Romancing Mary Jane: A Year in the Life of a Failed Marijuana Grower

Britta Santowski is a freelance writer in Victoria, British Columbia.

The author, a retired documentary film producer and director, chronicles
the selection and painstaking cultivation of his three marijuana
gardens: Pocket Garden, Hillside Garden, and Number Three. He also
tackles the legalization debate and a host of other marijuana-related
issues. He informs us that in the United States, a nation in which the
average sentence for murder is nine years, “at least thirty people are
serving life sentences, without the possibility for parole, for growing
or selling marijuana.” He interviews a variety of growers, a dealer,
and a judge. He recounts his ongoing territorial battles with a bear who
developed a taste for the marijuana bud.

Poole’s entertaining and information-packed book is set in British
Columbia’s Sunshine Coast. It includes two useful indexes, “The
Mythology of Marijuana” and “What to Do If You Are Busted,” and a
set of comprehensive notes.