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- 0
- 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:15,000
- INDOXXI
- Support dengan like & share :)
- 1
- 00:01:19,370 --> 00:01:20,955
- My name is Fred Brathwaite.
- 2
- 00:01:21,039 --> 00:01:23,541
- Most of you may know me as Fab 5 Freddy,
- 3
- 00:01:24,125 --> 00:01:26,711
- that guy that used to host
- that rap show on MTV.
- 4
- 00:01:26,795 --> 00:01:28,922
- -♪ Fab 5 Freddy ♪
- -♪ Yo, yo, yo ♪
- 5
- 00:01:29,005 --> 00:01:31,132
- -[man] The number one show.
- -♪ Rap music ♪
- 6
- 00:01:31,216 --> 00:01:34,094
- -♪ Fab 5 Freddy ♪
- -♪ Yo, yo ♪
- 7
- 00:01:34,177 --> 00:01:36,846
- [Brathwaite] I grew up in the Bed-Stuy
- section of Brooklyn, New York.
- 8
- 00:01:38,056 --> 00:01:42,102
- My godfather was jazz drummer Max Roach
- and best friends with my dad.
- 9
- 00:01:43,394 --> 00:01:45,730
- Our house was a happening scene.
- 10
- 00:01:45,814 --> 00:01:49,776
- Good music playing,
- my mom's great food on the stove,
- 11
- 00:01:49,859 --> 00:01:52,445
- and my dad's friends
- at the house on the regular,
- 12
- 00:01:52,529 --> 00:01:56,449
- having spirited intellectual conversation
- over quality cannabis.
- 13
- 00:01:57,784 --> 00:01:59,410
- Like my dad and his friends,
- 14
- 00:01:59,494 --> 00:02:03,248
- I'm a long-time cannabis connoisseur
- and an advocate.
- 15
- 00:02:05,166 --> 00:02:08,044
- More than half of America agrees with me.
- 16
- 00:02:08,128 --> 00:02:11,923
- As cannabis goes mainstream,
- it's easy to forget the past:
- 17
- 00:02:12,006 --> 00:02:14,384
- nearly 100 years of prohibition
- 18
- 00:02:14,467 --> 00:02:17,595
- and millions of lives destroyed
- in a war on drugs.
- 19
- 00:02:20,056 --> 00:02:23,351
- As this trend of legalization
- spreads across the country,
- 20
- 00:02:23,434 --> 00:02:27,564
- you have to ask, "Why was cannabis
- ever made illegal in the first place?"
- 21
- 00:02:28,648 --> 00:02:32,026
- And why is America only now accepting it?
- 22
- 00:02:34,279 --> 00:02:37,198
- My journey to answer this question
- starts right here,
- 23
- 00:02:37,282 --> 00:02:39,659
- in my father's old record collection.
- 24
- 00:02:40,493 --> 00:02:43,413
- The history of cannabis in America
- has long been tied
- 25
- 00:02:43,496 --> 00:02:45,874
- to the history of music in America.
- 26
- 00:02:46,457 --> 00:02:48,209
- Almost 100 years ago,
- 27
- 00:02:48,293 --> 00:02:51,504
- the biggest advocates of the day
- were jazz musicians.
- 28
- 00:03:14,277 --> 00:03:15,820
- [man] They used euphemisms.
- 29
- 00:03:16,279 --> 00:03:18,656
- Cab Calloway, of course,
- was one of the first
- 30
- 00:03:18,740 --> 00:03:20,825
- with a song called "The Reefer Man."
- 31
- 00:03:20,909 --> 00:03:25,038
- 99.9% of the public wouldn't have
- no idea what he was talking about.
- 32
- 00:03:25,872 --> 00:03:28,124
- [Brathwaite] Reefer, gauge, jive, and weed
- 33
- 00:03:28,208 --> 00:03:31,002
- were some of the slang words
- jazz greats used
- 34
- 00:03:31,085 --> 00:03:33,004
- when singing about cannabis.
- 35
- 00:03:33,087 --> 00:03:37,258
- These terms would become some
- of the popular slang still in use today.
- 36
- 00:03:38,426 --> 00:03:40,386
- [man 2]
- Not only were jazz musicians smoking it,
- 37
- 00:03:40,470 --> 00:03:43,723
- but everybody knew that it
- gave them a leg up.
- 38
- 00:03:43,806 --> 00:03:48,770
- When you got high on cannabis,
- the music slowed down a little bit.
- 39
- 00:03:48,853 --> 00:03:52,482
- And you could flow improvisationally.
- 40
- 00:03:52,565 --> 00:03:54,734
- [man 3] The cat that smoked marijuana,
- 41
- 00:03:54,817 --> 00:04:00,406
- they had better know that... Fats Wallace
- and Duke Ellington and all of them.
- 42
- 00:04:00,907 --> 00:04:02,700
- They help you be very creative.
- 43
- 00:04:04,953 --> 00:04:07,580
- I've been smoking for 70 years
- 44
- 00:04:08,498 --> 00:04:10,083
- and really enjoyed it.
- 45
- 00:04:13,628 --> 00:04:17,048
- Way back in the days in the jazz era,
- they were speaking on the plant
- 46
- 00:04:17,131 --> 00:04:21,552
- because the plant was something that was
- a way of helping them find they groove
- 47
- 00:04:21,636 --> 00:04:26,057
- and find they mind and find they mental,
- to create some of the most classic music
- 48
- 00:04:26,140 --> 00:04:28,726
- that was ever written,
- that was ever produced,
- 49
- 00:04:28,810 --> 00:04:31,104
- that was ever sung, and it's timeless.
- 50
- 00:04:31,187 --> 00:04:36,067
- There's something about that cannabis that
- brings the best out of whoever you are,
- 51
- 00:04:36,150 --> 00:04:38,069
- if you tap into your spirit
- or why it's here.
- 52
- 00:04:38,653 --> 00:04:41,489
- [man 3] There's a lot of reefer songs
- going around. "Light Up."
- 53
- 00:04:41,572 --> 00:04:43,574
- [hums melodically]
- ♪ Light up ♪
- 54
- 00:04:44,117 --> 00:04:45,076
- There's another one.
- 55
- 00:04:45,159 --> 00:04:47,036
- ♪ All the jive is gone ♪
- 56
- 00:04:47,495 --> 00:04:49,706
- ♪ All the jive is gone ♪
- 57
- 00:04:49,789 --> 00:04:53,918
- ♪ I had some fun, but now I'm on the run
- Because all the jive is gone ♪
- 58
- 00:04:54,002 --> 00:04:56,379
- Because back in the day,
- they called marijuana jive.
- 59
- 00:04:57,088 --> 00:05:01,718
- ♪ The latest crave
- The country's rave is jive, jive, jive ♪
- 60
- 00:05:01,801 --> 00:05:03,720
- [upbeat jazz music plays]
- 61
- 00:05:17,692 --> 00:05:20,820
- [Brathwaite] You can trace the roots
- of cannabis to the city of New Orleans,
- 62
- 00:05:21,571 --> 00:05:26,034
- a port city that was a melting pot
- of cultures and the birthplace of jazz.
- 63
- 00:05:26,117 --> 00:05:28,411
- That's right, baby, New Orleans.
- 64
- 00:05:29,245 --> 00:05:32,749
- At a time when only the hippest cats
- knew where to find some good reefer
- 65
- 00:05:32,832 --> 00:05:34,625
- in those underground clubs.
- 66
- 00:05:41,174 --> 00:05:42,967
- [man] Here's the original reefer song.
- 67
- 00:05:44,552 --> 00:05:47,096
- ♪ Hide the reefer
- Here comes the creeper ♪
- 68
- 00:05:47,180 --> 00:05:49,474
- ♪ Hide the reefer
- Here comes the creeper ♪
- 69
- 00:05:49,557 --> 00:05:52,310
- ♪ Hide the reefer
- Here comes the creeper ♪
- 70
- 00:05:52,894 --> 00:05:55,063
- ♪ Hide the reefer
- Here comes the creeper ♪
- 71
- 00:06:01,444 --> 00:06:03,112
- [Brathwaite] Cannabis
- and its close cousin hemp
- 72
- 00:06:03,196 --> 00:06:05,323
- were used for centuries throughout Asia
- 73
- 00:06:05,406 --> 00:06:07,825
- and traveled across the globe
- along trade routes.
- 74
- 00:06:09,243 --> 00:06:12,955
- [Sloman] Marijuana doesn't actually become
- a social problem per se,
- 75
- 00:06:13,039 --> 00:06:18,127
- until there's early reports
- in El Paso Texas and also in New Orleans
- 76
- 00:06:18,753 --> 00:06:21,214
- of minorities smoking marijuana.
- 77
- 00:06:25,051 --> 00:06:27,512
- Marijuana,
- from its entry point into the US,
- 78
- 00:06:27,595 --> 00:06:29,347
- has been associated with two groups
- 79
- 00:06:29,430 --> 00:06:32,934
- that give Americans great amounts
- of trepidation,
- 80
- 00:06:33,017 --> 00:06:35,019
- historically then and even now.
- 81
- 00:06:35,103 --> 00:06:37,980
- And that's African-Americans
- and jazz culture in New Orleans
- 82
- 00:06:38,064 --> 00:06:38,981
- and Mexicans.
- 83
- 00:06:39,065 --> 00:06:44,862
- In fact, the name cannabis was shifted
- in the mainstream discourse to marijuana,
- 84
- 00:06:44,946 --> 00:06:48,449
- in order to make the association
- with Mexican-ness.
- 85
- 00:06:50,493 --> 00:06:53,871
- We're talking about this happening
- in the first three decades
- 86
- 00:06:53,955 --> 00:06:55,331
- of the 20th Century,
- 87
- 00:06:55,873 --> 00:06:59,001
- which are some of the most
- xenophobic decades in American history,
- 88
- 00:06:59,085 --> 00:07:01,379
- although we're doing
- pretty well with that now.
- 89
- 00:07:01,462 --> 00:07:04,590
- But, you know,
- really intensely xenophobic moments.
- 90
- 00:07:06,884 --> 00:07:11,472
- So you're talking about individuals
- coming in through Mexico into Texas,
- 91
- 00:07:11,556 --> 00:07:13,307
- the coming of Jews and Italians,
- 92
- 00:07:13,391 --> 00:07:17,311
- the great migration of African-Americans
- into northern cities.
- 93
- 00:07:17,395 --> 00:07:20,314
- So the whole population
- of urban America is shifting,
- 94
- 00:07:20,398 --> 00:07:23,526
- and there's a ton of anxiety
- around this population.
- 95
- 00:07:23,609 --> 00:07:26,946
- They were worried
- that the blacks in New Orleans
- 96
- 00:07:27,029 --> 00:07:28,406
- who were smoking marijuana
- 97
- 00:07:28,489 --> 00:07:32,869
- would then use it
- to seduce white teenagers
- 98
- 00:07:32,952 --> 00:07:37,165
- and get them hooked on this mysterious
- drug that they knew nothing about.
- 99
- 00:07:49,302 --> 00:07:52,180
- Jazz was the new music
- of the 20th century.
- 100
- 00:07:53,556 --> 00:07:55,850
- And Louis Armstrong is its progenitor.
- 101
- 00:07:58,186 --> 00:08:04,734
- Louis Armstrong is the most important
- seminal figure in the development of jazz.
- 102
- 00:08:11,491 --> 00:08:16,162
- I was born, you know, in 1900.
- In James Alley, they called it.
- 103
- 00:08:16,245 --> 00:08:20,500
- It's the back of town.
- That's the real New Orleans.
- 104
- 00:08:21,792 --> 00:08:25,171
- And as a little boy,
- they used to call me little Louis.
- 105
- 00:08:26,380 --> 00:08:29,091
- And I grew up there
- listening to all the good music.
- 106
- 00:08:32,803 --> 00:08:36,807
- [Hager] We know that Louis
- started smoking weed early on.
- 107
- 00:08:36,891 --> 00:08:38,976
- And he smoked it every day of his life.
- 108
- 00:08:40,603 --> 00:08:44,815
- [Sloman] Louis was one
- of our glorious, early potheads.
- 109
- 00:08:45,316 --> 00:08:49,320
- And obviously, if you listen to his music,
- you can see that pot,
- 110
- 00:08:49,403 --> 00:08:52,281
- if anything, had
- a very salutary effect on his music.
- 111
- 00:08:52,907 --> 00:08:57,161
- [Brathwaite] By the 1920s, some states
- had begun outlawing marijuana usage,
- 112
- 00:08:57,245 --> 00:08:58,663
- including California.
- 113
- 00:08:58,746 --> 00:09:03,709
- In 1930, Louis Armstrong was playing
- a gig at the Cotton Club in Culver City,
- 114
- 00:09:03,793 --> 00:09:07,838
- when he got arrested for smoking a joint
- outside during a set break.
- 115
- 00:09:09,840 --> 00:09:14,595
- [Sloman] We're in Louis Armstrong's house,
- which has been preserved as a museum.
- 116
- 00:09:15,346 --> 00:09:20,643
- This whole desk is Louis' tape recorder,
- Louis' glasses maybe, I don't know.
- 117
- 00:09:21,310 --> 00:09:22,311
- All the tapes.
- 118
- 00:09:22,937 --> 00:09:25,022
- [Brathwaite] Most of what we know
- about Louis Armstrong,
- 119
- 00:09:25,106 --> 00:09:27,608
- we know from his own words and letters.
- 120
- 00:09:28,150 --> 00:09:30,486
- He was very open about his cannabis use.
- 121
- 00:09:30,570 --> 00:09:35,032
- And he did not mince words
- in his opposition to prohibition.
- 122
- 00:09:35,116 --> 00:09:37,243
- [Sloman] One of the things Louis
- never understood was
- 123
- 00:09:37,326 --> 00:09:39,161
- why marijuana was illegal.
- 124
- 00:09:40,371 --> 00:09:41,664
- He told his manager,
- 125
- 00:09:42,373 --> 00:09:46,085
- "I'm not so particular about having
- a permit to carry a gun.
- 126
- 00:09:46,752 --> 00:09:49,880
- All I want is a permit
- to carry that good shit.
- 127
- 00:09:49,964 --> 00:09:53,259
- You must see to it
- that I have special permission
- 128
- 00:09:53,342 --> 00:09:57,096
- to smoke all the reefers
- that I want to when I want,
- 129
- 00:09:57,179 --> 00:09:59,390
- or I will just
- have to put this horn down."
- 130
- 00:10:00,224 --> 00:10:05,021
- He was way ahead of his time because Louis
- wanted to get a permit for marijuana.
- 131
- 00:10:05,563 --> 00:10:10,276
- "I can't afford to be tense, fearing
- that any minute I'm going to be arrested,
- 132
- 00:10:10,359 --> 00:10:14,196
- brought to jail, for a silly
- little minor thing like marijuana."
- 133
- 00:10:15,072 --> 00:10:19,035
- [Brathwaite] Louis' words were sensible,
- yet radical for that time.
- 134
- 00:10:19,118 --> 00:10:21,412
- And they still ring true today.
- 135
- 00:10:21,954 --> 00:10:26,584
- How is it that a mild intoxicant, a plant
- that grows naturally all over the world,
- 136
- 00:10:26,667 --> 00:10:29,045
- could be so feared
- by the American government
- 137
- 00:10:29,128 --> 00:10:31,631
- and become worthy of a war?
- 138
- 00:10:31,714 --> 00:10:34,467
- Huh. It all comes down to one man.
- 139
- 00:10:34,550 --> 00:10:38,387
- His name? Harry Anslinger.
- 140
- 00:10:39,889 --> 00:10:42,808
- [man] Our distinguished guest
- for this evening is Harry J. Anslinger,
- 141
- 00:10:42,892 --> 00:10:46,395
- United States Commissioner of Narcotics,
- Treasury Department.
- 142
- 00:10:47,063 --> 00:10:49,565
- [Anslinger]
- It is the duty of the Treasury Department
- 143
- 00:10:49,649 --> 00:10:53,736
- to damn the harmful and malignant stream
- of narcotic drugs.
- 144
- 00:10:54,362 --> 00:10:58,991
- The Treasury Department intends
- to pursue a relentless warfare
- 145
- 00:10:59,075 --> 00:11:03,120
- against the despicable,
- dope-peddling vulture
- 146
- 00:11:03,204 --> 00:11:06,332
- who preys on the weakness
- of his fellow man.
- 147
- 00:11:06,749 --> 00:11:09,710
- One of the biggest architects
- of marijuana prohibition,
- 148
- 00:11:09,794 --> 00:11:12,797
- maybe even
- the father of marijuana prohibition,
- 149
- 00:11:12,880 --> 00:11:14,006
- is Harry Anslinger.
- 150
- 00:11:17,843 --> 00:11:22,473
- [Sloman] Harry Anslinger was an associate
- in the Prohibition department.
- 151
- 00:11:23,015 --> 00:11:26,519
- In 1930, he becomes the first head
- of the Bureau of Narcotics.
- 152
- 00:11:28,437 --> 00:11:31,107
- What you have to realize
- though about Anslinger is that...
- 153
- 00:11:31,190 --> 00:11:34,110
- deep in his bones, he was a racist.
- 154
- 00:11:34,193 --> 00:11:38,322
- And that informed
- a lot of the way he viewed,
- 155
- 00:11:38,906 --> 00:11:42,368
- you know, what measures
- should be taken against people
- 156
- 00:11:42,451 --> 00:11:45,287
- who were basically smoking
- a very innocent flower. [chuckles]
- 157
- 00:11:49,625 --> 00:11:55,715
- Uh, I might say that, uh, we find
- this teenage addiction
- 158
- 00:11:55,798 --> 00:11:59,009
- in certain segments
- and certain neighborhoods.
- 159
- 00:11:59,552 --> 00:12:04,306
- For instance, you can
- almost chalk it down this way.
- 160
- 00:12:05,141 --> 00:12:07,810
- You see very little of it in New England.
- 161
- 00:12:07,893 --> 00:12:12,106
- You come to New York,
- Philadelphia, Pittsburgh...
- 162
- 00:12:12,815 --> 00:12:13,983
- uh...
- 163
- 00:12:14,066 --> 00:12:17,236
- Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans.
- 164
- 00:12:17,695 --> 00:12:19,321
- [Brathwaite] Most of America at that time
- 165
- 00:12:19,405 --> 00:12:22,366
- would've known exactly
- what Anslinger meant right here.
- 166
- 00:12:23,743 --> 00:12:27,955
- These cities were known to have high
- populations of black and brown people.
- 167
- 00:12:28,706 --> 00:12:32,209
- Anslinger was a master at PR
- and at fake news.
- 168
- 00:12:32,293 --> 00:12:36,338
- So what he was able to do was
- always create the other.
- 169
- 00:12:36,422 --> 00:12:40,718
- He had been always amassing
- these horrid, lurid stories
- 170
- 00:12:40,801 --> 00:12:43,554
- of the devastation
- that's wrought by marijuana.
- 171
- 00:12:43,637 --> 00:12:48,392
- So this is just a small sample
- of what I call The Gore File.
- 172
- 00:12:51,145 --> 00:12:52,855
- "Hampton Negro Conference."
- 173
- 00:12:53,647 --> 00:12:57,443
- "Marijuana created
- a magnificent dream scenery and insanity."
- 174
- 00:12:57,526 --> 00:12:59,320
- Okay, here's a good one.
