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Catch a Fire: A colourful history of cannabis in Canada

Published on May 2, 2025 by Pat Bulmer

Photo: Contributed

Cannabis legalization didn’t start with Justin Trudeau. It was a long, evolutionary process that led to the former prime minister announcing he would legalize weed — and it has been a bumpy road since with a lot of larger-than-life, colourful characters thrown in.

Ben Kaplan documents both the history and colour in his book Catch a Fire — The Blaze and Bust of the Canadian Cannabis Industry (Dundurn Press).

“I wanted to make sure that I got all the history in there and let people understand how legalization came to pass and put some sort of historical context into the way the laws were formed, but I also knew that the main story people were interested in is … the Wild West aspect of it. I wanted it to be a page-turner.”

Some of the early trailblazers during legalization were true characters.

Canadian weed kings

Kaplan doesn’t hesitate to pick his favourite — Bruce Linton, founder of Tweed, which turned into Canopy Growth. Tweed gots its high-profile start in an old Hershey chocolate factory in Smiths Falls, Ont.

“Linton started Canopy Growth in 2012,” Kaplan writes in the book. “He had never smoked pot then, but didn’t care. He wasn’t a stoner. He was an opportunist, a genie, a promoter — a visionary who sensed in weed a product he could sell.”

Kaplan spent a lot of time with Linton and Terry Booth, founder of Aurora Cannabis, who he calls “Canada’s two original weed kings.”

Corporatization pushed them and others like them out of the companies they founded.

Many of Kaplan’s interviews were conducted during the COVID lockdown, so people had lots of time to talk.

“I did a lot of this stuff during COVID when these people were bored so I came to them and they had a lot of time for me, and it just seemed to me that he had been waiting for somebody to ask him some of this stuff.

“He’s an interesting guy,” Kaplan said of Linton. “He’s not guarded. He’ll say anything. He’ll tell you exactly what’s on his mind. We spent a lot of time together.”

“The other executives worked hard at being inoffensive and mature. Not Bruce,” Kaplan wrote in the book. “He wanted to be memorable … Linton was making pot look fun.”

At its peak, Canopy had a value of $22 billion.

There was “no real reason why Canopy became what it was, as opposed to any of the other ones, rather than just this guy has chutzpah,” Kaplan said.

It’s not just the personalities who are colourful. Kaplan’s writing has flair, too.

Of American investor Nelson Peltz, he wrote: “He and his company, Trian Partners, are like when your mom remarries an army colonel, and now your new stepdad comes into your house and it’s no longer okay for you to eat cheese strings in front of the TV.”

Of the growing acceptance of medical marijuana before recreational legalization, he wrote: “Allan Rock’s licensing approval process began as an exercise in empathy and ended as a path for illegal growers to camouflage their businesses under the cloak of the law.”

“I wanted the book to be colourful,” he said. “These guys were so not guarded. I just got them at the right time where they really gave me a lot of stuff.”

‘Kelowna has the best weed’

One city that keeps popping up is Kelowna.

Kelowna was a centre for the emerging medical cannabis industry prior to recreational legalization.

“Licenced producers weren’t making their own pot yet, and they had to get the starter seeds. So they went to go get that in Kelowna,” said Kaplan.

He describes top people at two companies loading up private planes with marijuana seeds and supplies at hangars in Kelowna.

The RCMP came to bust them. While medical marijuana was now legal, police weren’t on top the latest regulations.

“There’s stories of these guys packing hockey bags full of seeds, stems and all the starter cannabis, packing it on a plane in a private hangar,” Kaplan said.

The RCMP tried to stop them, but what they were doing was legal — even if the hockey bags did look suspicious.

“That white-hot centre of it all was in Kelowna” said Kaplan.“Kelowna is still known. It’s always been a centrepiece of marijuana back to the ’60s. They used to do runs prior to legalization.

“Kelowna has the best weed.”

Kelowna is where Trudeau announced in 2013 he supported legalization. The mid-sized Okanagan city is still home to a number of cannabis operations.

Canadian cannabis industry remains strong

Since The Blaze and Bust of the Canadian Cannabis Industry is the book’s subtitle, what is the future of the industry, according to an informed observer like Kaplan?

The days of inflated company values are gone, but many aspects of the industry are strong, he said.

“Canada is largest global exporter of weed around the world,” Kaplan said. “We’re seeing a consolidation in the industry. Unfortunately, there’s going to be more mom and pop retailers close.

“You’re seeing much more properly sourced, mid-sized craft cannabis companies that are worried about the bottom line, that are paying attention, that are actually profitable.

“The industry is still strong. It still employs 100,000 Canadians. I think there’s $5 billion in taxes from this industry in fiscal 2024. It still puts a lot of tax money into the coffers in this country.”

The book may have a future on the big screen. A documentary and a possible movie based on Catch a Fire are in the planning stages.

Toronto-based Kaplan has written for major newspapers and magazines, and is the editor of Kind magazine, which focuses on lifestyle, food and entertainment.