Catch a Fire: The Blaze & Bust of the Canadian Cannabis Industry

Candid and captivating, Catch a Fire: The Blaze and Bust of the Canadian Cannabis Industry is not just an educational experience, but also a surprisingly emotional rollercoaster as author and marijuana user Ben Kaplan details his first-hand experience with the drug, alongside research on its many medical benefits, the social inequalities associated with it, and the volatile business results legalization has delivered. One of the most compelling areas Kaplan explores is the whirlwind two years when marijuana transitioned from being an illegal substance to an essential service during the COVID-19 pandemic. The whiplash caused by these cultural and legal changes is the book’s driving force.

Kaplan charts a course from early legislation and tragedies about marijuana and its cultural reception to corporate analyses and interviews. He also makes medicinal marijuana an ever-present theme, and his focus on a real-life experience from Torontonian Terry Parker who has been using it since his teens to prevent seizures is a tear-jerking tale.

The subtitle of the book, The Blaze and Bust of the Canadian Cannabis Industry, promises to share an inside look at how the billion-dollar business that was expected to thrive slumped in just a few years. Kaplan delves into overvaluation—making the complex topic accessible by providing easy-to-understand definitions along the way—before climaxing with the enthralling collapse of a market propped up on hope and smoke. It’s a rise as dramatic as its fall, making it feel like a plot that could have been scripted by the writers behind The Wolf of Wall Street.

An irrefutable highlight of Catch a Fire are the interviews Kaplan conducted with a cast of characters who share their fascinating personal experiences with marijuana, providing a gravitas and credibility that other works on the subject don’t offer. Kaplan also weaves in his own lived experience, once again making his subject relatable and accessible, without losing his flair for colourful storytelling. He awes readers as he shares legendary stories from Toronto’s iconic CAFE dispensary on Harbord Street and other unlawful storefronts that once drew endless lines around the block. While the focus remains on Toronto’s bumpy road to marijuana legalization, Kaplan widens the lens to include compelling vignettes from across the country—from the transformation of the old Hershey plant in Smiths Falls, to the astonishing scale of Aurora Cannabis’s grow-op at Edmonton International Airport.

It’s easy to recommend Catch a Fire to anyone who dabbles in the devil’s cabbage or has an interest in how governments, substance control, and social inequity are intertwined. Kaplan masterfully shifts between business talk, the history of marijuana, and how legalization changed lives in his well-researched, interesting read that takes a clear look at the industry as a whole, after the smoke of legalization has cleared. A vivid, fast-paced chronicle of Canada’s green revolution, Kaplan’s storytelling successfully captures the chaos, charisma, and contradictions of an industry in transition.

—CANREADS BOOK REVIEW

Published by Dundurn Press

Purchase Catch a Fire: The Blaze and Bust of the Canadian Cannabis Industry at Indigo