CAN: CannaBiz Lights Up CBC Schedule (jan 29,2010)

[lequebecfume]

CannaBiz Lights Up CBC Schedule

By Staff


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(January 13, 2010 - Toronto, Ontario) – You've heard that old cliché a thousand times: Honour among Thieves. Odd thing is, there used to be a sort of honour attached to the marijuana industry: No guns. No cocaine. But all that has changed as Canada's cannabis industry, valued at some 20 billion dollars, has come to a violent crossroads between crime and commerce. And now that story is told in a new documentary titled CannaBiz.



Vancouver-based Omni Film's production 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.

Across the country, formerly laid-back marijuana growers now live in fear of armed thieves, and smugglers take huge risks to cross the beefed up American border. Conflicted police and RCMP officers like Harland Venema continue to fight a seemingly futile battle. In Grand Forks, Brian Taylor, once nicknamed “the marijuana mayor,” is campaigning for medical marijuana as a prescription for economic prosperity. Ex-con Sam Mellace dreams of supplying medical marijuana nationally through Shoppers Drug Mart outlets.

Are the staggering profits from the cannabis industry better off in the pockets of hard-core smugglers and criminal gangs, or would the Canadian economy benefit from taxing this exploding industry? With inside access to growers, gangsters and police, CannaBiz reveals the inside story of Canada’s secret $20-billion dollar marijuana industry that now employs as many Canadians as the auto industry.

Scheduled to air on CBC TV’s DOC ZONE on Thursday, January 28 at 9 pm PT/ET, it seems like the good folks at the CBC have turned most of the night over to the profitable weed.

Preceding the premiere of CannaBiz, The Nature of Things with David Suzuki will offer the debut of The Downside of High, a new documentary examining whether today’s strong pot is damaging young minds.

Tune in, light up, enjoy.


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http://www.northernstars.ca/News/0110130917_cbc.html

[lequebecfume]

The Downside of High

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Premiering: Thursday January 28, 2010 at 8 pm on CBC-TV
Repeating: Thursday February 4, 2010 at 10 pm ET/PT on CBC News Network


Teenagers who start smoking marijuana before the age of sixteen are four times more likely to become schizophrenic. That's the startling conclusion of some of the world's top schizophrenia experts, whose research is featured in the new documentary The Downside of High.

The scientists' groundbreaking work on the connection between marijuana and mental illness also reveals that, for all young adults, smoking marijuana nearly doubles the risk of developing recurring psychosis, paranoia and hallucinations - the hallmarks of schizophrenia.

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Ben Nixon was first introduced to marijuana while at a high school in BC. His increasingly psychotic behaviour led to a year-long hospitalization.

The Downside of High, directed and written by Bruce Mohun, tells the stories of three young people from British Columbia who believe - along with their doctors - that their mental illness was triggered by marijuana use. All three spent months in hospital psychiatric wards, and still wage a battle with their illness. Today's super-potent pot may be a big part of the problem. Modern growing techniques have dramatically increased the amount of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana - ramping up the threat to the developing teenage brain.

But there's an intriguing twist to the story: in the process of cultivating more potent strains of pot, growers have also been breeding out a little-known ingredient called cannabidiol that seems to buffer the effects of THC. So today's high-octane pot actually contains a double-whammy - more psychosis-producing THC, and less of the protective CBD or cannabidiol.

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Tyler Ridout was 14 years old when he first started experiencing psychotic episodes.

For many people, smoking marijuana is not a big deal - it is, after all, the most widely-used illegal drug in the world. The Downside of High provides a scientific perspective on some of the little-known and little discussed risks of marijuana, particularly for teenagers.

The Downside of High is directed and written by Bruce Mohun, story-produced by Maureen Palmer, and produced by Sue Ridout for Dreamfilm Productions of Vancouver.



Related Video

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DOWNSIDE OF HIGH
Watch a trailer.
00:30 min


http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2010/downsideofhigh/

[hollowpoint]

and yet another study labelling teens who smoke will have pscycological problems as adults? but what of the group that didn;t smoke? is it possible that those same teens who take up smoking for mental relief would have developed a mental health issue anyway? could it be that this is the reason they seek relief from mental anquish in thier teens? and what was thier home life about? son or daughter of an abusive alcoholic parent? why is we never see that side of the equation in these studies? its like I eat after smoking cannibus, does that mean I wouldn't eat if I didn't smoke, not for long thats for sure. I'm glad I studied stats in university to allow me to filter the BS out of a lot of these (paid for by big pharma, antidrug causes, idiots like bush) scientific studies. I get so peeved by these carefully worded studies with quips like "do you still beat your wife" with no win answers. looking forward to the cbc special to see what kind of negative spin that's given.