PART THREE - THE STEREOTYPE MUST BE BROKEN

You can smell it in the air, either on the local streets or hillsides - and
people in Parliament and the rest of the country are buzzing about it.

Today, in the final part of a three part series on the pot industry in
B.C., Kathy Kiel looks at how the Nelson area's dope scene is perhaps
unfairly perceived by the outside world.

West Kootenay residents have been stereotyped as marijuana users for too
long, says a local writer, who penned a book examining the B.C. pot industry.

"To say that Nelson is full of hippies and potheads who smoke dope is
really an oversimplification," said Drew Edwards, author of West Coast
Smoke: The Inside Story of the B.C. Pot Boom. "Nelson, like other
communities in Canada, is filled with people who smoke marijuana
recreationally and still hold down full-time jobs."

The perpetrators who generalize area residents as a bunch of marijuana
growers and users are usually the ones that want the drug curbed.

Stereotypes such as these "demonize" the way others may see the people of
the region, said Edwards.

"Is drug use more prevalent in Nelson than in other places? Probably. Are
there more hippies per capita in this town than in others? Yeah. Do we grow
more dope than most other areas in the country? I guess we do."

But statistics show, said Edwards, that marijuana users are from far more
segments of society, not just "bums and scums and unskilled ones."

"The dominant society in Nelson is like in every other community. It is
dominated by the hardworking people who live in their house and go to work
every day and do what they have to do to get by - that's the majority of
society and the majority of Nelson."

Nelson has the tendency to get pigeonholed as a "pot-Mecca" because some
have given it a bad name. Edwards said this angers many locals.

"I think that does hurt and frustrate some of our civic leaders - but I
don't think it has done us any damage. I don't think people don't come to
Nelson because they're afraid of potheads."

Edwards, who researched for two years before the book's completion, instead
believes that it may be an attraction for people to come to the Heritage
City because of "that added cultural element."

Mounties agree there is a "tendency" for Nelsonites to be stereotyped as
marijuana consumers in the eyes of others.

"You look at some young person who dresses a little differently, has
different looking hair than normal and I think the assumption is
automatically tagged to them that they're pot smokers," said RCMP drug
awareness officer Cst. Tom Clark, "I think it's unfair and a form of
prejudice."

Clark doesn't think, however that there's a higher number per capita of
marijuana smokers in Nelson as compared to other regions. Instead, there is
a form of silent consent and a growing tolerance.

Although there is a fairly accepting attitude towards marijuana consumption
in the area, many people are supportive of the RCMP's initiatives to
eradicate pot from the area.

"I think there's a tremendous amount of support in this valley," said Clark
at last week's half-million dollar bust near New Denver. "I think this
valley's been slapped by some negative connotations and I think there are a
lot of people who are in this valley who are in full support of what we're
doing."

Some senior residents have said they find it surprising there are groups of
people smoking dope downtown and believe the police are not laxadasical,
just more tolerant of its use. Whereas, in Edmonton, they say they wouldn't
see activities like that.

New Denver Cpl. Ken Harrington said the theory there is more pot on the
streets in Nelson as compared to in bigger cities like Edmonton or Toronto
is untrue.

"If you walk into areas of those communities the marijuana consumption may
not be obvious," said Harrington. "But you walk around and it doesn't take
you very long to find the used needles and the cokeheads and the heroin
users. So, if in Nelson they're using marijuana, in other communities they
may be smoking crack."

When Harrington moved to New Denver a few years ago, he talked to a lot of
locals.

"The picture that was cast my way when I first came here was that the
Slocan Valley is full of marijuana growers, marijuana users and that was it."

Harrington now knows the truth and believes the majority aren't pot smokers
and just want to live their lives and not be bothered.

"The population is more accepting of diversity."