Article content continued

Q: And now you will be the big money behind the 420 event this year. Have you been to many of those events?

A: The 420 events I’ve watched on television for years and years; I have only attended a couple of them because I’m way up in the northwest of B.C. I always thought that they were underutilized vehicles for getting across all of the wrongs with marijuana prohibition.

Q: Do you mean that they’ve just been big pot parties?

A: No, in the sense that you had people there who were passionate about their advocacy for legalizing marijuana, but they were loosely organized, there were no speakers for the media to talk to, so they’d just interview people briefly then go into the crowds filming 20-year-olds blowing smoke rings. It’s a mixed message. Like most people when they buy a lottery ticket you have a wish list of all the things you’d want to do and that. One of mine was I’d put a substantial amount towards marijuana legalization. And so when the 25 mil come my way, I said I’ll throw at least a mil towards the cause. I put $125,000 this year to organize the 420 events, $60,000 for web design, the other $60,000 accommodation, probably $40,000 in merchandising hats and buttons.

Q: You paid for all that?

A: Yes, and I think another $20,000 went into advertising. We have about 40 or 50 cities online this year. Come May 1, we start on the 2014 420 events, and ultimately we’d like to have 150-200 cities.

Q: Why is legalization such a crucial issue?

A: Marijuana legalization would result in income taxes collected, increased spending on home mortgages, municipal infrastructure upgrades, more money for healthcare, education, pensions — all without raising taxes. The revenue from B.C.’s marijuana industry’s estimated at $12-billion annually. Not only that, there would be a huge drop in crime of all types. Of course that’s not good news for police because pot crime is their bread and butter. Several medical studies show that people who use pot regularly are usually of higher education and IQ. Pot smokers may be dope-heads, but they’re not dopey people. Prohibition is the biggest social injustice of my lifetime.