CANNABIS CULTURE - Canada's public broadcaster has produced a new documentary film called CannaBiz, which explores the growing marijuana industry in Canada.

Though it gets a few things a little confused, like claiming B.C. bud is "a hybrid of two strains, indica and sativa" grown with "over 20% THC", it is a more or less balanced investigation of an industry that continues to grow through the cracks in our legal system like a weed.

From the CBC:

Canada's $20 billion-dollar marijuana industry is now at a violent crossroads between crime and commerce. Impossible to police, yet steadily gaining public acceptance, the cannabis industry is now so vast and vital to Canada's national economy that it can no longer be ignored.

CannaBiz unfolds in Grand Forks, BC, a small border town nestled in the Kootenay Mountains, where draft dodgers planted the first "BC Bud" in the 1960s. After the pine beetle chewed through what was left of the forest industry, marijuana became the backbone of the local economy. In secret forest plots, basements, barns and high-tech underground bunkers, growers nurture some of the world's most potent bud. Most of the marijuana here, and in the rest of Canada, is destined for the US market, where a pound of premium weed sells for a street price of $4,500.

The film features interviews with activists like Brian Taylor, Rielle Capler, and Marc Emery; and a host of growers, journalists, and law enforcement officials.

CannaBiz was written and directed by Lionel Goddard and Chris Aikenhead for Omni Film Productions in association with the CBC DOC ZONE series.

For links see Part 1