- 175
- 00:12:59,987 --> 00:13:04,074
- "Kills six in a hospital,
- Mexican crazed by marijuana
- 176
- 00:13:04,158 --> 00:13:06,202
- runs amok with a butcher knife."
- 177
- 00:13:06,702 --> 00:13:10,831
- And this was published
- in the New York Times in 1925.
- 178
- 00:13:11,916 --> 00:13:13,083
- This is a good one.
- 179
- 00:13:13,584 --> 00:13:15,544
- "Mexican family go insane.
- 180
- 00:13:15,628 --> 00:13:18,130
- A woman and her four children
- have been driven insane
- 181
- 00:13:18,214 --> 00:13:21,050
- by eating the marijuana plant,
- according to doctors
- 182
- 00:13:21,133 --> 00:13:24,178
- who say there is no hope
- of saving the children's lives.
- 183
- 00:13:24,261 --> 00:13:27,014
- And that the mother will be insane
- for the rest of her life."
- 184
- 00:13:28,849 --> 00:13:31,977
- At that time, most Americans
- knew nothing about marijuana.
- 185
- 00:13:32,561 --> 00:13:37,191
- So, um, the idea was,
- at least for Anslinger,
- 186
- 00:13:37,274 --> 00:13:40,945
- was to build up this consciousness
- of this public menace,
- 187
- 00:13:41,028 --> 00:13:44,406
- which really, you know,
- was not a public menace at all.
- 188
- 00:13:44,490 --> 00:13:48,828
- And one of the great cases
- is the Victor Licata case.
- 189
- 00:13:50,454 --> 00:13:55,167
- And this is a kind of place
- where Anslinger would... um...
- 190
- 00:13:56,377 --> 00:13:58,838
- This is Inside Detective magazine.
- 191
- 00:13:59,797 --> 00:14:02,216
- And this is the Marijuana Maniac.
- 192
- 00:14:04,760 --> 00:14:10,057
- One day, Victor Licata takes an ax
- and murders his father, mother,
- 193
- 00:14:10,140 --> 00:14:11,934
- two brothers and a sister.
- 194
- 00:14:12,017 --> 00:14:14,645
- Immediately it gets linked to marijuana.
- 195
- 00:14:17,064 --> 00:14:20,234
- Actually, Victor Licata
- was a schizophrenic.
- 196
- 00:14:21,277 --> 00:14:24,655
- There was no evidence, of course,
- that marijuana caused any of this.
- 197
- 00:14:26,156 --> 00:14:27,575
- But Anslinger, for years,
- 198
- 00:14:27,658 --> 00:14:32,997
- used these stories to promote the idea
- that weed just makes you totally insane.
- 199
- 00:14:36,584 --> 00:14:38,460
- [Brathwaite]
- Under Anslinger's leadership,
- 200
- 00:14:38,544 --> 00:14:41,422
- marijuana propaganda
- sprouted up everywhere.
- 201
- 00:14:41,505 --> 00:14:45,593
- Millions of Americans would read it,
- see it on newsreels in theaters,
- 202
- 00:14:45,676 --> 00:14:47,052
- before feature films.
- 203
- 00:14:47,553 --> 00:14:51,265
- Marijuana, a Mexican weed
- smoked in cigarette form, called reefers.
- 204
- 00:14:51,348 --> 00:14:53,475
- A one-way ticket to the nut house.
- 205
- 00:14:53,559 --> 00:14:59,857
- Should you ever be confronted with
- a temptation of taking that first puff
- 206
- 00:14:59,940 --> 00:15:02,860
- of a marijuana cigarette, don't do it.
- 207
- 00:15:02,943 --> 00:15:04,653
- Don't do it. Don't do it.
- 208
- 00:15:06,739 --> 00:15:10,159
- [Brathwaite] And, eventually, there was
- a series of films, like Reefer Madness,
- 209
- 00:15:10,242 --> 00:15:13,787
- devoted entirely to creating
- misinformation and mass hysteria
- 210
- 00:15:13,871 --> 00:15:15,039
- around the plant.
- 211
- 00:15:17,791 --> 00:15:20,920
- [man] People say cannabis
- was causing folks
- 212
- 00:15:21,003 --> 00:15:24,340
- to act crazy and behave aggressively.
- 213
- 00:15:24,423 --> 00:15:30,179
- It was causing these young pretty white
- girls to be lured away from their homes
- 214
- 00:15:30,262 --> 00:15:31,555
- to become prostitutes.
- 215
- 00:15:31,680 --> 00:15:33,098
- [girls laughing]
- 216
- 00:15:33,182 --> 00:15:35,601
- And the federal government
- had to do something.
- 217
- 00:15:38,312 --> 00:15:43,609
- So, as a result,
- in 1937 cannabis was, in effect,
- 218
- 00:15:43,692 --> 00:15:45,402
- banned in the United States.
- 219
- 00:15:48,364 --> 00:15:49,865
- About this same time,
- 220
- 00:15:49,949 --> 00:15:51,825
- Mayor LaGuardia of New York City
- 221
- 00:15:51,909 --> 00:15:55,871
- commissioned a comprehensive report
- to be done on cannabis.
- 222
- 00:15:58,666 --> 00:16:00,668
- [Sloman] The Marihuana Report
- from LaGuardia
- 223
- 00:16:02,461 --> 00:16:06,006
- devastated every tenet
- of Anslinger's philosophy
- 224
- 00:16:06,090 --> 00:16:07,675
- and said none of this is true.
- 225
- 00:16:09,093 --> 00:16:11,303
- There's nothing wrong with smoking pot.
- 226
- 00:16:11,887 --> 00:16:14,098
- That doesn't lead to criminality.
- 227
- 00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:18,727
- That it doesn't lead to addiction.
- 228
- 00:16:19,228 --> 00:16:22,523
- You know, all these bug-a-boos
- were completely not true.
- 229
- 00:16:23,899 --> 00:16:26,193
- [Brathwaite] In the pages
- of the LaGuardia Report,
- 230
- 00:16:26,276 --> 00:16:28,320
- you can see that 80 years ago,
- 231
- 00:16:28,404 --> 00:16:31,865
- scientists had confirmed
- that cannabis was not at all
- 232
- 00:16:31,949 --> 00:16:34,451
- the evil Anslinger made it out to be.
- 233
- 00:16:34,535 --> 00:16:36,120
- [man] Back then,
- you didn't have internet.
- 234
- 00:16:36,203 --> 00:16:38,163
- You didn't have access to information
- 235
- 00:16:38,247 --> 00:16:41,417
- the way you do so that you
- can unveil the bullshit.
- 236
- 00:16:41,500 --> 00:16:44,670
- It's sort of like being in school
- and them feeding you history.
- 237
- 00:16:44,753 --> 00:16:47,506
- They're going to feed you the history
- that they want to feed you.
- 238
- 00:16:47,589 --> 00:16:49,466
- They're not going to feed you
- the whole history.
- 239
- 00:16:49,550 --> 00:16:55,597
- Psychiatrists and sociologists,
- from 1936 on,
- 240
- 00:16:55,681 --> 00:16:58,684
- knew that there was
- nothing wrong with this weed
- 241
- 00:16:58,767 --> 00:17:01,562
- and that it's much worse
- if you're drinking alcohol
- 242
- 00:17:01,645 --> 00:17:03,188
- than if you're smoking a little reefer.
- 243
- 00:17:03,272 --> 00:17:08,277
- Our decision-makers chose
- at every juncture to ignore the science.
- 244
- 00:17:08,819 --> 00:17:10,070
- To ignore the research.
- 245
- 00:17:10,154 --> 00:17:15,325
- At every moment
- when government officials could lead,
- 246
- 00:17:15,409 --> 00:17:19,997
- could actually use science,
- they chose propaganda.
- 247
- 00:17:20,080 --> 00:17:21,040
- They chose racism.
- 248
- 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:25,127
- [Brathwaite]
- LaGuardia's report also uncovered
- 249
- 00:17:25,210 --> 00:17:28,172
- that after the Marijuana Tax Act
- was passed,
- 250
- 00:17:28,255 --> 00:17:34,219
- people of color made up 78% of all
- marijuana arrests in New York City alone.
- 251
- 00:17:35,804 --> 00:17:39,349
- This racial disparity
- would continue till today.
- 252
- 00:17:40,184 --> 00:17:41,769
- [Hager] Anslinger knew that his job
- 253
- 00:17:41,852 --> 00:17:45,481
- wasn't really about trying
- to prevent people from getting high.
- 254
- 00:17:45,564 --> 00:17:49,818
- It was trying to prevent people
- from going to jazz clubs
- 255
- 00:17:49,902 --> 00:17:52,988
- and dancing with people from other races.
- 256
- 00:18:34,071 --> 00:18:38,492
- [Sloman] A lot of the music scene
- and the ancillary use of pot
- 257
- 00:18:38,575 --> 00:18:39,993
- happened in New York.
- 258
- 00:18:40,077 --> 00:18:41,537
- And it happened in Harlem.
- 259
- 00:18:42,704 --> 00:18:47,626
- White kids, who were kind of hip kids,
- who were living in Brooklyn and in Queens,
- 260
- 00:18:47,709 --> 00:18:49,920
- went up to Harlem on Saturday nights.
- 261
- 00:18:50,629 --> 00:18:52,881
- You know, there was integration.
- 262
- 00:18:52,965 --> 00:18:56,260
- I mean, you know, don't forget,
- racism was endemic then.
- 263
- 00:18:56,927 --> 00:19:01,181
- When they went up to Harlem, it was
- the first exposure that white people had
- 264
- 00:19:01,265 --> 00:19:02,474
- to black culture.
- 265
- 00:19:03,684 --> 00:19:05,936
- [man]
- Jazz in its day, was treated as hip hop.
- 266
- 00:19:07,146 --> 00:19:10,983
- Marijuana was made illegal
- partially because of the jazz scene.
- 267
- 00:19:11,066 --> 00:19:13,944
- Because the jazz scene put black people
- and white people together,
- 268
- 00:19:14,027 --> 00:19:15,946
- in particular black men and white women.
- 269
- 00:19:16,029 --> 00:19:17,781
- It was used as a tool of propaganda to say
- 270
- 00:19:17,865 --> 00:19:21,410
- marijuana not only makes these niggas
- uppity and think they're as smart as us,
- 271
- 00:19:21,493 --> 00:19:25,164
- it allows our women to let
- their guard down and start to dance,
- 272
- 00:19:25,247 --> 00:19:27,374
- have fun, have sex, fuck, procreate.
- 273
- 00:19:27,457 --> 00:19:29,960
- It relates
- to a lot of the cultural anxieties
- 274
- 00:19:30,043 --> 00:19:35,007
- that existed at the time, around
- the notion that too much of this music,
- 275
- 00:19:35,090 --> 00:19:38,260
- which is also associated
- with too much of those drugs,
- 276
- 00:19:38,343 --> 00:19:42,598
- is going to blacken the American
- population and American culture
- 277
- 00:19:42,681 --> 00:19:44,183
- in all kinds of scary ways.
- 278
- 00:19:57,404 --> 00:20:00,073
- [man] Cannabis was always in Harlem
- 279
- 00:20:00,157 --> 00:20:06,288
- and we had various names for it.
- Like bou, as in bouquet.
- 280
- 00:20:07,080 --> 00:20:11,335
- Um... weed,
- which people still use, you know, today.
- 281
- 00:20:11,877 --> 00:20:17,341
- Pot, yeah. Pot was,
- uh, one of the phrases.
- 282
- 00:20:17,424 --> 00:20:19,426
- Old school people call it reefer.
- 283
- 00:20:19,509 --> 00:20:21,678
- Bud, Mary Jane.
- 284
- 00:20:21,762 --> 00:20:23,430
- Grass, pot.
- 285
- 00:20:23,513 --> 00:20:25,057
- Sess, Buddha bless.
- 286
- 00:20:25,140 --> 00:20:27,142
- -Dank.
- -Hemp. Herb.
- 287
- 00:20:27,226 --> 00:20:29,102
- They used to call it Christmas Tree
- in Arizona.
- 288
- 00:20:29,186 --> 00:20:31,438
- Weed, marijuana.
- 289
- 00:20:34,983 --> 00:20:38,820
- [Brathwaite] The Harlem jazz scene spread
- across the country and around the world.
- 290
- 00:20:38,904 --> 00:20:41,448
- And the music continued
- to grow in popularity.
- 291
- 00:20:41,990 --> 00:20:45,035
- Soon, black jazz musicians
- became household names.
- 292
- 00:20:46,119 --> 00:20:48,914
- With the ever-present
- specter of integration,
- 293
- 00:20:48,997 --> 00:20:52,793
- Anslinger's team targeted
- the black community harder than ever.
- 294
- 00:20:54,753 --> 00:21:00,050
- [Sloman] The Bureau of Narcotics
- had a so-called scientist named Dr. Munch.
- 295
- 00:21:00,592 --> 00:21:03,178
- He said that jazz musicians,
- when they smoke pot,
- 296
- 00:21:03,887 --> 00:21:06,390
- time would kind of bend for them.
- 297
- 00:21:06,473 --> 00:21:12,354
- He says, one of the dangers of cannabis
- is that it slows time down.
- 298
- 00:21:12,896 --> 00:21:14,356
- And that's a bad thing.
- 299
- 00:21:14,940 --> 00:21:18,277
- You know, everybody's got to be
- on the same... four-four.
- 300
- 00:21:18,777 --> 00:21:23,115
- They didn't-- They really, uh... They
- thought that was a sign of something evil.
- 301
- 00:21:23,198 --> 00:21:28,537
- And they...
- just went after all the jazz people.
- 302
- 00:21:28,620 --> 00:21:32,666
- The crackdown on jazz musicians
- is accelerated.
- 303
- 00:21:33,250 --> 00:21:38,130
- They were on Billie Holiday's case.
- Monk's case. Charlie Parker's case.
- 304
- 00:21:38,213 --> 00:21:42,968
- [Sloman] People like Louis Armstrong,
- Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington,
- 305
- 00:21:43,051 --> 00:21:45,429
- Count Basie, Dizzy.
- 306
- 00:21:48,223 --> 00:21:50,600
- [man] Hey, cats,
- it's four o'clock in the morning.
- 307
- 00:21:50,684 --> 00:21:52,269
- Here we are in Harlem.
- 308
- 00:21:52,352 --> 00:21:55,897
- Everybody is here but the police,
- and they'll be here any minute.
- 309
- 00:21:55,981 --> 00:21:59,443
- It's high time, so catch this song.
- Here it is.
- 310
- 00:21:59,526 --> 00:22:01,528
- [jaunty jazz music plays]
- 311
- 00:22:02,070 --> 00:22:06,158
- [Brathwaite] Cannabis prohibition prompted
- Fats Waller to record this classic.
- 312
- 00:22:16,043 --> 00:22:18,670
- [Brathwaite]
- But he changed the lyrics just a little,
- 313
- 00:22:18,754 --> 00:22:23,383
- to pay homage to the biggest
- cannabis dealer of the day, Mezz Mezzrow.
- 314
- 00:22:24,384 --> 00:22:27,304
- [Sloman] Mezz Mezzrow was
- a white Jewish guy from Chicago.
- 315
- 00:22:27,888 --> 00:22:29,890
- [Dreisinger] He was the original,
- 316
- 00:22:29,973 --> 00:22:33,060
- what Norman Mailer
- would come to call The White Negro
- 317
- 00:22:33,143 --> 00:22:36,646
- who imagined himself
- as kind of becoming black through music.
- 318
- 00:22:37,230 --> 00:22:40,776
- [Sloman] He was called
- the ambassador between the races.
- 319
- 00:22:40,859 --> 00:22:42,903
- He was called the white mayor of Harlem.
- 320
- 00:22:42,986 --> 00:22:48,116
- And he becomes the leading dealer
- to all the musicians in New York.
- 321
- 00:22:48,617 --> 00:22:52,662
- And the brand that he was selling
- was called the Mighty Mezz.
- 322
- 00:22:52,746 --> 00:22:55,374
- He had a big tree
- where he would stay under the tree.
- 323
- 00:22:55,457 --> 00:22:59,753
- And everybody knew
- that's where you got the Mighty Mezz.
- 324
- 00:23:21,608 --> 00:23:26,238
- [Schaap] He became one of the leading
- marijuana dealers in Harlem.
- 325
- 00:23:26,321 --> 00:23:31,868
- So that there was a period where marijuana
- and all kinds of slang terms about it
- 326
- 00:23:31,952 --> 00:23:35,247
- used Mezzrow's name
- as a roller with a long joint.
- 327
- 00:23:39,835 --> 00:23:44,297
- And Louis Armstrong loved him
- and he loved his high-quality marijuana.
- 328
- 00:23:45,090 --> 00:23:50,178
- Mezz Mezzrow was arrested
- under the Prohibition of Marijuana Act.
- 329
- 00:23:51,888 --> 00:23:54,641
- And he's in jail for a day
- 330
- 00:23:55,475 --> 00:23:59,187
- and writes a note to the warden,
- 331
- 00:23:59,271 --> 00:24:03,400
- he's been misclassified as a white person.
- 332
- 00:24:04,776 --> 00:24:07,070
- [Dreisinger]
- When he was locked up on Riker's Island,
- 333
- 00:24:07,154 --> 00:24:10,490
- he actually insisted on being
- in the colored section.
- 334
- 00:24:11,825 --> 00:24:13,493
- Pretty fascinating figure. He was also--
- 335
- 00:24:13,577 --> 00:24:17,706
- Mezz Mezzrow was also a great influence
- on the Beats, Jack Kerouac,
- 336
- 00:24:17,789 --> 00:24:20,333
- and he was a predecessor
- to that whole movement,
- 337
- 00:24:20,417 --> 00:24:21,626
- the Beat Movement,
- 338
- 00:24:21,710 --> 00:24:25,714
- and taught them
- how to sort of be hip, be cool,
- 339
- 00:24:25,797 --> 00:24:28,633
- by way of influence of all things black.
- 340
- 00:24:32,762 --> 00:24:34,723
- [Brathwaite]
- The beatniks took the ethos of jazz
- 341
- 00:24:34,806 --> 00:24:37,267
- and brought it into poetry and literature.
- 342
- 00:24:38,101 --> 00:24:42,272
- You learn everything you can accrue,
- then come out and use it against them.
- 343
- 00:24:43,273 --> 00:24:47,319
- [Preston] The immediacy of jazz,
- the immediacy of beat life,
- 344
- 00:24:48,904 --> 00:24:54,826
- brings together the cultural dynamic
- that opens up creative expression
- 345
- 00:24:54,910 --> 00:24:57,496
- for the next 50, 60 years or so.
- 346
- 00:24:57,579 --> 00:24:59,206
- -Do you want to come upstairs?
- -[man] Let's do it.
- 347
- 00:24:59,289 --> 00:25:00,123
- Okay.
- 348
- 00:25:00,999 --> 00:25:05,921
- [Preston] One of the main characteristics
- of beat life was altered consciousness,
- 349
- 00:25:06,004 --> 00:25:09,257
- how could altered consciousness
- contribute to art.
- 350
- 00:25:09,341 --> 00:25:14,012
- I mean, asking a beat person
- if you smoked grass
- 351
- 00:25:14,095 --> 00:25:17,307
- was like asking them if they were alive.
