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I have a thing about most documentaries; it\u2019s not unlike the thing I have about Brussels sprouts: I never want to watch\/eat them, then I\u2019m always glad I did. Happens. Every. Time. And the idea that I had to sit through a documentary that\u2019s already nearly three years old, well, let\u2019s just say my enthusiasm meter wasn\u2019t exactly jumping with mind-blowing excitement.<\/p>\n
Grass Is Greener <\/em>ostensibly follows hip-hop icon Fab Five Freddy on his often-disturbing trek to uncover the truth about the history of cannabis prohibition in the US. Commencing in the 1920s New Orleans jazz clubs where Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington were forced to perpetually fend off being arrested due to overtly racist policies, the documentary concludes by interviewing rap legends Snoop Dogg and B-Real of Cypress Hill as they expertly discuss the current state of cannabis.<\/p>\n The film, streaming on Netflix, also provides perspectives from relevant lawyers, cannabis advocates and activists. By far the most harrowing are examples of families torn apart by America\u2019s pervasive and unjustified obsession with convicting people of color for minor marijuana infractions. It\u2019s a lot to take in.<\/p>\n The riveting examination provides us with a villain early on, the cartoonishly bigoted first director of the Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger. The political appointee enforced fabricated policies while ignoring definitive scientific studies specifically targeting two groups still grappling (and demanding) social justice in this nation: African Americans and Mexican immigrants. In fact, the very name \u201ccannabis\u201d was purposedly changed to \u201cmarijuana\u201d to further connect the supposedly dangerous narcotic more directly with the feared Mexicans crossing the border. It\u2019s all as infuriating as it is outrageous, but given the current societal climate in the US, not at all surprising. C\u2019mon now, is Harry Anslinger all that different from, say, Jeff Sessions, the enforcer of the draconian child separation policy at the US border during the previous administration? Here\u2019s a hint: He\u2019s not.<\/p>\n But wait! There are good guys, too. Most surprising, perhaps, was former New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, who commissioned a report on cannabis that refuted all of Anslinger\u2019s preposterous claims. \u201cInstead of science, the government knowingly and willingly chose propaganda, chose racism over and over again,\u201d said one astute subject of the documentary about the irrefutable evidence found in LaGuardia\u2019s report. But the direct line from Anslinger, to Richard Nixon\u2019s War On Drugs, to Ronald (and Nancy) Reagan\u2019s \u201cJust Say No\u201d campaign and to Bill Clinton\u2019s odious Crime Bill all relegated cannabis to be perceived as nothing short of premeditated evil. And it was all a lie.<\/p>\n I was amped up for action by the time Grass Is Greener<\/em> gets to Jack Herer\u2019s revelatory The Emperor Wears No Clothes,<\/em> the truth bomb of a book that blew the lid off the perpetuated untruths about weed the US government had been spewing for a century. And by the end of the doc, I\u2019m left with not only a crystal-clear understanding of the history of cannabis, but an even better understanding about American jurisprudence and how acutely unjust it has always been. Always.<\/p>\n Grass Is Greener <\/em>should be required viewing for cannabis lovers, yes, but also for lovers of our country and democracy and justice. I\u2019m so glad I saw this remarkably important documentary. Not surprisingly, I\u2019m now craving a heaping serving of Brussels sprouts. I got the do-something munchies for sure.<\/p>\n This story was originally published in the\u00a0print edition<\/a>\u00a0of Cannabis Now.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Film Review: \u2018Grass Is Greener\u2019 Documentary Nails It<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
I have a thing about most documentaries; it\u2019s not unlike the thing I have about Brussels sprouts: I never want to watch\/eat them, then I\u2019m always glad I did. Happens. Every. Time. And the idea that I had to sit through a documentary that\u2019s already nearly three years old, well,Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":480,"featured_media":61162,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16497,50,15960,346,9834,16849,125,9836,9837,85,15940,16850,6641,127,369,1003,239],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/480"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61163,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61161\/revisions\/61163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n![\"Grass](\"https:\/\/cannabisnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Grass-Is-Greener-Netflix.jpg\")
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