@ Romancing Mary Jane: A Year in the Life of a Failed Marijuana Grower by Michael Poole, Greystone Books 258 pp. $26.95. Katharine Hamer Contributing Writer WHEN, in his fate 50s, award-winning docu- men filmmaker Michael! Poole had what he calls a “psychic crash,” he didn’t take up drinking, philander- ing or golf. His self-prescribed cure for burn-out was to embark upon a “healthy, outdoor trade, one T believed would be con- ducive to peace of mind.” Poole became a pot-grower — a marijuana farmer. For his restorative project, Poole retreated to his cabin near Sechelt and turned his attention to planting, water- ing, harvesting, “rubberneck- ing for birds” ... and low-fly- ing RCMP helicopters. Part grower’s guide, part self-dis- covery, part love song te the Sunshine Coast, Romancing Mary Jone is a mine of infor- mation on the history, culture and politics surrounding cannabis. It’s also written with great lyricism. Poole’s polemic on drug laws is passionately argued, and he has a wonder- eye for detail in descrip- tions of both character and scenery (“over Georgia Strait, the rain curtain is raised on a necklace of faint lights along the Vancouver Island shore”). B.C.’s reputation for being a centre of marijuana-growing, he says, is linked not only to its climate and topography but to its “pioncering spirit.” “There’s something in the air here; the lotus land image. It’s the last frontier.” Poole defines himself sim- ply as a champion of civil lib- erties — not as a “cannabis crusader.” “This is about personal Photo Carole Poos MICHAEL Poole’s Romancing Mary Jane was up for a B.C. Books Prize this year. See page 1S for story. choice and freedom,” Poole says. “It would be inconsis- tent of me to ride a hobby horse to persuade people to the virtues of marijuana. But there’s so much deliberate misinformation he the law and people’s rights.” a his book Poole, who includes an appendix on “what to do if you get bust- ed,” cites an elderly judge whose opinions are formed solely by anti-drug propagan- da. “He offers no facts, no examples, no evidence of any kind. Marijuana is aga'nst the law and it’s bad stuff. Period.” Poole gleefully thumbs his nose at the establishment and its attempts at societal con- trol: “From the west end of the slash, just before the road dips into the timber, i can look back and see Vancowver’s Point Grey way off to the southeast. By day it is barely visible, but after dark the uni- versity district becomes a streak of orange light, and I 08 OR REFUSAL CHARGE? revel in the proximity of my primitive pot growing on a wild mountainside to all those seething brains.” Poole highlights the ludi- crousness of the “war on drugs” — which in the United States has seen the release of murderers fron Prisons to make way for dope smokers — and local RCMP officers calling marijuana “the most dangerous narcotic in Canada today.” It’s clear, he says, who the beneficiaries of such policies are: from the multinational pharmaceutical companies to conservative religious groups’ envious, per- haps, of the instant access to mind-expansion and spiritual- ism available to marijuana users, “Admission to the higher planes is supposed to be reserved for the righteous, and then only after a lot of soul-searching, flagellation, Friday, April 30, 1999 ~ North Shore News — 17 Mary Jane more than a farmer’s almanac and probably death. Fundamentalists can’t abide the thought of someone lighting up and achieving a spiritual insight through the back door.” Poole says he’s had a “100% positive response” to the book, but adds that the greatest compliment he's had so far is from those who've been in touch to thank hin for “a wood read.” Romancing Mary Jane was nominated for last week’s B.C. Book Prizes. Although Poole lost out to Peter Newman's Titans: The Canadian Establishinent (“1 was the bridesmaid again,” he sighs), he claims not to have been surprised by the nomi- nation, as he had ser out with “literary pretensions.” Having given up on full- time pot growing, Poole is now based in North Vancouver. But he intends to keep writing. Romancing Mary Jane is only his second tide (the first was Ragged Islands: A Journey By Canoe through the Inside Passage), but it’s already virtually sold out at baok stores across the Lower Mainland. The paper- back edition is due in about six weeks. 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