- 352
- 00:25:18,558 --> 00:25:22,771
- We all got together the way
- people get together to have a drink.
- 353
- 00:25:22,854 --> 00:25:25,106
- We would get together
- at each other's studios.
- 354
- 00:25:25,190 --> 00:25:27,567
- Somebody would take out a joint,
- 355
- 00:25:27,651 --> 00:25:28,860
- and we'd have a buzz.
- 356
- 00:25:29,569 --> 00:25:31,029
- I'm 79,
- 357
- 00:25:32,322 --> 00:25:36,701
- and I've been
- smoking since I was 19.
- 358
- 00:25:38,245 --> 00:25:41,373
- So, what's that, 60 years?
- 359
- 00:25:44,543 --> 00:25:46,503
- It's probably hard to see me in this one,
- 360
- 00:25:46,586 --> 00:25:50,215
- but this is me
- in the artist's studio here.
- 361
- 00:25:53,009 --> 00:25:55,345
- People today do not understand
- 362
- 00:25:56,263 --> 00:26:01,309
- what beat culture did
- for the freedom of expression.
- 363
- 00:26:01,893 --> 00:26:06,022
- Here's Ginsberg.
- We had this reading with City College
- 364
- 00:26:06,106 --> 00:26:10,860
- and the authorities were afraid that they
- were going to use profanity on campus.
- 365
- 00:26:10,944 --> 00:26:12,070
- [chuckles]
- 366
- 00:26:12,153 --> 00:26:14,030
- [Preston] You can tell by the way I talk,
- 367
- 00:26:14,114 --> 00:26:16,741
- that I must've smoked
- a hell of a lot of marijuana.
- 368
- 00:26:17,450 --> 00:26:21,955
- Because everything I've said
- can be looked at
- 369
- 00:26:22,038 --> 00:26:26,793
- as being totally induced
- by reefer madness.
- 370
- 00:26:26,876 --> 00:26:28,878
- [laughs]
- 371
- 00:26:31,006 --> 00:26:32,549
- [Brathwaite]
- Influenced by the beatniks,
- 372
- 00:26:32,632 --> 00:26:36,595
- the hippie movement would bring cannabis
- into the mainstream consciousness
- 373
- 00:26:36,678 --> 00:26:38,555
- from cities to suburbs,
- 374
- 00:26:38,638 --> 00:26:42,434
- becoming a permanent part of
- the counterculture in America and beyond.
- 375
- 00:26:42,976 --> 00:26:47,188
- [Preston] Hippie culture made it possible
- for marijuana to become legal...
- 376
- 00:26:47,772 --> 00:26:54,112
- because so many people,
- meaning white people, smoked marijuana.
- 377
- 00:26:54,904 --> 00:26:57,616
- [Brathwaite]
- Cannabis was embraced by a new generation.
- 378
- 00:26:57,699 --> 00:26:59,451
- People smoked it in public.
- 379
- 00:26:59,534 --> 00:27:01,453
- White musicians now sang about it.
- 380
- 00:27:02,203 --> 00:27:05,498
- And the argument for legalization
- entered the national debate.
- 381
- 00:27:06,625 --> 00:27:10,003
- [Hager] Ginsberg is the one
- who really blows it up,
- 382
- 00:27:10,086 --> 00:27:13,882
- so that it becomes more than
- just a subcultural phenomenon,
- 383
- 00:27:13,965 --> 00:27:19,929
- because Ginsberg then began to kind of
- agitate for the legalization of marijuana.
- 384
- 00:27:26,186 --> 00:27:29,773
- [Preston] Let me read you something
- that Allen wrote in 1965,
- 385
- 00:27:29,856 --> 00:27:34,319
- "No one has yet remarked
- that the suppression of Negro rights,
- 386
- 00:27:34,402 --> 00:27:37,113
- culture and sensibility in America,
- 387
- 00:27:37,864 --> 00:27:41,117
- has been complicated
- by the marijuana laws.
- 388
- 00:27:41,910 --> 00:27:44,829
- Use of marijuana
- has always been widespread
- 389
- 00:27:44,913 --> 00:27:47,666
- among the Negro population
- in this country.
- 390
- 00:27:48,291 --> 00:27:50,669
- And suppression of its use,
- 391
- 00:27:50,752 --> 00:27:55,048
- with constant friction
- and bludgeoning of the law,
- 392
- 00:27:55,131 --> 00:28:00,178
- has been a major unconscious
- or unmentionable method of assault
- 393
- 00:28:00,261 --> 00:28:01,721
- on the Negro person."
- 394
- 00:28:09,854 --> 00:28:15,235
- [Brathwaite] In two critical pieces
- of legislation, the Boggs Act of 1951
- 395
- 00:28:15,318 --> 00:28:20,365
- and the Eisenhower Narcotics Act,
- mandatory minimum laws were imposed,
- 396
- 00:28:20,448 --> 00:28:24,577
- making it now possible for low-level
- drug convictions, like cannabis,
- 397
- 00:28:24,661 --> 00:28:27,622
- to result in over 20-year prison terms.
- 398
- 00:28:27,956 --> 00:28:31,251
- Enforcing these laws would escalate
- in the coming years,
- 399
- 00:28:31,334 --> 00:28:36,047
- culminating in President Nixon's
- inflamed, anti-marijuana rhetoric
- 400
- 00:28:36,131 --> 00:28:39,676
- and his declaration
- of an all-out war on drugs.
- 401
- 00:28:42,262 --> 00:28:46,349
- America's public enemy number one
- is drug abuse.
- 402
- 00:28:47,475 --> 00:28:49,686
- In order to fight and defeat this enemy,
- 403
- 00:28:49,769 --> 00:28:54,149
- it is necessary to wage
- a new all-out offensive.
- 404
- 00:28:55,734 --> 00:29:00,822
- [Nixon] I shall soon propose a revision
- of the entire federal criminal code,
- 405
- 00:29:01,448 --> 00:29:05,744
- which will give us tougher penalties
- against drugs and against crime.
- 406
- 00:29:06,870 --> 00:29:10,206
- [Brathwaite] Nixon, fearing that the wrath
- of social and political movements
- 407
- 00:29:10,290 --> 00:29:11,875
- were a threat to his presidency,
- 408
- 00:29:11,958 --> 00:29:17,672
- signed the Controlled Substances Act
- into law on October 27th, 1970.
- 409
- 00:29:18,506 --> 00:29:22,177
- This new law established
- our current federal drug policy,
- 410
- 00:29:22,260 --> 00:29:24,387
- established the DEA,
- 411
- 00:29:24,471 --> 00:29:28,391
- and expanded law enforcement
- for crimes related to illegal drugs.
- 412
- 00:29:29,142 --> 00:29:31,728
- [Hart] In the United States,
- we have five schedules.
- 413
- 00:29:31,811 --> 00:29:34,814
- Schedule I are drugs that are banned.
- 414
- 00:29:34,898 --> 00:29:38,401
- Drugs like heroin,
- they have no medical use
- 415
- 00:29:38,485 --> 00:29:42,363
- and they have high abuse potential
- or addictive potential.
- 416
- 00:29:46,075 --> 00:29:49,537
- From Schedule II to Schedule V,
- drugs are legal.
- 417
- 00:29:49,621 --> 00:29:51,706
- A physician can write
- a prescription for them.
- 418
- 00:29:51,790 --> 00:29:54,375
- They can be used in medical practice.
- 419
- 00:29:57,796 --> 00:30:00,215
- Cannabis is on Schedule I.
- 420
- 00:30:01,132 --> 00:30:03,885
- That means that it's banned
- for the entire country.
- 421
- 00:30:05,220 --> 00:30:07,430
- [Brathwaite] As part of his war on drugs,
- 422
- 00:30:07,514 --> 00:30:11,309
- Nixon commissioned a report
- to investigate the dangers of marijuana.
- 423
- 00:30:11,392 --> 00:30:16,815
- The results of the report proved him wrong
- and its findings were so controversial
- 424
- 00:30:16,898 --> 00:30:19,859
- that three of its authors
- held a live televised event
- 425
- 00:30:19,943 --> 00:30:22,153
- to share the truth with the public.
- 426
- 00:30:22,237 --> 00:30:26,282
- [man] The Shafer Report:
- What to do about marihuana.
- 427
- 00:30:26,366 --> 00:30:29,911
- The Shafer Commission
- pulled together all this information,
- 428
- 00:30:29,994 --> 00:30:31,162
- all this research.
- 429
- 00:30:31,246 --> 00:30:32,455
- And they basically came out
- 430
- 00:30:32,539 --> 00:30:34,999
- and said the same thing
- that the LaGuardia Commission said.
- 431
- 00:30:35,083 --> 00:30:38,628
- That this has largely
- been mischaracterized.
- 432
- 00:30:41,256 --> 00:30:46,469
- There has been previous misinformation,
- false statements, and for that reason,
- 433
- 00:30:46,553 --> 00:30:50,014
- we've attempted to demythologize the drug.
- 434
- 00:30:50,098 --> 00:30:55,144
- The occasional use of marijuana
- does not do any physical harm
- 435
- 00:30:55,228 --> 00:30:57,814
- and may not do any psychological harm.
- 436
- 00:30:57,897 --> 00:31:01,109
- [scientist] Unfortunately,
- because marijuana has become politicized,
- 437
- 00:31:01,192 --> 00:31:03,152
- the realities have become blurred.
- 438
- 00:31:03,236 --> 00:31:06,823
- We hope that you will
- study our report carefully
- 439
- 00:31:06,906 --> 00:31:10,159
- and that it will have
- an influence in America.
- 440
- 00:31:10,702 --> 00:31:12,078
- [Brathwaite] But it didn't.
- 441
- 00:31:12,161 --> 00:31:14,622
- Instead of following
- the advice of the report,
- 442
- 00:31:14,706 --> 00:31:18,376
- which recommended decriminalizing
- small amounts of marijuana,
- 443
- 00:31:18,459 --> 00:31:20,044
- Nixon doubled down.
- 444
- 00:31:20,628 --> 00:31:25,133
- I shall continue to oppose efforts
- to legalize marijuana.
- 445
- 00:31:25,216 --> 00:31:30,555
- I shall propose mandatory,
- new tough penalties for drug pushers.
- 446
- 00:31:31,306 --> 00:31:34,726
- ♪ Come on, brother, get down ♪
- 447
- 00:31:34,809 --> 00:31:37,520
- ♪ Things are gonna get better ♪
- 448
- 00:31:37,604 --> 00:31:39,272
- [Sloman] And it became political.
- 449
- 00:31:40,315 --> 00:31:43,985
- And then they started going after people
- who were anti-war and anti-establishment
- 450
- 00:31:44,068 --> 00:31:45,486
- and putting them in jail.
- 451
- 00:31:47,655 --> 00:31:52,327
- You know, it really became
- a tool to repress dissent.
- 452
- 00:31:56,915 --> 00:32:00,793
- [Brathwaite] Tapes recorded during Nixon's
- presidency were revealed decades later
- 453
- 00:32:00,877 --> 00:32:02,670
- and exposed Nixon's private anger.
- 454
- 00:32:03,546 --> 00:32:06,007
- [Nixon] I want a goddamn
- strong statement on marijuana.
- 455
- 00:32:06,090 --> 00:32:08,843
- I mean, one on marijuana
- that just tears the ass out of them.
- 456
- 00:32:08,927 --> 00:32:12,847
- Funny thing, every one of the bastards
- out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish.
- 457
- 00:32:13,431 --> 00:32:17,560
- What the Christ is the matter with Jews,
- Bob? What is the matter with them?
- 458
- 00:32:18,102 --> 00:32:21,731
- By God, we are going to hit
- the marijuana thing,
- 459
- 00:32:21,814 --> 00:32:24,067
- and I want to hit it
- right square in the puss.
- 460
- 00:32:24,943 --> 00:32:27,695
- [Brathwaite]
- John Ehrlichman, a close Nixon advisor,
- 461
- 00:32:27,779 --> 00:32:31,491
- divulged the sinister truth
- behind their harsh drug policy.
- 462
- 00:32:33,785 --> 00:32:38,873
- He said, "We couldn't make it illegal
- to be either against the war or black,
- 463
- 00:32:38,957 --> 00:32:42,126
- but by getting the public to associate
- the hippies with marijuana
- 464
- 00:32:42,210 --> 00:32:46,089
- and blacks with heroin,
- and then criminalizing both heavily,
- 465
- 00:32:46,172 --> 00:32:48,257
- we could disrupt those communities."
- 466
- 00:32:48,341 --> 00:32:49,968
- [Hager] They weren't worried
- about people getting high.
- 467
- 00:32:50,051 --> 00:32:54,639
- They were worried about
- people marching against war.
- 468
- 00:32:54,722 --> 00:32:58,393
- The drug war targeted hippies
- and black people in particular.
- 469
- 00:32:58,476 --> 00:33:02,355
- Hippies are white people progressive
- enough to feel that we are not superior
- 470
- 00:33:02,438 --> 00:33:05,316
- to people based on race.
- [chuckles] All right?
- 471
- 00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:07,235
- So, let's get progressives
- 472
- 00:33:07,318 --> 00:33:10,738
- and the black people that they
- advocate for or on the behalf of,
- 473
- 00:33:10,822 --> 00:33:13,992
- let's get them forever on the target list
- of US law enforcement.
- 474
- 00:33:14,075 --> 00:33:17,120
- This is where drugs
- becomes a proxy to race, right?
- 475
- 00:33:17,203 --> 00:33:21,791
- We used to just be able to say,
- "We killed him because he was a nigger."
- 476
- 00:33:21,874 --> 00:33:23,126
- Can't say that anymore.
- 477
- 00:33:23,209 --> 00:33:28,631
- So what you got, because you could
- no longer legally write race into the law,
- 478
- 00:33:29,132 --> 00:33:31,259
- you could write drugs into the law.
- 479
- 00:33:37,682 --> 00:33:39,684
- [reggae music plays]
- 480
- 00:33:43,980 --> 00:33:46,399
- [Brathwaite]
- Back in the mid-1970s, I was a teenager
- 481
- 00:33:46,482 --> 00:33:49,819
- and a new sound
- was hitting the streets: reggae.
- 482
- 00:33:52,363 --> 00:33:55,241
- Similar to the counterculture movement
- in America,
- 483
- 00:33:55,324 --> 00:33:57,035
- there was a growing movement in Jamaica
- 484
- 00:33:57,118 --> 00:33:59,162
- against the remnants
- of British colonialism.
- 485
- 00:33:59,787 --> 00:34:03,499
- And like jazz musicians were
- the focus of a government crackdown,
- 486
- 00:34:03,583 --> 00:34:07,962
- Rastafarians and reggae music
- found themselves deemed public enemies.
- 487
- 00:34:18,514 --> 00:34:21,726
- The Rastafarian faith began in the 1930s.
- 488
- 00:34:22,143 --> 00:34:25,813
- Cannabis, known in Jamaica
- by its Indian name ganja,
- 489
- 00:34:25,897 --> 00:34:27,648
- was their spiritual sacrament.
- 490
- 00:34:28,107 --> 00:34:30,860
- The Rastas' radical
- black nationalist beliefs
- 491
- 00:34:30,943 --> 00:34:32,236
- and dreadlock hairstyles,
- 492
- 00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:34,572
- made them perpetual outcasts
- 493
- 00:34:34,655 --> 00:34:38,409
- until the popularity
- of reggae music in the 1970s.
- 494
- 00:34:39,452 --> 00:34:44,123
- [man] When Rasta emerged, it was seen
- almost like a cult and people were scared.
- 495
- 00:34:46,626 --> 00:34:49,921
- You know, we get so used to the images
- of Peter Tosh and Bob Marley
- 496
- 00:34:50,004 --> 00:34:51,798
- and songs like "One Love,"
- 497
- 00:34:51,881 --> 00:34:56,010
- that we kind of forget that really
- these guys were really real rebels...
- 498
- 00:34:56,094 --> 00:35:00,598
- You know, they were, you know,
- not really accepted by society.
- 499
- 00:35:04,769 --> 00:35:08,189
- Rasta came to be accepted
- within Jamaican society through the music.
- 500
- 00:35:08,272 --> 00:35:10,274
- This is now the popular music of the day
- 501
- 00:35:10,358 --> 00:35:12,860
- and the popular song of the day
- in the island,
- 502
- 00:35:12,944 --> 00:35:13,861
- you know what I mean?
- 503
- 00:35:13,945 --> 00:35:16,864
- So, that brought a lot of power
- to the movement when that happened.
- 504
- 00:35:29,335 --> 00:35:31,504
- [Brathwaite] Most people know
- the Jamaican word ganja,
- 505
- 00:35:31,587 --> 00:35:33,297
- but few knew about kaya,
- 506
- 00:35:33,381 --> 00:35:36,676
- a word for cannabis
- that Bob Marley sang a song about.
- 507
- 00:35:36,759 --> 00:35:39,762
- ♪ Got to have kaya now ♪
- 508
- 00:35:39,846 --> 00:35:41,681
- ♪ Kaya, kaya ♪
- 509
- 00:35:41,764 --> 00:35:44,684
- ♪ Got to have kaya now ♪
- 510
- 00:35:44,767 --> 00:35:46,686
- ♪ Kaya, kaya ♪
- 511
- 00:35:46,769 --> 00:35:47,979
- ♪ Got to have kaya ♪
- 512
- 00:35:48,062 --> 00:35:50,940
- [Damian Marley] And then because of
- my father's now international success
- 513
- 00:35:51,023 --> 00:35:53,151
- and being accepted throughout the world
- 514
- 00:35:53,234 --> 00:35:56,779
- that ended up kind of holding up a mirror
- to Jamaica, saying, "What you doing?"
- 515
- 00:35:56,863 --> 00:35:59,574
- Because how you're not going
- to accept your own people,
- 516
- 00:35:59,657 --> 00:36:01,534
- but they're being loved all over the world
- 517
- 00:36:01,617 --> 00:36:03,911
- and accepted and invited
- all over the world. You know what I mean?
- 518
- 00:36:03,995 --> 00:36:05,163
- Have fans all over the world.
- 519
- 00:36:05,246 --> 00:36:07,373
- [all] Rastafari.
- 520
- 00:36:07,456 --> 00:36:08,624
- [exclaims]
- 521
- 00:36:10,001 --> 00:36:13,004
- [Brathwaite] Bunny, can you talk
- about your early relationship with ganja?
- 522
- 00:36:13,087 --> 00:36:15,423
- I understand your father
- was a ganja farmer.
- 523
- 00:36:15,882 --> 00:36:18,509
- I don't think I like that
- kind of a conversation.
- 524
- 00:36:20,094 --> 00:36:23,514
- Yeah, you sound like a police.
- 525
- 00:36:23,598 --> 00:36:25,600
- [laughing]
- 526
- 00:36:27,518 --> 00:36:31,981
- The purpose of the ganja,
- it's good for the human consumption.
- 527
- 00:36:32,982 --> 00:36:37,069
- The medicine it carries,
- the whole world gravitates to it.
- 528
- 00:36:37,778 --> 00:36:39,864
- Rasta and ganja are twins.
- 529
- 00:36:40,740 --> 00:36:45,328
- I would say the original Wailers
- been Bunny, Peter, and Bob.
- 530
- 00:36:45,411 --> 00:36:49,624
- Of course, all of them were advocates
- for the legalization of marijuana.
