Catch a Fire

Sharply observed, fiercely researched, starkly revealing, written with wit, verve, and insight, making room for the tragic ironies without ever taking its eyes off the comic ones, Catch a Fire left me shaking with laughter — when I wasn’t shaking my head in dismay. * Michael Chabon * Catch a Fire is a rollicking tale about the strange menagerie of people — compassionate stoners, pothead PhDs, risk-taking weed ruffians, pain-wracked patients, principled politicians, corporate suits, tech bros, and boastful billionaires — who transformed cannabis from a recreational drug to a pharmaceutical product to the world’s hottest stock market commodity and back again. At the same time, Ben Kaplan delivers a serious examination of how a multi-billion-dollar business was often little more than smoke and mirrors, a green rush driven by greed, sleazy salesmen and corporate malfeasance, and went up in a puff of smoke by over-promising and under-delivering. * André Picard, health reporter for the Globe and Mail * Cannabis legalization has been a wild ride. Very few people have followed this industry closer than Ben, which makes this book such a great read. * Raj Grover, founder of cannabis retailer High Tide * Ben Kaplan is a storytelling genius. With unparalleled access and dynamic writing, acclaimed journalist Kaplan delivers a riveting, untold chronicle of the explosive $131-billion Canadian cannabis industry — its euphoric beginnings and inevitable crashes. Catch A Fire is a gripping and entertaining look at the wild highs and dramatic chaos of an unprecedented financial and cultural phenomenon. * Melissa Leong, author, Happy Go Money, finance expert, The Social * You can't come to Canada and not smoke a joint with Ben Kaplan. * Matt Barnes, 2017 NBA Champion and host of All the Smoke * Catch a Fire captures the highs and hangovers and historic moments of the legalization of cannabis and its sweeping effect on North American culture and the lives of a handful of daring and opportunistic adventurers who seized the day. It's a raucous and riveting narrative worthy of a Hollywood movie, with swashbuckling corporate dealmakers, big dreamers, inflated egos and company valuations, soaring heights and nosediving crashes. It's an entrepreneurial adventure like no other, with many powerful business lessons. But above all, it's just a fantastic story with characters so compelling you won't believe they are real. * Mark Sutcliffe, Mayor of Ottawa *