Free the ganga!
Source: Excalibur (CN ON Edu), 11-30-05


Written by Lisa Charleyboy - Contributor

Book: Bud Inc: Inside Canada's Marijuana Industry
Author: Ian Mulgrew
Publisher: Random House Canada
Length: 304 pages

When I first heard Vancouver journalist Ian Mulgrew's voice on the other end of the phone, it was gravelly and drawn out like that of a West Coast hippie. I pictured a Willie Nelson stereotype with long hair and a tie-dyed t-shirt.

However, when I turned to the back cover of his book, Bud Inc: Inside Canada's Marijuana Industry I couldn't have been more wrong. With a dark suit and a short haircut, Mulgrew smiles with an almost innocent stare.

Mulgrew's latest book is the result of his long-time fascination with the marijuana industry. Now the legal affairs columnist at the Vancouver Sun, he uses his contacts with key players, both political and entrepreneurial, to gain further insight into the current pot prohibition.

Mulgrew uses the parallel between the 1920s alcohol prohibition and the current marijuana prohibition to argue for the latter's legalization.

"Once booze became legal, those people who were specializing in the illicit distribution and the production of alcohol became quite rich and integrated into the community. You had a shrinking number of the gangs and those who associated with them," says Mulgrew.

The idea is that if marijuana were legal, kids wouldn't want to smoke it, organized criminals would become upstanding entrepreneurs and both police and taxpayers would benefit from reduced criminal investigations.

Statistics in the Netherlands, where cannabis cafés originated, show that youth pot use is on the decline. Mulgrew attributes this to "the Dutch having made marijuana boring . . . they look in the coffee shops and there's no thrill and zing because they'd be sitting around with a bunch of middle-aged dopers." Mulgrew predicts that Canadian youth will follow this trend, and that opposing views in Canada are unfounded.

"I think that is what really is the heart of the anxiety and fear people have about abandoning the criminal prohibition . . . the kids will be exposed to greater harms rather than lesser harms, which is what I am arguing," Mulgrew says.

Growing up in Abbotsford, B.C., the "grow-op" mecca, I have seen the strong and often violent role organized crime plays in the marijuana industry. The idea that once marijuana production is legalized, organized criminals will simply become entrepreneurial citizens seems idyllic at best.

With the elimination of a Canadian marijuana market, the U.S. consumers will still be eager buyers. The competition of the Canadian "entrepreneurs" for U.S. market share will increase.

Mulgrew, however, forecasts that the U.S. will follow our lead in legalization efforts. George W. Bush's $35 million "War on Drugs" doesn't faze him one bit. "Bush is gone soon," Mulgrew says, pointing out that over a dozen states have more progressive marijuana legislation than Canada does.

Canada's organized criminals may soon be out of both a Canadian and American marijuana market, but not out of marketing drugs. What type of future will Canadians have if the underground begins to push drugs such as cocaine and crystal meth instead of pot?

Mulgrew says this is an exaggeration. "Those drugs have far less appeal and they are niche markets. The recasting and re-marshalling of resources will allow the police to more effectively combat organized criminals," he says.

And I breathe a sigh of relief, not pot, at the proposition of legalized marijuana. The children will not be harmed, organized crime will be more effectively policed and taxpayers will even save money. Maybe.

Many recent studies are beginning to demonstrate the positive aspects of cannabis. A study by the University of Saskatchewan shows how cannabis can actually increase your brain cells. Speculative at best, especially since Mulgrew, the pro-pot authority, readily admits to destroying his own brain cells.

But during our phone conversation he worries that the cell phone is frying his brain. Between the cell phone and the pot, Mulgrew fondly remembers writing for our very own Excalibur, but he can't remember whether it was "back in 74 or 75 or 76 . . ."

"I can't remember that far back," he says, "I destroyed those brain cells."

© 2005 H.U.M.A.N.: Hemp Users Medical Access Network - Toronto Medical Marijuana