Heather Donahue on Growing Marijuana, Life After 'Blair Witch,' and the Beauty of 'Grey' Markets

"To me, the 'canna-business,' it's a great example of community-level capitalism working well," says Heather Donahue, Hollywood actress-turned-marijuana farmer and author of the new book Grow Girl.

Donahue sat down with Reason.tv's Tim Cavanaugh to discuss why she left acting only a few years after her iconic role as "Heather" in the Blair Witch Project and how she ended up cultivating marijuana in a small Northern California community known as "Nugget Town."

Although Donahue favors legalization of marijuana and acknowledges the terrible toll that prohibition has taken, she also thinks that California's medical marijuana market has flourished in the legal "grey area" that currently exists.

"By creating this grey area, you're actually creating a system that works," says Donahue. "This is a system on a human scale, and that's part of why it works so well."

Approximately 9:43 minutes. Interview by Tim Cavanaugh. Shot and edited by Zach Weissmueller.

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Reason Magazine
• ReasonTV
• libertarian
• Nick Gillespie
• Tim Cavanaugh
• Heather Donahue
• The Blair Witch Project
• Medical Marijuana
• Drug Policy
• Cannabis
• Legalize Weed
• Pot
• California

[ccassler3]

@SanguineBullet667 I was thinking FDA / USDA regulations. Those are big government ideas which Donahue seems to say she doesn't want to regulate this industry, yet she gives the whole "corporations are evil" argument, too. Just saying that liberals want government to control everything it already controls, and more, but not marijuana since it's doing fine without government. What else could be better without government regulation? Lots of things.

[PigeonTech]

The best reason to legalize isn't "it's safe". It's not "we can generate tax revenue" and "create jobs" either. No. The best reason to legalize is, "we own our bodies". That's the difference between libertarians and [insert pejorative here].

[WeAskThePeople]

let each person make their own choice.. !!!

[SuperSkyster]

Ha! I always knew Mary Crawford was cool!

[17klott]

she is definately stoned in this interview....lol

[knightschwartz]

LA is gonna rock when it becomes full mexican. oh and goverment will get really small. latinos are well known liberterians.

[Aeschylus]

5:11 "This one's good if you have to do any writing. That's what they tell me." :)

[fitobcnfito]

Compared to Coca, that grows wild in most of Latin America; a protected agricultural product, as chewing the leaves is a Native American tradition. What takes knowledge, adding chemicals, labs, and is dangerous, is to concentrate the substance and turn it into powder. Growing/consuming weed is like coca plants, easy, no big issue, no big harm, and no danger. Coca is legal, traditional, and even popular; the illegal dangerous thing is cocaine (dangerous for being a chemical uncontrolled process)

[fitobcnfito]

@curtisls87 "Commerce clause". Not if you grow it with no comercial intention.

I’ve done it, it takes the same knowledge and effort as gardening, actually growing roses or many other flowers or vegetables is 10 times harder, this is a “bad” weed. Only issue is if you pretend to do so in big amounts and/or for trading/commerce to make money, I don’t, I grow what I smoke (5 plants max). In EU they do not persecute consume, only trade. BTW is the cheapest decorative plant you can have

[curtisls87]

I would point out to those saying "the drug is free," that should it become legal, Congress will most certainly regulate your ability to grow it for yourself, citing the Wickard VS Filburn SCOTUS decision regarding the Commerce clause.

[akienzle]

@ccassler3 Liberals, like myself, are not for regulation per se, we're for regulation where it's needed to protect the public well-being and prevent fraud. We're also for small community businesses, local farms, and strong local economies. So we want regulations to prevent babies being poisoned by lead and forests dying due to acid rain, but against stupid regulations that impede businesses for no good reason. We can agree that many regulations are having unintended negative consequences.