xREL.v3

Doc.Zone-CannaBiz.2010.HDTV.XviD-YT

Country     : CA
Language    : English
Network     : CBC
Pack Date   : 2010-02-02
Length      : 00:44:09
Video       : 970 kbps XviD MPEG-4
Audio       : 192 kbps 48KHz 2ch MP3
Resolution  : 624x352
Scan        : Progressive
Framerate   : 29.970
Size        : 350 MB

[ Release Notes ]
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.
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.
With inside access to growers, gangsters and police, CannaBiz untangles
the inner workings of the marijuana industry and raises serious questions
about Canada's drug laws. Stephen Easton, a leading Canadian economist,
recommends the end to marijuana prohibition, yet the government's
position is to get even tougher on an industry that now employs as many
Canadians as the auto industry. 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?
CannaBiz is written and directed by Lionel Goddard and Chris Aikenhead
for Omni Film Productions in association with the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation.

Yours truly