Grass (1999 film)
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Grass is a 1999 Canadian documentary film directed by Ron Mann, about the history of the United States government's war on marijuana in the 20th century. The film places much of the blame for marijuana criminalization on Harry Anslinger (the first American drug czar) who, the film alleges, promoted the misinformation of the American public as a means towards abolition.
The film follows the history of federal policies and social attitudes towards marijuana, beginning at the turn of the twentieth century. The history presented is broken up into parts, approximately the length of a decade. Each decade is introduced by paraphrasing the official attitude towards marijuana at the time (e.g. "Marijuana will make you insane" or "Marijuana will make you addicted to heroine"), and closed by providing a figure for the amount of money spent during that period on the "war on marijuana."
The film is almost completely composed of archival footage, much of which is from public domain US propaganda films and feature films such as Reefer Madness made available by the Prelinger Archive.
The documentary was narrated free of charge by actor Woody Harrelson.
[edit] See Also
- Cannabis (drug)
- Legal and medical status of cannabis
- Legal issues of cannabis
- National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
[edit] Links
- Grass at the Internet Movie Database
- Grass available for free download at the Internet archive
Grass won Canada's Genie Award for Best Documentary.