- 531
- 00:36:49,707 --> 00:36:50,666
- You know what I mean?
- 532
- 00:36:50,750 --> 00:36:53,961
- So I guess in that kind of case,
- being if you are a fan of their music,
- 533
- 00:36:54,045 --> 00:36:56,672
- you would perhaps become an advocate also.
- 534
- 00:37:14,815 --> 00:37:18,402
- [woman] Peter Tosh, he said,
- "Legalize it, because it is good for you."
- 535
- 00:37:18,486 --> 00:37:21,405
- And not only legalize it,
- but I will advertise it.
- 536
- 00:37:21,906 --> 00:37:27,745
- Peter Tosh did a revolutionary thing,
- did many revolutionary things, right?
- 537
- 00:37:27,828 --> 00:37:31,082
- He is who really was reggae music for me
- in the beginning,
- 538
- 00:37:31,165 --> 00:37:33,209
- because of how fierce he was.
- 539
- 00:37:33,292 --> 00:37:36,712
- And this is a dark-skinned man
- who get beaten by police.
- 540
- 00:37:40,883 --> 00:37:43,010
- [Damian Marley]
- Peter Tosh's "Legalize" is an anthem.
- 541
- 00:37:43,094 --> 00:37:45,263
- And part of what was
- the highlight of that song
- 542
- 00:37:45,346 --> 00:37:48,266
- is really the medical benefits
- of the plant. You know what I mean?
- 543
- 00:37:48,349 --> 00:37:51,310
- I smoke recreationally,
- but it's much more important
- 544
- 00:37:51,394 --> 00:37:53,813
- the value
- that the medicinal side of the plant
- 545
- 00:37:53,896 --> 00:37:55,231
- is bringing to the table right now.
- 546
- 00:37:55,314 --> 00:37:57,858
- You talk about some serious illnesses,
- serious diseases,
- 547
- 00:37:57,942 --> 00:37:59,485
- and these things that it's helping with.
- 548
- 00:38:10,121 --> 00:38:12,498
- [Brathwaite] But Tosh's list
- of the plant's health benefits
- 549
- 00:38:12,581 --> 00:38:15,209
- was not just based on
- Rastafarian folklore.
- 550
- 00:38:15,293 --> 00:38:18,754
- It was that same year that
- a man in Florida received medical access
- 551
- 00:38:18,838 --> 00:38:20,798
- to cannabis for glaucoma.
- 552
- 00:38:22,341 --> 00:38:23,801
- [Hart] The federal government
- 553
- 00:38:23,884 --> 00:38:28,431
- has a federal cannabis
- medical marijuana program.
- 554
- 00:38:28,514 --> 00:38:32,893
- It highlights the hypocrisy
- in American drug policy,
- 555
- 00:38:32,977 --> 00:38:36,105
- because we say, "Cannabis is bad,"
- 556
- 00:38:36,188 --> 00:38:39,317
- but yet it's clear
- that it has medical utility.
- 557
- 00:38:41,402 --> 00:38:43,904
- What you can call me is
- a neuropsychopharmacologist.
- 558
- 00:38:43,988 --> 00:38:45,114
- And I'll break that down.
- 559
- 00:38:45,197 --> 00:38:49,410
- So, "neuro" is just
- the study of the brain, brain cells.
- 560
- 00:38:49,493 --> 00:38:52,455
- "Psycho" just means
- the study of human behavior.
- 561
- 00:38:52,538 --> 00:38:54,623
- And "pharmacology," the study of drugs.
- 562
- 00:38:54,707 --> 00:38:58,794
- So you combine the study
- of brain cells and the brain
- 563
- 00:38:58,878 --> 00:39:02,923
- with human behavior with drugs,
- that's who I am. That's what I do.
- 564
- 00:39:04,383 --> 00:39:10,097
- We have conducted studies
- that have shown that cannabis has
- 565
- 00:39:10,181 --> 00:39:13,392
- potential medical benefit
- for some conditions.
- 566
- 00:39:13,476 --> 00:39:16,896
- Now, remember, DEA,
- or the Drug Enforcement Agency,
- 567
- 00:39:16,979 --> 00:39:19,315
- is a law enforcement agency.
- 568
- 00:39:19,398 --> 00:39:23,861
- What in the hell
- does a law enforcement agency
- 569
- 00:39:23,944 --> 00:39:26,447
- have to do with medicine or pharmacology?
- 570
- 00:39:26,947 --> 00:39:28,532
- Absolutely nothing.
- 571
- 00:39:28,616 --> 00:39:34,121
- But it shows that the scheduling
- of cannabis and other drugs,
- 572
- 00:39:34,955 --> 00:39:38,876
- it has more to do with politics
- than it does science.
- 573
- 00:39:38,959 --> 00:39:42,004
- If you'll place your left hand
- on the Bible and raise your right hand.
- 574
- 00:39:42,713 --> 00:39:45,132
- I, Ronald Reagan, do solemnly swear...
- 575
- 00:39:45,216 --> 00:39:49,637
- "That I will faithfully execute the office
- of President of the United States."
- 576
- 00:39:49,720 --> 00:39:50,971
- [Reagan] That I will faithfully execute
- 577
- 00:39:51,055 --> 00:39:53,641
- the office
- of President of the United States.
- 578
- 00:39:53,724 --> 00:39:55,851
- [Hart] When we think about the '80s,
- 579
- 00:39:56,310 --> 00:39:58,979
- the worst thing for the community
- was Ronald Reagan.
- 580
- 00:39:59,063 --> 00:40:04,860
- We often talk about crack or other drugs
- being put into our communities
- 581
- 00:40:04,944 --> 00:40:08,781
- and we don't talk about
- what Ronald Reagan took out.
- 582
- 00:40:11,409 --> 00:40:14,954
- Because everything that would
- send people into chaotic drug use,
- 583
- 00:40:15,037 --> 00:40:18,040
- everything that would make it impossible
- for people to get treatment,
- 584
- 00:40:18,666 --> 00:40:23,379
- everything that would make somebody say,
- "My life matters," was taken away.
- 585
- 00:40:23,462 --> 00:40:26,424
- Jobs, healthcare, housing.
- 586
- 00:40:26,507 --> 00:40:32,138
- Poor education, deprived communities,
- and crack just happened to be there.
- 587
- 00:40:33,889 --> 00:40:35,057
- [man] This is drugs.
- 588
- 00:40:36,350 --> 00:40:38,269
- This is your brain on drugs.
- 589
- 00:40:39,728 --> 00:40:40,855
- Any questions?
- 590
- 00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:43,983
- Drugs are menacing our society.
- 591
- 00:40:44,066 --> 00:40:47,445
- They're threatening our values
- and undercutting our institutions.
- 592
- 00:40:47,528 --> 00:40:48,988
- They're killing our children.
- 593
- 00:40:49,071 --> 00:40:54,493
- The casual user may think when he takes
- a line of cocaine or smokes a joint
- 594
- 00:40:54,577 --> 00:40:59,707
- in the privacy of his nice condo,
- listening to his expensive stereo,
- 595
- 00:41:00,583 --> 00:41:02,918
- that he's somehow not bothering anyone.
- 596
- 00:41:03,878 --> 00:41:06,005
- But there's a trail of death
- and destruction
- 597
- 00:41:06,088 --> 00:41:08,174
- that leads directly to his door.
- 598
- 00:41:08,257 --> 00:41:11,343
- Terrifying evil of drugs
- and the dangers of marijuana.
- 599
- 00:41:11,427 --> 00:41:12,970
- Illegal drugs are deadly.
- 600
- 00:41:13,053 --> 00:41:16,891
- Leading medical researchers
- are coming to the conclusion
- 601
- 00:41:16,974 --> 00:41:18,058
- that marijuana,
- 602
- 00:41:18,142 --> 00:41:20,811
- pot, grass, whatever you wanna call it,
- 603
- 00:41:20,895 --> 00:41:24,440
- is probably the most dangerous drug
- in the United States.
- 604
- 00:41:24,523 --> 00:41:26,567
- Dangerous drug. Dangerous drug.
- 605
- 00:41:26,650 --> 00:41:30,279
- And we haven't begun to find out
- all of the ill effects,
- 606
- 00:41:30,362 --> 00:41:31,822
- but they are permanent ill effects.
- 607
- 00:41:36,327 --> 00:41:40,247
- [Frederique] Government officials
- consistently peddle propaganda,
- 608
- 00:41:41,582 --> 00:41:43,709
- despite the proof and the evidence.
- 609
- 00:41:44,627 --> 00:41:49,882
- And if you're talking about the drug war,
- you cannot ignore the role
- 610
- 00:41:49,965 --> 00:41:52,092
- that marijuana prohibition has played.
- 611
- 00:41:52,635 --> 00:41:57,223
- You know, nearly half of all drug arrests
- are for marijuana.
- 612
- 00:41:57,640 --> 00:42:02,728
- A disproportionate majority
- of those arrests are of people of color.
- 613
- 00:42:04,021 --> 00:42:07,066
- Take, for example,
- a place like New York City.
- 614
- 00:42:07,650 --> 00:42:12,738
- For the last 20 years,
- the racial disparities have hovered
- 615
- 00:42:12,821 --> 00:42:16,534
- between 80 and 85% of arrests
- being black and Latino.
- 616
- 00:42:17,701 --> 00:42:21,664
- If you're looking at the way
- that marijuana laws are being enforced,
- 617
- 00:42:21,747 --> 00:42:28,170
- then you're recognizing the racial
- injustice that is law enforcement. Right?
- 618
- 00:42:28,254 --> 00:42:33,050
- Law enforcement is going in communities
- of color and enforcing marijuana laws
- 619
- 00:42:33,133 --> 00:42:34,843
- at disproportionate rates.
- 620
- 00:42:34,927 --> 00:42:36,845
- And you know,
- some people will say things like,
- 621
- 00:42:36,929 --> 00:42:40,766
- "Well, it has to be
- the fact that, you know, people of color
- 622
- 00:42:40,849 --> 00:42:43,686
- are using marijuana at higher rates."
- 623
- 00:42:43,769 --> 00:42:47,106
- But what government data
- consistently shows us
- 624
- 00:42:47,189 --> 00:42:50,359
- is that everyone's using marijuana
- at the same rates.
- 625
- 00:42:53,404 --> 00:42:57,575
- [Bandele] In the 1980s,
- when black people were being just...
- 626
- 00:42:58,158 --> 00:43:04,206
- like Nazi Germany on trains,
- just being shipped into prisons wholesale.
- 627
- 00:43:04,290 --> 00:43:09,378
- Right? 2.5 million people go missing
- on our watch in our lifetime,
- 628
- 00:43:09,461 --> 00:43:10,921
- our family members.
- 629
- 00:43:12,423 --> 00:43:15,259
- And they are sent to prisons.
- 630
- 00:43:18,762 --> 00:43:24,226
- At the same time, on Wall Street
- and throughout law firms in America,
- 631
- 00:43:24,310 --> 00:43:27,187
- people were using crack, white people.
- 632
- 00:43:27,271 --> 00:43:28,814
- They were using powdered cocaine,
- 633
- 00:43:28,897 --> 00:43:32,568
- which is pharmaceutically
- the exact same drug as crack.
- 634
- 00:43:32,651 --> 00:43:36,196
- And you know what they got?
- Employee assistance programs.
- 635
- 00:43:36,822 --> 00:43:39,783
- They got treatment. They got another shot.
- 636
- 00:43:40,618 --> 00:43:41,869
- We got life imprisonment.
- 637
- 00:43:48,542 --> 00:43:50,127
- [hip hop music plays]
- 638
- 00:43:55,132 --> 00:43:57,051
- [Brathwaite] New York in the 1980s.
- 639
- 00:43:57,134 --> 00:44:00,554
- Yeah, baby. Downtown, the arts scene
- was really blowing up.
- 640
- 00:44:00,638 --> 00:44:01,722
- Things was popping.
- 641
- 00:44:01,805 --> 00:44:05,100
- But uptown, in the Bronx,
- a new sound was hitting the streets,
- 642
- 00:44:05,684 --> 00:44:06,810
- something called hip hop.
- 643
- 00:44:10,230 --> 00:44:14,193
- Rappers were telling stories about
- a city ravaged by Reagan's policies
- 644
- 00:44:14,276 --> 00:44:16,153
- and scarred by the influx of crack.
- 645
- 00:44:20,491 --> 00:44:23,577
- Music videos like
- "White Lines" by Grandmaster Flash,
- 646
- 00:44:23,661 --> 00:44:27,665
- Brand Nubian, and Public Enemy
- weren't glorifying cocaine.
- 647
- 00:44:27,748 --> 00:44:30,834
- They were telling it like it is.
- Use it and you can die.
- 648
- 00:44:50,896 --> 00:44:55,275
- On the war on drugs, hip hop has done
- a better job than the fucking government.
- 649
- 00:44:55,776 --> 00:45:01,365
- Because how many hip hop artists
- do you know that built record labels,
- 650
- 00:45:01,448 --> 00:45:05,119
- gave opportunity, showed people
- how to make money other ways?
- 651
- 00:45:05,202 --> 00:45:09,373
- Like, that's the war on drugs, not locking
- motherfuckers up and coming in the hood
- 652
- 00:45:09,456 --> 00:45:12,251
- just harassing people
- and planting drugs on people
- 653
- 00:45:12,334 --> 00:45:15,838
- and, you know, doing all the shit
- that they do. That's a real war.
- 654
- 00:45:16,380 --> 00:45:19,174
- We're not the war on drugs.
- We're fighting the war on drugs.
- 655
- 00:45:28,726 --> 00:45:32,271
- The era before me,
- they was on PCP, heroin,
- 656
- 00:45:32,354 --> 00:45:34,440
- uppers, downers, all kind of shit.
- 657
- 00:45:34,523 --> 00:45:38,861
- And I don't know if people knew this,
- I was a cocaine drug dealer
- 658
- 00:45:39,486 --> 00:45:43,574
- and I was to the point to where I had seen
- so many people destructively die
- 659
- 00:45:43,657 --> 00:45:45,284
- and get hooked on that shit.
- 660
- 00:45:46,410 --> 00:45:48,829
- My mission was to get
- everybody hooked on chronic.
- 661
- 00:45:49,955 --> 00:45:51,623
- We wanted to do something that was fly.
- 662
- 00:45:51,707 --> 00:45:53,709
- And every time we seen somebody
- smoking weed in the '70s,
- 663
- 00:45:53,792 --> 00:45:55,502
- they was fly as a motherfucker.
- 664
- 00:45:55,586 --> 00:45:59,256
- And every time we seen an entertainer
- or a singer that was weed related,
- 665
- 00:45:59,339 --> 00:46:00,424
- they was fly as fuck.
- 666
- 00:46:00,507 --> 00:46:03,719
- Anything that was related to weed
- was always cool shit.
- 667
- 00:46:08,474 --> 00:46:11,685
- Here's something
- that's totally perfect for this.
- 668
- 00:46:12,644 --> 00:46:15,773
- "Rock Box." Run DMC's song, "Rock Box."
- 669
- 00:46:15,856 --> 00:46:17,983
- ♪ Wheeling, dealing
- You've got a funny feeling ♪
- 670
- 00:46:18,066 --> 00:46:20,360
- ♪ You rock from the floor
- Up to the ceiling ♪
- 671
- 00:46:20,444 --> 00:46:22,821
- ♪ Grooving, you're moving
- It has been proven ♪
- 672
- 00:46:22,905 --> 00:46:25,157
- ♪ We calm the savage beast
- Because our music is soothing ♪
- 673
- 00:46:25,240 --> 00:46:26,325
- Check this out.
- 674
- 00:46:26,909 --> 00:46:31,205
- That rhyme originally
- was a rhyme about weed, man.
- 675
- 00:46:31,288 --> 00:46:33,957
- ♪ Wheeling, dealing
- You've got a funny feeling ♪
- 676
- 00:46:34,041 --> 00:46:36,585
- ♪ You try to smoke that sesamillion ♪
- 677
- 00:46:36,668 --> 00:46:41,381
- ♪ You tried your best to smoke that ses
- Now it busts your motherfucking chest ♪
- 678
- 00:46:41,465 --> 00:46:42,633
- So, it was a weed rhyme.
- 679
- 00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:56,605
- [McDaniels] My generation, it was herb.
- 680
- 00:46:56,688 --> 00:46:59,358
- And I remember
- the first time that I smoked it.
- 681
- 00:46:59,441 --> 00:47:03,070
- I was 12 years old
- and it was a guy named Dexter Miller.
- 682
- 00:47:03,153 --> 00:47:05,405
- And Dexter was 15 years old, right?
- 683
- 00:47:05,489 --> 00:47:08,367
- This is funny though,
- 'cause we smoked it, right,
- 684
- 00:47:08,450 --> 00:47:10,077
- and it was good.
- 685
- 00:47:10,160 --> 00:47:11,995
- It was cool, and we're sitting there.
- 686
- 00:47:12,079 --> 00:47:14,540
- So the next day I come over his house
- and it's just funny,
- 687
- 00:47:14,623 --> 00:47:18,085
- I come over there, "Yo, Dexter, man,
- can we smoke some more marijuana?"
- 688
- 00:47:18,168 --> 00:47:21,046
- And he goes,
- "Man, don't say it like that, man.
- 689
- 00:47:21,129 --> 00:47:22,005
- It's weed."
- 690
- 00:47:26,468 --> 00:47:29,263
- ♪ Hey, girl. What up?
- You got that cheeba cheeba? ♪
- 691
- 00:47:29,346 --> 00:47:31,473
- That was about as big as "Fresh."
- 692
- 00:47:31,557 --> 00:47:34,393
- The information and the education
- leaped through the music.
- 693
- 00:47:34,476 --> 00:47:37,020
- It never really boomed through the music
- 694
- 00:47:37,104 --> 00:47:40,941
- because the feds were always lurking
- to see if they could find a lead.
- 695
- 00:47:45,988 --> 00:47:49,032
- [Brathwaite] Just as jazz musicians
- sang about their favorite dealer,
- 696
- 00:47:49,116 --> 00:47:50,033
- the Mighty Mezz,
- 697
- 00:47:50,534 --> 00:47:55,497
- hip hop artists rapped about
- their own weed legend: Harlem's Branson.
- 698
- 00:48:00,252 --> 00:48:02,004
- ♪ Microphone check, one, two ♪
- 699
- 00:48:08,635 --> 00:48:12,556
- Branson is...
- his name is like, in Harlem...
- 700
- 00:48:12,639 --> 00:48:16,727
- I mean, the same way you know
- Fredrick Douglass Boulevard,
- 701
- 00:48:16,810 --> 00:48:18,812
- you know Branson. [chuckles]
- 702
- 00:48:23,984 --> 00:48:26,028
- [man] If you smoked weed
- and listened to hip hop,
- 703
- 00:48:26,111 --> 00:48:27,487
- you knew about Branson
- 704
- 00:48:27,571 --> 00:48:31,700
- because he was referenced by everybody
- in these hip hop songs.
- 705
- 00:48:33,327 --> 00:48:36,580
- Red Man, Method Man, Wu-Tang, you name it.
- 706
- 00:48:36,663 --> 00:48:38,916
- They all mentioned going to see Branson.
- 707
- 00:48:44,254 --> 00:48:47,090
- And people starting hearing like,
- "Branson, Branson, Branson."
