A Man of Substances

When Gerry McCarthy hit the headlines in 1996, he was the man at the center of a five million dollar dope bust, the largest grow-op takedown in Canadian history. But when he hit the big city as a small-town teenager many years before, he was as green as grass. The story in between is a unique and winding journey through the vibrant, revolutionary years of the twentieth century.

A Man of Substances looks unblinkingly at McCarthy's invention, reaction, and folly over a life on the less sober side of the law. This memoir explores McCarthy's journey, from a guitar slung across his shoulders to handcuffs around his wrists. In between are the exploits of one of Canada's marijuana cultivation pioneers, at turns resourceful and rash, sincere and sardonic, hardworking and hammered. He is paperboy and pot dealer, secret keeper and raconteur. He's a devoted suburban family man with a pound of weed in the second car.

Both entertaining and educational, A Man of Substances reflects the times and the culture of the world in which he grew up and explores that world's folly and its shadows with equal candor.