Canadian Cannabis Documentary: the drug, the culture, the politics.
Filmmaker Adam Scorgie investigates the illegal underground marijuana industry in British Columbia (worth $7 billion annually) and interviews experts from around the globe. Physicians, phsychologists, police officers, economists, growers, and politicians shed light on how marijuana became illegal and provide insight on health risks as well as the potential medicinal and industrial uses for cannabis. I appreciate an entertaining and well-researched documentary, especially when it has an appearance by Tommy Chong.
Sweet Mary Jane, she’s so misunderstood. Just an ordinary plant, makin’ its way on our Green Earth, providing medicine, pleasure, and valuable fibres that have given much good to mankind for centuries. Thomas Jefferson grew it, and The Declaration of Independence—the very piece of paper upon which the United States of America was founded—is made from hemp. Yet it is one of the most villified natural substances in the world.
With millions of dollars spent on the nebulous “war against drugs,” I was surprised to find out that an enormous percentage of that money is spent to combat marijuana, with a measly amount left over to spend on the very dangerous, very addictive refined pharmaceutical drugs like cocaine, heroin, crack, methamphetamine, and rohypnol (that’s “the date rape” drug, Roofies). An astounding number of people are arrested in the US for posession of marijuana, more than the number of people arrested for violent crimes. Another interesting factoid: a rapist or a murderer could get a student loan for college, but a convicted pot smoker would be denied. Are you kidding me???
Pharmaceutical companies have an enormous stake in maintaining the criminal status of marijuana. Plants cannot be patented, and Big Pharm makes their bank on man-made chemicals which can be patented, claimed, and marketed. In a capitalist society, there’s a lot of money to be made on the back of suffering. The government, too, is in a terrifically awkward position. After all these years of demonizing cannabis, it’s not a simple task to undo the damage of decades of anti-marijuana blustering.