- 708
- 00:48:47,174 --> 00:48:49,801
- You would think that
- he had his own strain. [laughs]
- 709
- 00:48:49,885 --> 00:48:51,595
- He was like Keyser Soze back then.
- 710
- 00:48:51,678 --> 00:48:54,348
- It was like this legendary figure
- you heard of but never really seen.
- 711
- 00:49:00,854 --> 00:49:03,065
- [B-Real]
- You can find trash weed everywhere,
- 712
- 00:49:03,148 --> 00:49:06,610
- but, like, when you wanna find that shit,
- 713
- 00:49:06,693 --> 00:49:09,279
- you know, guys like that
- come into the fold.
- 714
- 00:49:09,363 --> 00:49:10,781
- And we would hear his name a lot.
- 715
- 00:49:14,826 --> 00:49:17,704
- [Branson] I ain't never asked nobody
- to put my name in no record.
- 716
- 00:49:17,788 --> 00:49:19,706
- Next thing I knew, I turned around,
- 717
- 00:49:19,790 --> 00:49:22,751
- there's 70-plus songs
- that I've been mentioned in.
- 718
- 00:49:22,834 --> 00:49:24,503
- So, at the end of the day,
- 719
- 00:49:24,586 --> 00:49:28,423
- I'd imagine that
- I've provided a quality service.
- 720
- 00:49:30,050 --> 00:49:33,387
- That 70 songs represents a global scale.
- 721
- 00:49:37,975 --> 00:49:40,644
- You know, when Biggie did that
- "Tracy Lee" joint--
- 722
- 00:49:40,727 --> 00:49:43,063
- ♪ If you don't wanna die
- Keep your hands high ♪
- 723
- 00:49:43,146 --> 00:49:45,983
- Biggie was in the studio,
- he called me to come see him.
- 724
- 00:49:46,066 --> 00:49:49,611
- And I went down there to take care of him
- and then when I got there, he said,
- 725
- 00:49:49,695 --> 00:49:52,364
- "You know I couldn't do this shit
- till you got here."
- 726
- 00:49:52,447 --> 00:49:57,452
- And then he spit that shit. Yo,
- the studio was rocking so crazy, man.
- 727
- 00:49:57,536 --> 00:49:59,788
- I was like, "Wow!" And then...
- 728
- 00:50:06,378 --> 00:50:08,463
- ♪ Now we lampin'
- Twelve-room mansion ♪
- 729
- 00:50:08,547 --> 00:50:10,340
- [Branson] ♪ Took me and Little Cease ♪
- 730
- 00:50:10,424 --> 00:50:13,343
- No.
- ♪ We took Kim and Cease advance ♪
- 731
- 00:50:13,427 --> 00:50:17,848
- ♪ Bought ten pounds
- Of weed plant from Branson ♪
- 732
- 00:50:17,931 --> 00:50:19,016
- ♪ Now we lampin' ♪
- 733
- 00:50:19,099 --> 00:50:20,726
- You don't expect that shit.
- 734
- 00:50:20,809 --> 00:50:24,146
- ♪ If you don't wanna die
- Keep your hands high ♪
- 735
- 00:50:31,528 --> 00:50:35,323
- [Branson] Cannabis
- has always been legal in my situation.
- 736
- 00:50:35,407 --> 00:50:37,951
- I really had a dispensary.
- 737
- 00:50:38,535 --> 00:50:40,162
- A stationary location.
- 738
- 00:50:40,245 --> 00:50:45,292
- I serviced the community
- with marijuana products and variety, hash.
- 739
- 00:50:45,375 --> 00:50:48,920
- We had Thais on a stick,
- we had the thin sticks, the big sticks.
- 740
- 00:50:49,004 --> 00:50:50,213
- You understand what I'm saying?
- 741
- 00:50:50,839 --> 00:50:55,594
- Now, here it is that you got dispensaries
- and they got menus and shit like that.
- 742
- 00:50:55,677 --> 00:50:58,305
- I mean, I had a menu
- that wasn't on paper then.
- 743
- 00:51:00,265 --> 00:51:02,601
- [Brathwaite]
- So, wait a minute, we're on 123rd Street.
- 744
- 00:51:02,684 --> 00:51:05,896
- [Branson] Yeah, that's right.
- We're on 123rd Street, you know, so...
- 745
- 00:51:05,979 --> 00:51:08,398
- [Brathwaite] So this was a block,
- when I was a kid in the 70s,
- 746
- 00:51:08,482 --> 00:51:12,360
- I came up here because this was where
- we heard you could get chunky black.
- 747
- 00:51:12,444 --> 00:51:15,030
- [Branson] 123rd Street.
- Yep. It was clockin'.
- 748
- 00:51:15,113 --> 00:51:19,326
- -It was amazing up and down this block.
- -Motherfuckers was turning paper.
- 749
- 00:51:19,409 --> 00:51:21,661
- Looks like these niggas
- are still out here hustling.
- 750
- 00:51:21,745 --> 00:51:22,954
- [laughing]
- 751
- 00:51:23,038 --> 00:51:24,623
- It look like he got it.
- 752
- 00:51:24,706 --> 00:51:26,249
- -You might have it.
- -You might have it.
- 753
- 00:51:26,333 --> 00:51:27,709
- -For real.
- -He got the bag.
- 754
- 00:51:27,793 --> 00:51:28,919
- Yeah.
- 755
- 00:51:38,220 --> 00:51:41,264
- [Brathwaite] Meanwhile, on the West Coast,
- a new brand of hip hop
- 756
- 00:51:41,348 --> 00:51:44,559
- would bring cannabis
- into the homes of millions more.
- 757
- 00:51:45,185 --> 00:51:51,483
- [B-Real] A lot of us on the West Coast
- wanted to become guys like Run DMC.
- 758
- 00:51:52,275 --> 00:51:56,905
- Hi, Yo, MTV Raps, bringing you new
- and exciting hip hop grooves first.
- 759
- 00:51:56,988 --> 00:52:01,368
- I wanna introduce y'all to one of my new
- favorite groups, Cypress Hill.
- 760
- 00:52:01,451 --> 00:52:04,079
- -What's up?
- -What up? B-Real in the house.
- 761
- 00:52:04,162 --> 00:52:07,916
- [B-Real] Anyone who was anyone in the game
- got interviewed by Fab 5 Freddy,
- 762
- 00:52:07,999 --> 00:52:11,503
- so we were stoked like a motherfucker.
- We're like, "Damn, we're right here.
- 763
- 00:52:11,586 --> 00:52:17,259
- We're with Fab 5 Freddy from Wild Style.
- Get the fuck out of here."
- 764
- 00:52:18,426 --> 00:52:21,763
- [Hager] A reporter from
- The Source magazine told me,
- 765
- 00:52:21,847 --> 00:52:24,307
- "You should put Cypress Hill
- on the cover of High Times."
- 766
- 00:52:24,391 --> 00:52:28,061
- I said, "Okay." [laughs]
- It sold through the roof.
- 767
- 00:52:28,145 --> 00:52:30,105
- So after that, it was like,
- "Okay, who's next?"
- 768
- 00:52:30,188 --> 00:52:34,609
- You know, Red Man, Wu-Tang, you know,
- Snoop Dogg, they all sold like crazy.
- 769
- 00:52:39,406 --> 00:52:40,991
- [B-Real]
- Let me get a fresh joint for that.
- 770
- 00:52:41,074 --> 00:52:43,285
- Paint on this baby is incredible.
- 771
- 00:52:43,368 --> 00:52:45,495
- Looks like a Jolly Rancher.
- 772
- 00:52:45,579 --> 00:52:46,997
- For real.
- 773
- 00:52:47,080 --> 00:52:48,081
- Ah.
- 774
- 00:52:48,957 --> 00:52:49,958
- Lovely.
- 775
- 00:53:01,136 --> 00:53:03,889
- -Ah, man, this is it, baby.
- -Oh, yeah.
- 776
- 00:53:05,182 --> 00:53:09,352
- The switch is alive and direct.
- It goes up, down, to the side, side, side.
- 777
- 00:53:09,895 --> 00:53:14,065
- Smoke starts happening,
- you know, it gets pretty thick.
- 778
- 00:53:14,149 --> 00:53:15,984
- -Cool, thanks, man.
- -Word up.
- 779
- 00:53:16,067 --> 00:53:17,485
- My dude.
- 780
- 00:53:17,569 --> 00:53:20,989
- [Brathwaite]
- The war on drugs was raging at the time
- 781
- 00:53:21,072 --> 00:53:24,367
- when you guys made the decision
- to do what you did.
- 782
- 00:53:24,451 --> 00:53:27,370
- Talk about what was in your head,
- what was happening.
- 783
- 00:53:27,454 --> 00:53:32,167
- When you heard about the war on drugs,
- and specifically if you were out there
- 784
- 00:53:32,250 --> 00:53:36,546
- slanging, you know,
- okay, there's a new enemy.
- 785
- 00:53:36,630 --> 00:53:40,550
- It's not just the Bloods or Crips.
- 786
- 00:53:40,634 --> 00:53:44,262
- Now it's the government. Right?
- 787
- 00:53:46,348 --> 00:53:50,518
- When Jack Herer came out with the book
- called The Emperor Wears No Clothes,
- 788
- 00:53:50,602 --> 00:53:52,854
- it opened up all of our minds.
- 789
- 00:53:57,734 --> 00:54:02,948
- We started seeing some of the stuff
- that the government kept from the people,
- 790
- 00:54:03,031 --> 00:54:04,783
- in terms of what cannabis can do.
- 791
- 00:54:05,700 --> 00:54:09,537
- When we came across that,
- we said, "Okay, well,
- 792
- 00:54:10,330 --> 00:54:12,916
- you know, we could just be stoners
- 'cause that's who we are,
- 793
- 00:54:12,999 --> 00:54:17,963
- but we also are activists
- and we also do want to see this legal."
- 794
- 00:54:18,046 --> 00:54:21,091
- So, the only way to do that is
- to spread the education.
- 795
- 00:54:21,174 --> 00:54:23,969
- So we took what we
- learned from Jack Herer,
- 796
- 00:54:24,052 --> 00:54:29,057
- and we put that out there
- to counter some of the propaganda
- 797
- 00:54:29,140 --> 00:54:32,352
- that had been coming out
- since the '30s, '40s.
- 798
- 00:54:51,204 --> 00:54:55,250
- In the music world, you know, when you hit
- the mainstream as a cannabis group,
- 799
- 00:54:55,333 --> 00:55:02,048
- it could be interesting
- because there's a lot of opportunities
- 800
- 00:55:02,132 --> 00:55:04,009
- that didn't come our way because of that,
- 801
- 00:55:04,092 --> 00:55:06,428
- you know,
- because of our stance on cannabis.
- 802
- 00:55:06,511 --> 00:55:10,098
- You know, there's folks that maybe
- won't work with you because,
- 803
- 00:55:10,181 --> 00:55:12,851
- "Oh, they're promoting drugs to the kids!"
- 804
- 00:55:12,934 --> 00:55:14,894
- Once again, Cypress Hill.
- 805
- 00:55:14,978 --> 00:55:16,980
- [cheering and applause]
- 806
- 00:55:17,689 --> 00:55:18,940
- Yo, New York City!
- 807
- 00:55:27,365 --> 00:55:29,826
- [Brathwaite]
- On Saturday Night Live in 1993,
- 808
- 00:55:29,909 --> 00:55:33,580
- after being told they could not
- smoke a joint on stage... [chuckles]
- 809
- 00:55:33,663 --> 00:55:37,375
- ...Cypress Hill lit up anyway
- and got banned from the show forever.
- 810
- 00:55:39,586 --> 00:55:43,673
- People just thought we had, you know,
- a lot of balls to go out there and say,
- 811
- 00:55:43,757 --> 00:55:46,051
- "We're doing this illegally
- and we're good with it
- 812
- 00:55:46,134 --> 00:55:47,635
- and we don't care who says what."
- 813
- 00:55:47,719 --> 00:55:49,888
- It looked like we didn't know
- what we were rapping about,
- 814
- 00:55:49,971 --> 00:55:53,433
- like, we didn't have our history
- or our knowledge about cannabis,
- 815
- 00:55:53,516 --> 00:55:54,434
- but really, we did.
- 816
- 00:55:54,517 --> 00:55:56,436
- I think we woke a lot of people up.
- 817
- 00:55:57,270 --> 00:56:01,608
- There was an artist doing it before us,
- but in terms of hip hop,
- 818
- 00:56:01,691 --> 00:56:05,487
- it's Snoop Dogg, Red Man,
- Method Man, and Cypress Hill.
- 819
- 00:56:05,570 --> 00:56:10,116
- We are considered the forefathers
- in cannabis culture in hip hop.
- 820
- 00:56:10,408 --> 00:56:12,619
- [Snoop]
- I think I was the extension of the greats,
- 821
- 00:56:12,702 --> 00:56:15,830
- like Louis Armstrong and Cheech and Chong
- 822
- 00:56:15,914 --> 00:56:19,292
- and the greats like
- Willie Nelson and Bob Marley.
- 823
- 00:56:19,376 --> 00:56:23,630
- I think I was like the extension
- of what they were in they era,
- 824
- 00:56:23,713 --> 00:56:28,843
- but even more up front because
- I was a different breed than they was,
- 825
- 00:56:28,927 --> 00:56:30,345
- but I come from their cloth.
- 826
- 00:56:30,428 --> 00:56:33,765
- I'm a piece of each one
- of them that I named,
- 827
- 00:56:33,848 --> 00:56:37,560
- but I just was a different version,
- like, a more up-front person.
- 828
- 00:56:37,644 --> 00:56:39,562
- [Brathwaite]
- That's amazing, Snoop. Listen, Snoop.
- 829
- 00:56:39,646 --> 00:56:42,649
- -I just wanna have this moment with you--
- -Well, you gotta hit this one time.
- 830
- 00:56:42,732 --> 00:56:45,985
- -But you know I gotta do the interview.
- -That's that Bubble Gum laced by Snoop.
- 831
- 00:56:46,069 --> 00:56:46,903
- [coughing]
- 832
- 00:56:46,986 --> 00:56:49,322
- -That's the sound I was looking for.
- -God. Damn.
- 833
- 00:56:49,406 --> 00:56:53,284
- ♪ That's the sound of the man
- Smoking what, Dogg? ♪
- 834
- 00:56:53,368 --> 00:56:54,744
- Pass that shit to Vic.
- 835
- 00:56:55,286 --> 00:56:58,206
- Good Lord. [laughs]
- 836
- 00:56:58,289 --> 00:57:00,750
- What was my first experiences
- with cannabis?
- 837
- 00:57:00,834 --> 00:57:07,132
- I would have to say, um...
- in the '70s, '77, 1977.
- 838
- 00:57:07,215 --> 00:57:09,175
- One of my uncles,
- I ain't gonna say his name,
- 839
- 00:57:09,259 --> 00:57:11,845
- 'cause I don't want the police
- to come get the nigga, even though...
- 840
- 00:57:11,928 --> 00:57:13,596
- it's over 40 years ago.
- 841
- 00:57:14,264 --> 00:57:17,934
- I remember one day, he was like,
- "Snoop, come in here."
- 842
- 00:57:18,017 --> 00:57:19,727
- And I came in the living room.
- 843
- 00:57:19,811 --> 00:57:22,272
- He had a Shlitz Malt Liquor Bull
- on the table.
- 844
- 00:57:22,355 --> 00:57:25,775
- He was like, "You wanna taste that beer?"
- 845
- 00:57:25,859 --> 00:57:28,486
- I'm like, "Yeah!" So I drunk a little bit.
- 846
- 00:57:28,570 --> 00:57:29,696
- Ah.
- 847
- 00:57:30,738 --> 00:57:32,240
- And he grabbed the roach clip.
- 848
- 00:57:32,824 --> 00:57:34,117
- He said, "Hit this."
- 849
- 00:57:37,662 --> 00:57:39,289
- "Nah, inhale it, nephew."
- 850
- 00:57:41,374 --> 00:57:43,042
- [imitates coughing]
- 851
- 00:57:43,126 --> 00:57:47,714
- That was my first experience, 1977,
- smoking some Colombian Red
- 852
- 00:57:47,797 --> 00:57:50,758
- with my uncle, on a roach clip.
- 853
- 00:57:58,099 --> 00:58:00,059
- [Brathwaite]
- As Snoop became a household name,
- 854
- 00:58:00,143 --> 00:58:02,854
- he brought cannabis culture
- into the mainstream.
- 855
- 00:58:03,605 --> 00:58:07,650
- He even helped Dr. Dre come up
- with the title for his debut album.
- 856
- 00:58:10,862 --> 00:58:12,322
- [chuckles]
- 857
- 00:58:15,450 --> 00:58:17,952
- [Snoop] You know, when we seen
- all that shit, that was cool.
- 858
- 00:58:18,036 --> 00:58:20,288
- Dre didn't have no title for his album.
- 859
- 00:58:20,830 --> 00:58:23,208
- I was smoking that shit and told cuz,
- 860
- 00:58:23,291 --> 00:58:26,753
- "Nigga, the chronic is the shit
- on the streets, and nigga,
- 861
- 00:58:26,836 --> 00:58:29,005
- your album is gonna be
- the shit on the streets.
- 862
- 00:58:29,088 --> 00:58:31,883
- That's what you need to
- name your album, cuz, The Chronic."
- 863
- 00:58:42,644 --> 00:58:44,395
- [Brathwaite]
- When The Chronic hit the streets,
- 864
- 00:58:44,479 --> 00:58:47,899
- it reintroduced cannabis
- to a whole new generation,
- 865
- 00:58:47,982 --> 00:58:51,152
- and the plant's audience
- grew wider than ever before.
- 866
- 00:58:52,111 --> 00:58:55,323
- [Snoop] It's a plant that's from the earth
- that was supposed to be here.
- 867
- 00:58:55,406 --> 00:58:59,077
- When a nigga get high,
- he low key chilling.
- 868
- 00:58:59,160 --> 00:59:00,828
- I don't see no fighting.
- 869
- 00:59:00,912 --> 00:59:04,666
- You could put a thousand motherfuckers
- in one room that don't like each other,
- 870
- 00:59:05,917 --> 00:59:07,460
- put some weed in the air,
- 871
- 00:59:07,544 --> 00:59:10,338
- them niggas gonna be taking selfies
- and doing all kind of cool shit.
- 872
- 00:59:10,421 --> 00:59:13,258
- You could put four people in a room
- that don't like each other,
- 873
- 00:59:13,341 --> 00:59:17,011
- and one glass of fucking alcohol,
- somebody gonna be fucking dead.
- 874
- 00:59:17,595 --> 00:59:18,888
- You know what I'm saying?
- 875
- 00:59:20,890 --> 00:59:24,060
- I'm saying some real shit. [laughs]
- 876
- 00:59:25,395 --> 00:59:28,690
- Y'all all done been around somebody
- that's drunk and somebody that's high.
- 877
- 00:59:29,190 --> 00:59:32,569
- Somebody that's drunk, you be ready
- to get rid of that motherfucker.
- 878
- 00:59:32,652 --> 00:59:36,197
- "Man, get this nigga out of here."
- But somebody that's high, they relaxed.
- 879
- 00:59:36,656 --> 00:59:38,783
- You can sit them in the corner,
- they gonna be all right.
