until the reefer madness ends, the
prohibition will continue.

We can only hope that, as Ben Dronkers, progenitor of the Sensi Seeds
conglomerate and grower, said so optimistically in Bud Inc., "two
generations from now, people will think, 'What silly people, those who
had the drug war.'"