- 880
- 00:59:49,711 --> 00:59:51,546
- [Brathwaite]
- Can you think of any weed songs
- 881
- 00:59:51,629 --> 00:59:53,131
- that you, like, pop into your head?
- 882
- 00:59:53,214 --> 00:59:55,300
- ♪ DJ Quik, we smoke tha bomb bud ♪
- 883
- 00:59:55,383 --> 00:59:58,136
- ♪ Five on it
- I gotta put five on it ♪
- 884
- 00:59:58,219 --> 01:00:00,972
- ♪ I'm a stoner, I'm a stoner
- I'm a stoner ♪
- 885
- 01:00:01,055 --> 01:00:03,850
- ♪ 'Cause everything's better
- When you're high ♪
- 886
- 01:00:03,933 --> 01:00:06,436
- ♪ Everything's better when you're high ♪
- 887
- 01:00:14,235 --> 01:00:17,947
- The bad thing is that there's still
- people rotting in jail for it.
- 888
- 01:00:18,531 --> 01:00:22,035
- A man in Louisiana
- has been sentenced to 13 years in prison
- 889
- 01:00:22,118 --> 01:00:27,290
- for having possession of the equivalent
- of two joints' worth of marijuana.
- 890
- 01:00:27,373 --> 01:00:31,002
- This is a 49-year-old
- African American father of seven.
- 891
- 01:00:31,085 --> 01:00:33,921
- [reporter] Because he had two prior
- civil possession convictions,
- 892
- 01:00:34,005 --> 01:00:35,840
- the Orleans Parish
- District Attorney's Office
- 893
- 01:00:35,923 --> 01:00:39,427
- sought the mandatory minimum sentence
- of 13 years and four months.
- 894
- 01:00:50,063 --> 01:00:52,565
- [man] Everybody's heard of California's
- three strikes law.
- 895
- 01:00:53,149 --> 01:00:55,568
- Louisiana came up with its own system
- 896
- 01:00:55,652 --> 01:00:58,529
- that basically punished
- repeat felony behavior.
- 897
- 01:01:00,531 --> 01:01:05,536
- We are definitely on the more extreme end
- in terms of how we treat marijuana,
- 898
- 01:01:05,620 --> 01:01:09,791
- both as the initial offense, but also
- in the ability to enhance sentences
- 899
- 01:01:09,874 --> 01:01:13,211
- and turn marijuana into a felony
- and then use our...
- 900
- 01:01:13,711 --> 01:01:16,422
- as far as I'm concerned,
- draconian multiple bill statute,
- 901
- 01:01:16,506 --> 01:01:19,509
- which is why you have stories
- like Mr. Noble going to jail
- 902
- 01:01:19,592 --> 01:01:21,094
- for 13-plus years for marijuana.
- 903
- 01:01:24,263 --> 01:01:25,515
- [Brathwaite] The stage was set
- 904
- 01:01:25,598 --> 01:01:28,893
- for Bernard Noble's long prison sentence
- when Representative Boggs,
- 905
- 01:01:28,976 --> 01:01:34,190
- from New Orleans, led the charge
- for mandatory minimums back in the 1950s.
- 906
- 01:01:38,277 --> 01:01:40,238
- Under multiple bill sentencing,
- 907
- 01:01:40,321 --> 01:01:43,908
- convicts' sentences got longer
- with repeat convictions.
- 908
- 01:01:47,120 --> 01:01:51,541
- Because Bernard had non-violent
- minor drug offenses in his past,
- 909
- 01:01:51,624 --> 01:01:55,962
- his more recent conviction
- led to an imposed minimum sentence.
- 910
- 01:01:57,463 --> 01:02:00,717
- [woman] It's a newfound slavery,
- you know...
- 911
- 01:02:00,800 --> 01:02:02,844
- This state in particular,
- 912
- 01:02:02,927 --> 01:02:08,766
- you know,
- that's their way of enslaving our people.
- 913
- 01:02:10,143 --> 01:02:11,769
- They have destroyed his life.
- 914
- 01:02:12,270 --> 01:02:15,314
- My brother is about to be 60 years old.
- 915
- 01:02:16,232 --> 01:02:18,526
- It's a lot that has passed him by.
- 916
- 01:02:19,902 --> 01:02:23,197
- -He has lost contact with his children.
- -Yeah.
- 917
- 01:02:23,281 --> 01:02:27,326
- His girls are now teenagers.
- They're all in high school.
- 918
- 01:02:27,410 --> 01:02:28,995
- And he was close to those kids.
- 919
- 01:02:29,078 --> 01:02:30,621
- He loved those babies.
- 920
- 01:02:30,705 --> 01:02:32,290
- All of that is missing now.
- 921
- 01:02:32,373 --> 01:02:33,666
- So, if he...
- 922
- 01:02:33,750 --> 01:02:38,296
- when he comes home, he's gonna have
- to try to rebuild and pick up the pieces.
- 923
- 01:02:38,379 --> 01:02:39,630
- All over again.
- 924
- 01:02:39,714 --> 01:02:42,341
- And 60 years old, trying to find a job...
- 925
- 01:02:42,425 --> 01:02:45,178
- now you have a record,
- you have that attached to you.
- 926
- 01:02:45,261 --> 01:02:46,554
- -Right.
- -It's gonna be hard.
- 927
- 01:02:46,637 --> 01:02:47,555
- It's very hard.
- 928
- 01:02:58,316 --> 01:03:01,360
- -[Lashawnda] The first judge gave him...
- -[Gwynne] The judge gave him five years.
- 929
- 01:03:01,444 --> 01:03:04,280
- ...five years suspended sentence though.
- 930
- 01:03:05,490 --> 01:03:08,075
- May 27th was supposed
- to be his release date.
- 931
- 01:03:08,159 --> 01:03:10,787
- -His release date.
- -I bought him a Greyhound bus ticket.
- 932
- 01:03:10,870 --> 01:03:13,539
- I talked to Bernard. I talked to the jail.
- 933
- 01:03:13,623 --> 01:03:18,211
- And they informed me that that was
- gonna be his release date of May 27.
- 934
- 01:03:18,836 --> 01:03:21,756
- However, May 27 come,
- 935
- 01:03:21,839 --> 01:03:24,050
- instead of them bringing him
- to the Greyhound bus station,
- 936
- 01:03:24,133 --> 01:03:26,010
- they brought him back to court,
- 937
- 01:03:26,093 --> 01:03:28,471
- they re-sentenced him to 15 years
- 938
- 01:03:28,554 --> 01:03:31,724
- because they said
- they were gonna multi-bill him
- 939
- 01:03:31,808 --> 01:03:37,563
- because the law of Louisiana states
- you have to be out of trouble ten years
- 940
- 01:03:37,647 --> 01:03:38,898
- in between charges.
- 941
- 01:03:38,981 --> 01:03:41,234
- He had been out of trouble
- nine years and six months.
- 942
- 01:03:43,277 --> 01:03:49,158
- His previous charges had to be
- mostly marijuana arrests for possession.
- 943
- 01:03:50,409 --> 01:03:54,205
- It's not like he was a violent criminal
- that you had to get off the street.
- 944
- 01:03:54,831 --> 01:03:59,043
- The first judge was outraged,
- but he said it was out of his hands
- 945
- 01:03:59,126 --> 01:04:04,048
- because the D.A. Cannizzaro said
- they had the power over the situation
- 946
- 01:04:04,131 --> 01:04:06,092
- -and he couldn't change it.
- -[Gwynne] Couldn't do nothing.
- 947
- 01:04:08,678 --> 01:04:11,764
- [Bosworth] Everybody involved
- on the district court,
- 948
- 01:04:11,848 --> 01:04:13,641
- with the exception of the D.A.,
- 949
- 01:04:13,724 --> 01:04:16,894
- including the judge, didn't want
- Mr. Noble to get that sentence.
- 950
- 01:04:17,854 --> 01:04:22,024
- The district attorney fought it and took
- it to the Louisiana Supreme Court,
- 951
- 01:04:22,108 --> 01:04:26,779
- and our Supreme Court said that you have
- to give him the mandatory minimum.
- 952
- 01:04:26,863 --> 01:04:28,823
- [Lashwandra]
- He had been in jail ever since.
- 953
- 01:04:29,156 --> 01:04:31,617
- -He never came back home.
- -[Gwynne] Never came home.
- 954
- 01:04:31,701 --> 01:04:32,910
- Eight years.
- 955
- 01:04:34,412 --> 01:04:36,539
- -[man] That was eight years ago, Mom?
- -Yes.
- 956
- 01:04:36,622 --> 01:04:37,874
- He been in there that long?
- 957
- 01:04:37,957 --> 01:04:42,253
- -Yes, since 2009, for a joint.
- -I thought it was close to nine.
- 958
- 01:04:42,336 --> 01:04:43,212
- Oh, my God.
- 959
- 01:04:43,296 --> 01:04:44,714
- From a joint.
- 960
- 01:04:44,797 --> 01:04:47,258
- -That's what it boiled down to.
- -That's what it boiled down to.
- 961
- 01:04:47,341 --> 01:04:48,509
- -A joint.
- -[Brathwaite] One joint?
- 962
- 01:04:48,593 --> 01:04:49,635
- One joint.
- 963
- 01:04:53,306 --> 01:04:54,724
- [Lashwandra] You know what?
- We've had a brother
- 964
- 01:04:54,807 --> 01:04:58,561
- that passed away while he was in jail.
- 965
- 01:04:59,687 --> 01:05:02,690
- I called them and I asked them,
- 966
- 01:05:02,773 --> 01:05:05,693
- "Can y'all please let him
- come to the funeral?"
- 967
- 01:05:05,776 --> 01:05:08,696
- They told me, yes,
- they would have a ride for him.
- 968
- 01:05:09,280 --> 01:05:13,784
- I showed up to the jail to pick him up
- for them to tell me that
- 969
- 01:05:13,868 --> 01:05:16,829
- they didn't have a van
- to bring him to Mississippi.
- 970
- 01:05:17,538 --> 01:05:19,624
- He never even got a chance to see him.
- 971
- 01:05:21,250 --> 01:05:22,293
- Yeah.
- 972
- 01:05:23,961 --> 01:05:25,254
- It's a shame.
- 973
- 01:05:25,880 --> 01:05:26,881
- That's crazy.
- 974
- 01:05:28,507 --> 01:05:33,512
- There's so many levels of prejudice
- even if it's just kind of subconscious,
- 975
- 01:05:33,596 --> 01:05:37,016
- even if it's just systemic
- as opposed to intentional.
- 976
- 01:05:37,099 --> 01:05:43,230
- That has definitely created
- a cycle of disproportionate abuse,
- 977
- 01:05:43,314 --> 01:05:46,734
- in terms of the criminal justice system
- coming down on African Americans.
- 978
- 01:05:46,817 --> 01:05:48,069
- There's no question.
- 979
- 01:05:48,152 --> 01:05:51,822
- [Brathwaite] So if somebody was walking
- down Bourbon Street smoking a joint...
- 980
- 01:05:52,657 --> 01:05:56,077
- [sighs] Well, the police would arrest him.
- 981
- 01:05:56,160 --> 01:05:57,912
- Um... Well, they would detain him.
- 982
- 01:05:57,995 --> 01:06:00,665
- They would have the option now
- to either arrest or issue a citation.
- 983
- 01:06:00,748 --> 01:06:03,125
- If you're African American,
- you're more likely to be arrested.
- 984
- 01:06:03,209 --> 01:06:04,502
- I see that in court all the time,
- 985
- 01:06:04,585 --> 01:06:06,963
- in terms of who's in jail for marijuana
- and who's been arrested.
- 986
- 01:06:07,463 --> 01:06:09,799
- Uh... And the other issue is
- the money that it brings in.
- 987
- 01:06:33,364 --> 01:06:36,033
- [Bosworth] We have financially
- incentivized incarceration so much,
- 988
- 01:06:36,117 --> 01:06:39,578
- building a system where sheriffs become
- dependent on high incarceration rates.
- 989
- 01:06:40,579 --> 01:06:44,917
- The short offenses, the two, three, four,
- five-year sentences go to local prisons.
- 990
- 01:06:45,501 --> 01:06:47,461
- Those prisons operate on a per diem.
- 991
- 01:06:47,545 --> 01:06:52,049
- They bill the states for every person
- that they have in their facility per day.
- 992
- 01:06:57,888 --> 01:06:58,931
- Over the past 20 years,
- 993
- 01:06:59,015 --> 01:07:04,270
- they've expanded those jails in order to
- bring in more inmates and make more money.
- 994
- 01:07:09,191 --> 01:07:11,110
- They then employ more people.
- 995
- 01:07:11,193 --> 01:07:14,780
- They become, in some parishes,
- the largest employers in the parish.
- 996
- 01:07:14,864 --> 01:07:18,325
- And their political clout
- grows accordingly.
- 997
- 01:07:25,875 --> 01:07:26,876
- Whoo!
- 998
- 01:07:47,688 --> 01:07:51,192
- When my stepson, who I co-parented,
- 999
- 01:07:51,525 --> 01:07:55,863
- was a young man, like a lot of young men,
- he liked to smoke marijuana.
- 1000
- 01:07:56,655 --> 01:07:59,325
- And... he was arrested for it.
- 1001
- 01:08:01,577 --> 01:08:07,333
- That cycling early on into
- the prison system set a young man,
- 1002
- 01:08:07,416 --> 01:08:10,294
- who, at one time,
- had wanted to be a massage therapist,
- 1003
- 01:08:10,377 --> 01:08:13,923
- who wanted to be a healer,
- onto a path that said,
- 1004
- 01:08:14,006 --> 01:08:16,759
- "All you can do is
- cycle in and out of prison.
- 1005
- 01:08:16,842 --> 01:08:19,178
- All you can do is be a drug seller."
- 1006
- 01:08:19,261 --> 01:08:22,848
- It was almost like
- there was a conspiracy to say
- 1007
- 01:08:22,932 --> 01:08:27,978
- that you can only live
- within this very narrow confines.
- 1008
- 01:08:30,815 --> 01:08:36,320
- After he got a record, he could not
- really get any kind of job worth anything.
- 1009
- 01:08:36,403 --> 01:08:39,782
- He continued sort of working
- in an underground economy.
- 1010
- 01:08:39,865 --> 01:08:43,035
- He was shot in April of 2005.
- 1011
- 01:08:43,119 --> 01:08:47,289
- He was stabbed
- not long after that in July.
- 1012
- 01:08:47,373 --> 01:08:51,377
- And then, on August 19th of 2015,
- 1013
- 01:08:51,877 --> 01:08:55,881
- he was murdered
- in an act of drug war violence.
- 1014
- 01:08:55,965 --> 01:08:58,008
- This was a kid who wasn't violent at all
- 1015
- 01:08:58,092 --> 01:09:02,221
- and was actually trying
- to protect his family, and so...
- 1016
- 01:09:03,848 --> 01:09:10,229
- I'm aware that I do this work
- standing in the blood... of my child.
- 1017
- 01:09:11,063 --> 01:09:15,818
- But I also know
- that my story is not unique.
- 1018
- 01:09:16,902 --> 01:09:20,447
- I know that this is a story of men I love,
- 1019
- 01:09:21,031 --> 01:09:25,494
- women I love, people in my community
- to who I am connected.
- 1020
- 01:09:25,578 --> 01:09:27,830
- I am of them, and they are of me.
- 1021
- 01:09:28,372 --> 01:09:33,169
- I've watched
- millions and millions of people just...
- 1022
- 01:09:34,420 --> 01:09:39,133
- thrown away, thrown into a prison system,
- said that you don't count,
- 1023
- 01:09:39,216 --> 01:09:40,759
- said that you don't matter.
- 1024
- 01:09:40,843 --> 01:09:43,470
- To me, every life has value.
- 1025
- 01:09:49,602 --> 01:09:53,022
- [man] Young black men
- are the most incarcerated people
- 1026
- 01:09:53,105 --> 01:09:55,357
- in the history of the world.
- 1027
- 01:10:00,154 --> 01:10:07,077
- Prisons are like dumping grounds
- for people who society regards as garbage.
- 1028
- 01:10:10,706 --> 01:10:16,795
- As a prosecutor, one of my tasks
- was prosecuting drug crimes...
- 1029
- 01:10:18,214 --> 01:10:23,469
- including the most frequently
- prosecuted drug crime, marijuana.
- 1030
- 01:10:25,512 --> 01:10:28,265
- I went after,
- like every other prosecutor did,
- 1031
- 01:10:28,349 --> 01:10:33,187
- a lot of black people
- for using marijuana and selling marijuana.
- 1032
- 01:10:35,272 --> 01:10:36,649
- But here's the problem.
- 1033
- 01:10:36,732 --> 01:10:42,571
- If you go to a criminal court in DC,
- then, that was in the 1990s,
- 1034
- 01:10:43,322 --> 01:10:48,035
- and now, you would think that
- white people don't commit crimes.
- 1035
- 01:10:49,870 --> 01:10:55,000
- White people are about 40% the population
- of the District of Columbia,
- 1036
- 01:10:55,084 --> 01:10:58,295
- but they are not present
- in the criminal court.
- 1037
- 01:10:59,129 --> 01:11:02,508
- And it took me too long to realize this,
- but at the end of the day,
- 1038
- 01:11:02,591 --> 01:11:08,764
- I understood I didn't go to Harvard
- Law School to put black people in prison.
- 1039
- 01:11:10,391 --> 01:11:13,102
- And that was the work that I was doing.
- 1040
- 01:11:13,852 --> 01:11:19,358
- My presence as a black prosecutor
- was supposed to send a message.
- 1041
- 01:11:21,068 --> 01:11:24,822
- I know you don't see anybody
- but black people being prosecuted,
- 1042
- 01:11:25,406 --> 01:11:27,074
- young black men like me.
- 1043
- 01:11:27,741 --> 01:11:28,993
- But it's all good.
- 1044
- 01:11:29,743 --> 01:11:30,911
- Everything's cool.
- 1045
- 01:11:33,914 --> 01:11:34,873
- Go to sleep.
- 1046
- 01:12:07,072 --> 01:12:12,661
- I can imagine that it sucks
- to be sitting in prison for a weed charge
- 1047
- 01:12:12,745 --> 01:12:15,622
- and seeing people make
- so much money off of it.
- 1048
- 01:12:15,706 --> 01:12:17,708
- I'd be pissed. I'm pissed for them.
- 1049
- 01:12:17,791 --> 01:12:20,169
- I got five years,
- because it was a mandatory minimum.
- 1050
- 01:12:20,252 --> 01:12:21,837
- The judge couldn't go under that.
- 1051
- 01:12:21,920 --> 01:12:26,425
- Now I'm a two-time felon.
- I get one more, I'm gone for 25 years.
- 1052
- 01:12:26,508 --> 01:12:29,636
- You have, you know,
- laws changing state by state,
- 1053
- 01:12:29,720 --> 01:12:32,264
- but guys like me still can't participate
- 1054
- 01:12:32,348 --> 01:12:36,643
- because it's still federally illegal
- to be a part of anything.
- 1055
- 01:12:36,727 --> 01:12:40,147
- When you get into a legal
- or regulated cannabis industry,
- 1056
- 01:12:40,230 --> 01:12:41,732
- you have a crazy background check.
- 1057
- 01:12:41,815 --> 01:12:44,651
- I was fortunate enough to talk my way out
- of every situation I've ever had
- 1058
- 01:12:44,735 --> 01:12:46,653
- and not go to jail.
- You know what I'm saying?
- 1059
- 01:12:46,737 --> 01:12:48,655
- That allowed me to get up the ladder,
- 1060
- 01:12:48,739 --> 01:12:51,283
- but a lot of cats in the street
- that have the knowledge of the herb
- 1061
- 01:12:51,367 --> 01:12:54,328
- and how to move the herb, how to grow it,
- they're not allowed to be in this game.
- 1062
- 01:12:54,411 --> 01:12:59,625
- I think because they saw
- that there was a positive power in it,
- 1063
- 01:12:59,708 --> 01:13:03,545
- even now, because, you know, now
- it can make money now legally.
- 1064
- 01:13:03,629 --> 01:13:06,256
- You know what I'm saying?
- Now they're trying to keep us
- 1065
- 01:13:06,340 --> 01:13:10,469
- from having what was
- originally ours in the first place.
- 1066
- 01:13:15,849 --> 01:13:18,727
- [woman] The number of Americans
- in favor of legalizing marijuana
- 1067
- 01:13:18,811 --> 01:13:20,020
- has reached a new high.
- 1068
- 01:13:20,104 --> 01:13:23,482
- Business is booming in states
- where legalization has already happened.
- 1069
- 01:13:23,565 --> 01:13:27,694
- Legal marijuana is projected to be
- a seven-billion dollar industry.
- 1070
- 01:13:30,406 --> 01:13:32,616
- ♪ A friend of weed ♪
- 1071
- 01:13:33,325 --> 01:13:36,662
- ♪ Is a friend indeed ♪
- 1072
- 01:13:38,872 --> 01:13:44,670
- ♪ So if you get that weed
- You can hang with me ♪
- 1073
- 01:13:44,753 --> 01:13:47,881
- [man] I moved here to Portland, Oregon
- about five years ago.
- 1074
- 01:13:48,841 --> 01:13:53,637
- Quit my engineering job and decided
- to grow my business from my garage.
- 1075
- 01:13:55,222 --> 01:13:57,099
- My name is Jesce Horton.
- 1076
- 01:13:57,182 --> 01:14:02,896
- I'm a cannabis cultivator,
- retailer, activist, entrepreneur.
- 1077
- 01:14:03,439 --> 01:14:05,774
- First and foremost,
- I'm a cannabis connoisseur.
- 1078
- 01:14:05,858 --> 01:14:09,611
- I'm a smoker,
- and I care about the consistency,
- 1079
- 01:14:09,695 --> 01:14:13,240
- the look, the taste,
- everything. That really matters.
- 1080
- 01:14:13,323 --> 01:14:15,868
- That's part of the reason why
- I got into the industry,
- 1081
- 01:14:15,951 --> 01:14:18,078
- was because I really love
- cannabis flowers.
- 1082
- 01:14:18,829 --> 01:14:20,330
- This is the picture of health.
- 1083
- 01:14:20,414 --> 01:14:23,750
- You see them accepting as much light
- as they possibly can
- 1084
- 01:14:23,834 --> 01:14:27,546
- to generate that photosynthesis
- to create what you want, right,
- 1085
- 01:14:27,629 --> 01:14:28,839
- in that bud, in that grow.
- 1086
- 01:14:34,303 --> 01:14:38,390
- To be a good cultivator, you have to have
- the passion, the dedication.
- 1087
- 01:14:38,891 --> 01:14:42,519
- You have to care about every variable
- in that cultivation room.
- 1088
- 01:14:42,603 --> 01:14:43,896
- You can never slip.
- 1089
- 01:14:44,980 --> 01:14:47,900
- Each and every one of these flowers
- is gonna be different.
- 1090
- 01:14:47,983 --> 01:14:52,196
- Maybe only one of these, maybe none of
- these strains are gonna work out for us.
- 1091
- 01:14:52,779 --> 01:14:55,866
- Each and every day, we've got to try
- to get things crossed off the list.
- 1092
- 01:14:56,325 --> 01:14:59,495
- No days off at all. No days off.
- 1093
- 01:15:00,120 --> 01:15:01,538
- Miller is my partner.
- 1094
- 01:15:01,622 --> 01:15:04,082
- We went to school together,
- engineering school.
- 1095
- 01:15:04,583 --> 01:15:07,961
- We used to smoke a lot of weed together.
- And now we get to grow.
- 1096
- 01:15:08,670 --> 01:15:12,216
- I wanted to kind of pull other people in,
- because the most important thing
- 1097
- 01:15:12,299 --> 01:15:16,970
- that I think you can do for black people
- is us being able to see someone else
- 1098
- 01:15:17,054 --> 01:15:18,430
- that we know doing it.
- 1099
- 01:15:21,058 --> 01:15:23,977
- [Brathwaite] Jesce is one of a small
- percentage of black entrepreneurs
- 1100
- 01:15:24,061 --> 01:15:26,104
- diving into the cannabis industry,
- 1101
- 01:15:26,188 --> 01:15:30,359
- trying to erase the decades-old stigma
- associated with its past.
- 1102
- 01:15:30,943 --> 01:15:32,903
- You got rappers who was
- rapping about the weed.
- 1103
- 01:15:32,986 --> 01:15:34,404
- Now they become a CEO.
- 1104
- 01:15:35,239 --> 01:15:37,824
- They owning businesses.
- They got tech plays.
- 1105
- 01:15:37,908 --> 01:15:41,411
- They got shit in different states,
- and it's becoming a business for them,
- 1106
- 01:15:41,495 --> 01:15:44,957
- because they stood on it so long
- to where people relied on them.
- 1107
- 01:15:45,040 --> 01:15:49,419
- So when it became legal, their face
- and their brand was one of the brands
- 1108
- 01:15:49,503 --> 01:15:52,506
- and one of the faces that could actually
- take this business to another level.
- 1109
- 01:15:54,132 --> 01:15:56,510
- [announcer]
- Cliff Robinson excited about it.
- 1110
- 01:15:56,760 --> 01:15:58,804
- [Robinson] Cannabis has always
- been a part of my life.
- 1111
- 01:15:58,887 --> 01:16:00,097
- Let me just put that out there.
- 1112
- 01:16:00,180 --> 01:16:04,726
- My stepfather used it to supplement
- the family's income,
- 1113
- 01:16:04,810 --> 01:16:06,103
- because we had a mixed family.
- 1114
- 01:16:06,186 --> 01:16:09,982
- So he used that as a way
- to help us get by.
- 1115
- 01:16:10,607 --> 01:16:11,984
- [announcer] Uncle Cliffy.
- 1116
- 01:16:12,067 --> 01:16:15,862
- This Cliff Robinson could easily
- have not grown to be Uncle Cliffy,
- 1117
- 01:16:15,946 --> 01:16:22,411
- eighteen-year NBA career,
- because I was arrested at a young age,
- 1118
- 01:16:22,494 --> 01:16:25,122
- arrested for a nickel bag of cannabis.
- 1119
- 01:16:25,205 --> 01:16:27,165
- And that could have easily...
- 1120
- 01:16:27,249 --> 01:16:29,334
- My career could have
- easily took a different direction.
- 1121
- 01:16:35,382 --> 01:16:37,926
- [Brathwaite]
- Former NBA player Cliff Robinson
- 1122
- 01:16:38,010 --> 01:16:39,761
- with his partners Johnny Green
- 1123
- 01:16:39,845 --> 01:16:41,430
- and Sid from Pistil Point,
- 1124
- 01:16:41,513 --> 01:16:45,892
- have developed a line of sports-related
- cannabis products called Uncle Cliffy.
- 1125
- 01:16:50,647 --> 01:16:52,065
- [Gupta] These are mother plants.
- 1126
- 01:16:52,524 --> 01:16:55,068
- These mother plants represent
- every single one of the genetics
- 1127
- 01:16:55,152 --> 01:16:57,738
- that we currently are housing
- at Pistil Point.
- 1128
- 01:16:57,821 --> 01:16:59,448
- We got a couple different OG.
- 1129
- 01:16:59,531 --> 01:17:01,241
- These are all Mendo Breaths over here.
- 1130
- 01:17:01,325 --> 01:17:04,286
- This is called Piña.
- This is a pineapple strain.
- 1131
- 01:17:04,369 --> 01:17:05,829
- Gorilla Glue number four.
- 1132
- 01:17:05,912 --> 01:17:07,664
- Orange Cookies on the right side.
- 1133
- 01:17:07,748 --> 01:17:08,957
- This is a Death Star.
- 1134
- 01:17:09,041 --> 01:17:11,752
- This batch alone,
- when I'm looking at these tables,
- 1135
- 01:17:11,835 --> 01:17:15,422
- they're gonna pull about $50,000
- out of just this area over here.
- 1136
- 01:17:15,505 --> 01:17:18,258
- Everybody smokes here.
- Pretty much everybody smokes here,
- 1137
- 01:17:18,342 --> 01:17:21,261
- and there should be no negative stigma,
- you would think.
- 1138
- 01:17:21,345 --> 01:17:23,847
- But I always caught one
- from the fans here in Portland.
- 1139
- 01:17:23,930 --> 01:17:25,223
- I didn't understand that.
- 1140
- 01:17:27,684 --> 01:17:29,603
- You know, it was always heavily reported.
- 1141
- 01:17:35,776 --> 01:17:37,611
- That negative stigma has been something
- 1142
- 01:17:37,694 --> 01:17:40,489
- that I've had to deal with
- throughout my career.
- 1143
- 01:17:40,572 --> 01:17:42,741
- [Green] People wouldn't talk
- about you being an all-star.
- 1144
- 01:17:42,824 --> 01:17:45,619
- They wouldn't talk to you
- about being a six man of the year.
- 1145
- 01:17:45,702 --> 01:17:48,872
- They would talk about
- how you consumed cannabis,
- 1146
- 01:17:48,955 --> 01:17:52,292
- you know, as if somehow
- that tainted your career to the point
- 1147
- 01:17:52,376 --> 01:17:54,419
- that that's what they
- should remember you for.
- 1148
- 01:17:54,503 --> 01:17:57,381
- Well, that perceived
- negative perception is
- 1149
- 01:17:57,464 --> 01:18:00,967
- a big reason why
- I got involved in the cannabis space.
- 1150
- 01:18:03,929 --> 01:18:08,100
- [Horton] When you look at the monumental
- role that the war on drugs played
- 1151
- 01:18:08,183 --> 01:18:13,271
- in mass incarceration, about half
- of those arrests were from cannabis.
- 1152
- 01:18:13,939 --> 01:18:18,443
- I got arrested three times,
- and each time it was less than two grams.
- 1153
- 01:18:18,527 --> 01:18:20,487
- One time I got arrested for a seed.
- 1154
- 01:18:21,863 --> 01:18:25,450
- It's not even just going to prison
- that hurts people's lives.
- 1155
- 01:18:25,534 --> 01:18:28,286
- It's all the negative things
- and the repercussions
- 1156
- 01:18:28,370 --> 01:18:30,580
- that they have to deal with afterwards.
- 1157
- 01:18:31,707 --> 01:18:35,335
- I lost my college scholarship,
- had to drop out of school.
- 1158
- 01:18:35,419 --> 01:18:38,630
- Got lucky enough to get back
- into school and graduate.
- 1159
- 01:18:38,714 --> 01:18:41,883
- But those charges followed me
- for a long time
- 1160
- 01:18:41,967 --> 01:18:44,511
- and kind of got in the way
- of a lot of opportunities.
- 1161
- 01:18:45,971 --> 01:18:48,849
- A lot of us didn't have to start off
- in that negative position.
- 1162
- 01:18:52,436 --> 01:18:54,229
- I definitely think about my father.
- 1163
- 01:18:54,646 --> 01:18:58,233
- He ended up going to prison
- for cannabis distribution
- 1164
- 01:18:58,316 --> 01:19:03,155
- at a time right after he was accepted to
- one of the top colleges in North Carolina.
- 1165
- 01:19:03,238 --> 01:19:05,949
- Ended up spending seven years in prison
- 1166
- 01:19:06,825 --> 01:19:09,995
- and was able to get out
- and finally get his master's degree,
- 1167
- 01:19:10,078 --> 01:19:13,165
- but was only able to essentially
- get a job, a low-level job,
- 1168
- 01:19:13,248 --> 01:19:16,501
- a janitor even with those degrees.
- 1169
- 01:19:16,585 --> 01:19:18,420
- He was able to work up, right,
- 1170
- 01:19:18,503 --> 01:19:23,675
- for 35 years and retire
- at a really high position at his company,
- 1171
- 01:19:23,759 --> 01:19:27,679
- but what I think about is what if
- he didn't have to start off as a janitor.
- 1172
- 01:19:29,681 --> 01:19:32,851
- It takes two generations to get to
- where this family would have gotten
- 1173
- 01:19:32,934 --> 01:19:34,436
- in one generation.
- 1174
- 01:19:35,187 --> 01:19:38,648
- Those types of things
- essentially stifle families
- 1175
- 01:19:38,732 --> 01:19:40,859
- and stifle us as a community as a whole.
- 1176
- 01:19:43,278 --> 01:19:47,115
- One of the most frustrating things
- about working on marijuana reform
- 1177
- 01:19:47,783 --> 01:19:49,868
- is how much people think it's a joke.
- 1178
- 01:19:49,951 --> 01:19:51,661
- It has never been a joke.
- 1179
- 01:19:51,745 --> 01:19:54,956
- You know, when we talk
- about marijuana reform,
- 1180
- 01:19:55,040 --> 01:19:59,294
- one of the biggest pushbacks we get
- from academics and pseudo-doctors
- 1181
- 01:19:59,377 --> 01:20:01,421
- is that marijuana is a gateway drug.
- 1182
- 01:20:02,714 --> 01:20:04,424
- None of the science says that.
- 1183
- 01:20:04,883 --> 01:20:09,095
- But what science and research
- has consistently showed us
- 1184
- 01:20:09,179 --> 01:20:12,182
- is that marijuana
- is a gateway to deportation.
- 1185
- 01:20:12,265 --> 01:20:14,267
- It is a gateway to eviction.
- 1186
- 01:20:14,351 --> 01:20:17,979
- It is-- If eviction,
- it is a gateway to homelessness.
- 1187
- 01:20:18,063 --> 01:20:20,482
- It is a gateway
- to getting your kids taken away,
- 1188
- 01:20:20,565 --> 01:20:25,946
- and it is a gateway to the generations
- of destabilization and decimation
- 1189
- 01:20:26,029 --> 01:20:28,198
- that we have seen in the United States.
- 1190
- 01:20:28,698 --> 01:20:34,037
- So, before we talk
- about tax structures and regulatory models
- 1191
- 01:20:34,120 --> 01:20:38,250
- and who should have licenses and
- should the government control it or not,
- 1192
- 01:20:38,333 --> 01:20:42,504
- we need to have a conversation about
- how we're going to get out of this mess,
- 1193
- 01:20:42,587 --> 01:20:45,549
- because the damage has been comprehensive.
- 1194
- 01:20:45,632 --> 01:20:50,053
- And the solution has to be
- even more comprehensive than the damage.
- 1195
- 01:20:51,930 --> 01:20:54,474
- [woman] Breaking news in
- the Trayvon Martin shooting case tonight.
- 1196
- 01:20:54,558 --> 01:20:58,144
- Evidence just released shows
- Martin had marijuana in his system.
- 1197
- 01:20:58,228 --> 01:21:05,110
- The judge allows in evidence that Trayvon
- Martin did have marijuana in his system
- 1198
- 01:21:05,193 --> 01:21:07,529
- at the time he died.
- 1199
- 01:21:07,612 --> 01:21:09,739
- What difference, if any, does that make?
- 1200
- 01:21:09,823 --> 01:21:11,992
- It makes a big deal of difference.
- If he was high?
- 1201
- 01:21:12,075 --> 01:21:16,037
- Isn't it true that when you smoke pot,
- you just want to lay on the sofa and eat?
- 1202
- 01:21:17,831 --> 01:21:20,625
- ♪ Southern trees ♪
- 1203
- 01:21:24,754 --> 01:21:28,300
- ♪ Bearing strange fruit ♪
- 1204
- 01:21:32,470 --> 01:21:35,015
- ♪ Blood on the leaves ♪
- 1205
- 01:21:39,185 --> 01:21:41,646
- ♪ And blood at the roots ♪
- 1206
- 01:21:42,939 --> 01:21:47,861
- [Hart] George Zimmerman, his main defense
- was he believed that Trayvon Martin
- 1207
- 01:21:47,944 --> 01:21:50,530
- was intoxicated on cannabis,
- 1208
- 01:21:50,614 --> 01:21:54,576
- and so therefore was out of his mind
- and came at him and attacked him.
- 1209
- 01:21:59,247 --> 01:22:03,335
- ♪ Strange fruit hanging ♪
- 1210
- 01:22:05,420 --> 01:22:08,006
- ♪ From the poplar trees ♪
- 1211
- 01:22:08,840 --> 01:22:10,800
- [Hart] When you look
- at the levels of cannabis
- 1212
- 01:22:10,884 --> 01:22:12,677
- that was in Trayvon Martin's system,
- 1213
- 01:22:12,761 --> 01:22:15,430
- he could not possibly
- have been intoxicated,
- 1214
- 01:22:15,513 --> 01:22:17,599
- because the levels were so low.
- 1215
- 01:22:17,682 --> 01:22:21,853
- They were, in fact, lower than the levels
- of people in our studies
- 1216
- 01:22:21,937 --> 01:22:25,065
- who hadn't received cannabis
- on several days.
- 1217
- 01:22:26,274 --> 01:22:27,901
- But it didn't matter.
- 1218
- 01:22:27,984 --> 01:22:32,113
- All his defense team had to do was
- to present it to the jury
- 1219
- 01:22:32,197 --> 01:22:35,992
- who has consumed drug misinformation.
- 1220
- 01:22:36,493 --> 01:22:40,997
- And so they believe that cannabis can
- make you so crazy that you attack people.
- 1221
- 01:22:46,711 --> 01:22:49,422
- [woman] The judge ruled today that jurors
- will be allowed to hear that
- 1222
- 01:22:49,506 --> 01:22:54,260
- Philando Castile had THC in his system
- at the time of the shooting.
- 1223
- 01:22:54,344 --> 01:22:57,514
- [man] Authorities said Bland
- hung herself in her jail cell.
- 1224
- 01:22:57,597 --> 01:22:59,516
- They say she had marijuana in her system.
- 1225
- 01:22:59,599 --> 01:23:02,519
- [man 2] We know now he did have
- marijuana in his system.
- 1226
- 01:23:02,602 --> 01:23:05,397
- And we've had stories, remember,
- of people going berserk on marijuana
- 1227
- 01:23:05,480 --> 01:23:06,606
- and killing people.
- 1228
- 01:23:06,690 --> 01:23:08,608
- It's more dangerous than people think.
- 1229
- 01:23:09,484 --> 01:23:11,027
- [man 3] Shortly after the funeral ended,
- 1230
- 01:23:11,111 --> 01:23:14,155
- one of several search warrants
- became public record.
- 1231
- 01:23:14,239 --> 01:23:17,450
- The list of some of the items seized
- from Botham Jean's apartment
- 1232
- 01:23:17,534 --> 01:23:19,452
- included a small amount of marijuana.
- 1233
- 01:23:22,372 --> 01:23:29,337
- ♪ For the leaves ♪
- 1234
- 01:23:34,092 --> 01:23:35,927
- ♪ To drop... ♪
- 1235
- 01:23:36,011 --> 01:23:37,887
- [woman] Even when they are killed,
- 1236
- 01:23:37,971 --> 01:23:41,808
- a mere mention of marijuana
- is used as a justification
- 1237
- 01:23:41,891 --> 01:23:44,144
- for the blood in the streets.
- 1238
- 01:23:49,357 --> 01:23:53,403
- ♪ And ♪
- 1239
- 01:23:53,486 --> 01:23:59,701
- ♪ Bitter ♪
- 1240
- 01:24:01,661 --> 01:24:07,584
- ♪ Crop ♪
- 1241
- 01:24:24,517 --> 01:24:26,978
- [bell ringing]
- 1242
- 01:24:28,563 --> 01:24:31,232
- [Brathwaite] Even people who once
- took a stand against cannabis
- 1243
- 01:24:31,316 --> 01:24:35,528
- for medical or recreational use
- are now changing their minds about it.
- 1244
- 01:24:36,112 --> 01:24:39,783
- It's time for the federal government
- to take another look at this.
- 1245
- 01:24:39,866 --> 01:24:42,702
- And I think de-scheduling this drug,
- 1246
- 01:24:42,786 --> 01:24:46,664
- allowing for the research would be
- very helpful to the American people.
- 1247
- 01:24:52,420 --> 01:24:54,839
- [man] It just seems
- that, as it pertains to America,
- 1248
- 01:24:54,923 --> 01:24:59,969
- as soon as white men want to do something,
- they change the laws and it's okay.
- 1249
- 01:25:04,557 --> 01:25:07,060
- [man]
- CannaCon is one of the nation's largest
- 1250
- 01:25:07,143 --> 01:25:08,770
- business-to-business cannabis shows.
- 1251
- 01:25:08,853 --> 01:25:15,485
- It went from this black market industry
- to a real industry where real millionaires
- 1252
- 01:25:15,568 --> 01:25:17,904
- and multimillionaires are investing.
- 1253
- 01:25:19,364 --> 01:25:24,285
- Howl's Tincture, it's a cannabis-infused
- organic avocado oil.
- 1254
- 01:25:24,369 --> 01:25:26,788
- White Widows are my favorites.
- It's very complex.
- 1255
- 01:25:26,871 --> 01:25:32,502
- I was in a 75,000-square-foot facility
- just last week in Denver.
- 1256
- 01:25:33,294 --> 01:25:35,255
- That ain't a black market run.
- 1257
- 01:25:35,338 --> 01:25:37,006
- She has bad anxiety.
- 1258
- 01:25:37,090 --> 01:25:37,966
- CBD will help.
- 1259
- 01:25:38,049 --> 01:25:41,928
- We don't want to make any promises,
- but studies have shown that it will help
- 1260
- 01:25:42,011 --> 01:25:45,974
- reduce anxiety,
- inflammation, irritation, itch,
- 1261
- 01:25:46,057 --> 01:25:47,851
- and also support bone growth.
- 1262
- 01:25:47,934 --> 01:25:50,854
- [man] We're here to infiltrate
- the edible side
- 1263
- 01:25:50,937 --> 01:25:54,149
- and try to convert really
- from a very basic chocolate,
- 1264
- 01:25:54,232 --> 01:25:56,776
- a non-refined chocolate,
- to a gourmet couverture.
- 1265
- 01:25:57,360 --> 01:26:01,531
- We have topical creams,
- oils, and essences.
- 1266
- 01:26:01,614 --> 01:26:03,116
- It makes your skin glow.
- 1267
- 01:26:03,199 --> 01:26:06,119
- -Cannabis is the new thing.
- -It's new.
- 1268
- 01:26:06,202 --> 01:26:07,662
- [both] It's new. It's new.
- 1269
- 01:26:07,745 --> 01:26:09,706
- -It's the same old weed.
- -[laughs]
- 1270
- 01:26:11,541 --> 01:26:14,627
- When it relates to the influx of capital
- into the cannabis industry,
- 1271
- 01:26:14,711 --> 01:26:18,590
- a lot of people of color are having
- a hard time accessing this capital.
- 1272
- 01:26:18,673 --> 01:26:21,217
- And, you know,
- those are for obvious reasons.
- 1273
- 01:26:21,718 --> 01:26:23,678
- Most of the time, it's private equity,
- 1274
- 01:26:23,761 --> 01:26:26,014
- giving money to people
- that they're most comfortable with.
- 1275
- 01:26:26,681 --> 01:26:30,268
- I mean, a young black dude who's been
- arrested a number of times for cannabis,
- 1276
- 01:26:30,351 --> 01:26:32,437
- even though I have the background,
- 1277
- 01:26:32,520 --> 01:26:35,148
- even though I have the knowledge,
- even though I have the credentials,
- 1278
- 01:26:35,231 --> 01:26:38,484
- maybe not as easy for them
- to give me that million dollars
- 1279
- 01:26:38,568 --> 01:26:41,321
- as it is for them to give someone
- that they identify with more.
- 1280
- 01:26:41,404 --> 01:26:46,034
- I actually got a phone call from my uncle
- who worked for the company previously.
- 1281
- 01:26:46,117 --> 01:26:48,786
- He's like, "Hey, we need
- a new face for the industry.
- 1282
- 01:26:48,870 --> 01:26:54,417
- We need somebody who's a little younger,
- interested in it," and offered me the job.
- 1283
- 01:26:55,460 --> 01:27:01,174
- [Bandele] Black people own
- fewer than 1% of the dispensaries.
- 1284
- 01:27:02,342 --> 01:27:08,848
- This mirrors how black people are treated
- in most phases of the marketplace, right?
- 1285
- 01:27:08,932 --> 01:27:13,770
- The contradiction here
- is that we were in the marketplace,
- 1286
- 01:27:13,853 --> 01:27:17,523
- just underground and incarcerated.
- 1287
- 01:27:18,608 --> 01:27:21,361
- This is one of the questions
- we're gonna have to reckon with.
- 1288
- 01:27:21,444 --> 01:27:23,905
- [Smart] It costs us a hundred grand a year
- for prisoners, right?
- 1289
- 01:27:24,572 --> 01:27:26,699
- A hundred thousand dollars a year
- for prisoners.
- 1290
- 01:27:26,783 --> 01:27:28,701
- [Brathwaite]
- Don't you think those pioneers,
- 1291
- 01:27:28,785 --> 01:27:31,246
- I mean, the people who used to grow,
- sell weed, and got busted,
- 1292
- 01:27:31,329 --> 01:27:34,624
- should have a chance to make some money
- in this new expanding industry?
- 1293
- 01:27:34,707 --> 01:27:37,710
- Yeah. You know, that's a tough one though
- because a lot of those guys
- 1294
- 01:27:37,794 --> 01:27:39,671
- would be bad businessmen, right?
- 1295
- 01:27:39,754 --> 01:27:43,007
- And so, we can't say, "Hey, just because
- you grew in your garage,
- 1296
- 01:27:43,091 --> 01:27:47,595
- let's, like, give you this license
- because we want you to do it well."
- 1297
- 01:27:47,679 --> 01:27:51,140
- And so we still have to be very cautious
- of that, because at the end of the day,
- 1298
- 01:27:51,224 --> 01:27:52,475
- this still is an industry.
- 1299
- 01:27:52,558 --> 01:27:55,645
- So it still has to be ran
- by business people, not by potheads.
- 1300
- 01:27:55,728 --> 01:27:58,773
- Those guys, most of them
- are potheads, right?
- 1301
- 01:27:59,941 --> 01:28:01,567
- It's more professional.
- 1302
- 01:28:01,651 --> 01:28:04,904
- I took my 80-year-old dad to a dispensary.
- He loved it.
- 1303
- 01:28:04,988 --> 01:28:06,656
- He couldn't believe
- what he was looking at.
- 1304
- 01:28:06,739 --> 01:28:09,867
- I would have never
- have taken him to my old guy. [laughs]
- 1305
- 01:28:09,951 --> 01:28:12,996
- We love to have the bags open
- and invite people to not only see them,
- 1306
- 01:28:13,079 --> 01:28:14,205
- but get their hands in them.
- 1307
- 01:28:14,289 --> 01:28:17,375
- You can definitely see,
- even just from on-camera,
- 1308
- 01:28:17,458 --> 01:28:20,253
- the difference between them
- as you go down the line.
- 1309
- 01:28:21,629 --> 01:28:24,590
- When the first cultivators
- were coming up in New York state,
- 1310
- 01:28:24,674 --> 01:28:27,552
- we had to have like 200,000 liquid cash.
- 1311
- 01:28:27,635 --> 01:28:30,596
- Nobody in the ghetto
- has 200,000 liquid cash.
- 1312
- 01:28:30,680 --> 01:28:33,808
- That's somebody that's already rich
- and has already made it.
- 1313
- 01:28:33,891 --> 01:28:37,145
- And they're the ones who are allowed
- to even apply for a license.
- 1314
- 01:28:37,228 --> 01:28:39,731
- This industry is growing,
- and it's growing fast.
- 1315
- 01:28:39,814 --> 01:28:41,941
- And doors of opportunity are shutting.
- 1316
- 01:28:42,025 --> 01:28:45,903
- We need to move this quickly,
- ensuring that people of color,
- 1317
- 01:28:45,987 --> 01:28:50,199
- especially people that have been targeted
- by the war on drugs, are in the industry,
- 1318
- 01:28:50,283 --> 01:28:52,118
- are successful in the industry,
- 1319
- 01:28:52,201 --> 01:28:54,746
- and that the communities are benefitting
- from the industry.
- 1320
- 01:28:54,829 --> 01:28:57,373
- That also means social justice, of course,
- 1321
- 01:28:57,457 --> 01:29:00,710
- looking at people
- who are still in prison for cannabis use,
- 1322
- 01:29:00,793 --> 01:29:04,172
- looking at people who are still
- being arrested at disproportionate rates
- 1323
- 01:29:04,255 --> 01:29:08,176
- and figuring out ways to lobby
- for sensible laws to help to reduce that.
- 1324
- 01:29:11,095 --> 01:29:14,140
- [Brathwaite] Some cities had begun steps
- to correct the past
- 1325
- 01:29:14,223 --> 01:29:17,101
- by expunging records
- and freeing prisoners.
- 1326
- 01:29:17,185 --> 01:29:19,937
- But the country still has
- a long way to go.
- 1327
- 01:29:25,651 --> 01:29:27,653
- [Killer Mike] Marijuana gives
- African American people
- 1328
- 01:29:27,737 --> 01:29:29,197
- the greatest opportunity
- 1329
- 01:29:29,280 --> 01:29:31,366
- to have a jump-start on wealth
- in this country,
- 1330
- 01:29:31,449 --> 01:29:33,618
- probably since
- the de-prohibition of alcohol,
- 1331
- 01:29:33,701 --> 01:29:35,536
- which we weren't allowed to be in.
- 1332
- 01:29:36,079 --> 01:29:40,792
- Take, for instance, if you have two black
- marijuana growers dispensing your brands
- 1333
- 01:29:40,875 --> 01:29:42,377
- that become Jack Daniels.
- 1334
- 01:29:42,960 --> 01:29:46,005
- You're looking at a hundred years of jobs
- for the greater community,
- 1335
- 01:29:46,089 --> 01:29:47,924
- not just your community at that point.
- 1336
- 01:29:48,007 --> 01:29:50,676
- But if you don't think like that,
- if you don't think that maturely,
- 1337
- 01:29:50,760 --> 01:29:53,221
- even on the other side of marijuana,
- you just remain a customer.
- 1338
- 01:29:53,304 --> 01:29:55,723
- And that-- You know,
- I don't give a fuck how legal it gets.
- 1339
- 01:29:55,807 --> 01:29:58,184
- If that's all we get out
- of this shit, we failed.
- 1340
- 01:29:58,267 --> 01:30:02,480
- Now that it's becoming legal, I think
- it's only fair that we be a part of it.
- 1341
- 01:30:03,689 --> 01:30:07,652
- Something that I'm very concerned about
- and hope to really be a voice for
- 1342
- 01:30:07,735 --> 01:30:11,823
- is those people who have fed their
- families over the years by taking a risk,
- 1343
- 01:30:12,532 --> 01:30:16,244
- but are now being perhaps muscled out
- because they don't necessarily understand
- 1344
- 01:30:16,327 --> 01:30:20,373
- how to go and register themselves
- to be legal farmers and growers
- 1345
- 01:30:20,456 --> 01:30:21,999
- and sellers of the plant.
- 1346
- 01:30:22,917 --> 01:30:27,422
- This moment right here is not about
- people coming to the table and saying,
- 1347
- 01:30:27,505 --> 01:30:28,673
- "Oops, my bad.
- 1348
- 01:30:29,507 --> 01:30:33,094
- We were wrong.
- Let's all make money on it now."
- 1349
- 01:30:33,177 --> 01:30:34,720
- You can't do that.
- 1350
- 01:30:34,804 --> 01:30:39,183
- When you have knocked out
- two, three, four, five generations
- 1351
- 01:30:39,934 --> 01:30:41,936
- of folks in the United States.
- 1352
- 01:30:42,019 --> 01:30:48,067
- You can't just come to the table
- and decide that now we're all good.
- 1353
- 01:30:48,151 --> 01:30:49,569
- You can't do that.
- 1354
- 01:30:49,652 --> 01:30:52,363
- You can't say,
- "Well, I didn't write the laws,
- 1355
- 01:30:52,989 --> 01:30:57,743
- so I don't have any responsibility
- to reinvest in the communities."
- 1356
- 01:30:57,827 --> 01:31:01,038
- Because news flash, we are owed.
- 1357
- 01:31:01,873 --> 01:31:05,001
- You cannot regulate without reparations.
- 1358
- 01:31:05,084 --> 01:31:07,211
- And yes, I said reparations.
- 1359
- 01:31:07,837 --> 01:31:11,048
- I would love to get those reparations
- for a 54-year drug war.
- 1360
- 01:31:11,132 --> 01:31:16,804
- I would love for marijuana licenses
- to have to be 50% African American
- 1361
- 01:31:16,888 --> 01:31:19,223
- and Mexican American.
- 1362
- 01:31:19,307 --> 01:31:20,433
- I would fucking love that,
- 1363
- 01:31:20,516 --> 01:31:25,730
- because that way my community,
- instead of begging for help via subsidies,
- 1364
- 01:31:25,813 --> 01:31:29,442
- gets to assert itself in
- leadership positions in terms of business.
- 1365
- 01:31:29,525 --> 01:31:32,612
- And not only that, then you get
- to buy and pay for your own politicians.
- 1366
- 01:31:34,071 --> 01:31:37,950
- You know, the fact that none
- of the presidents did the right thing--
- 1367
- 01:31:38,034 --> 01:31:39,535
- Nixon was wrong for that.
- 1368
- 01:31:39,619 --> 01:31:44,415
- I'm a Carter fan, but he was wrong in
- his support of the drug war as was Reagan.
- 1369
- 01:31:45,208 --> 01:31:47,919
- Later Bill Clinton,
- with a bill written by Joe Biden.
- 1370
- 01:31:48,002 --> 01:31:49,879
- That became a three strikes law.
- 1371
- 01:31:49,962 --> 01:31:52,340
- And after that, I would even argue
- with President Obama,
- 1372
- 01:31:52,423 --> 01:31:56,469
- who could have taken marijuana off
- the Schedule I list but chose to not.
- 1373
- 01:31:56,552 --> 01:31:58,971
- And he himself
- has smoked marijuana in his lifetime.
- 1374
- 01:31:59,847 --> 01:32:03,518
- There is something to the fact
- that we the public
- 1375
- 01:32:03,601 --> 01:32:05,853
- not pushing them to do the right thing.
- 1376
- 01:32:06,687 --> 01:32:09,148
- We have sat around too long.
- 1377
- 01:32:10,650 --> 01:32:12,443
- [Brathwaite] Yeah,
- people's minds are changing
- 1378
- 01:32:12,527 --> 01:32:13,861
- and beginning to accept cannabis.
- 1379
- 01:32:14,403 --> 01:32:17,448
- It seems as if everyone
- is jumping on board.
- 1380
- 01:32:18,324 --> 01:32:21,911
- You know, I couldn't fit this award
- in my bag,
- 1381
- 01:32:21,994 --> 01:32:26,624
- but I did find this,
- so thank you guys very much.
- 1382
- 01:32:26,707 --> 01:32:27,917
- Pop stars,
- 1383
- 01:32:28,834 --> 01:32:30,086
- CEOs.
- 1384
- 01:32:30,169 --> 01:32:32,380
- By the way, I have a present for you
- for your new office.
- 1385
- 01:32:32,463 --> 01:32:34,006
- Talk show hosts.
- 1386
- 01:32:34,632 --> 01:32:36,509
- Even country music singers.
- 1387
- 01:32:36,592 --> 01:32:40,555
- ♪ Sometimes the only way to get by ♪
- 1388
- 01:32:41,514 --> 01:32:43,307
- ♪ Is to get high ♪
- 1389
- 01:32:48,563 --> 01:32:50,773
- [Brathwaite] Now that cannabis
- has become more mainstream
- 1390
- 01:32:50,856 --> 01:32:55,027
- in the public consciousness,
- you'd assume that our story ends here.
- 1391
- 01:32:56,737 --> 01:32:57,697
- Nah.
- 1392
- 01:32:58,447 --> 01:33:02,285
- America is many places
- with a complex history,
- 1393
- 01:33:02,368 --> 01:33:05,830
- many losers, winners, and victims.
- 1394
- 01:33:06,539 --> 01:33:10,209
- Our story ends where a lot of it begins,
- 1395
- 01:33:10,835 --> 01:33:12,878
- the state of Louisiana.
- 1396
- 01:33:14,880 --> 01:33:19,302
- [Bernard Noble]
- Since 2011, I was in Orleans Parish Prison
- 1397
- 01:33:19,844 --> 01:33:24,557
- fighting a marijuana charge
- that was worth five dollars on the street.
- 1398
- 01:33:32,148 --> 01:33:36,944
- How in the world did I get 14 years
- for five dollars' worth of merchandise?
- 1399
- 01:33:40,698 --> 01:33:42,783
- [woman] It's been so many years.
- 1400
- 01:33:43,618 --> 01:33:45,369
- I just can't wait to see...
- 1401
- 01:33:45,453 --> 01:33:50,082
- I just can't wait to see him
- walk out these doors for the first time.
- 1402
- 01:33:50,833 --> 01:33:53,419
- We got ten minutes. I'm excited.
- 1403
- 01:33:55,713 --> 01:33:59,759
- I'm glad. Like my sister just said,
- I just want to see him.
- 1404
- 01:33:59,842 --> 01:34:02,595
- I just want to see him walk out of there.
- 1405
- 01:34:03,679 --> 01:34:07,933
- Seven more minutes, eight more minutes.
- Eight more minutes.
- 1406
- 01:34:08,893 --> 01:34:11,103
- -Okay, people, he's coming.
- -Here he comes!
- 1407
- 01:34:11,187 --> 01:34:12,605
- Oh, my God!
- 1408
- 01:34:13,356 --> 01:34:16,317
- Let him out. Let him out, y'all.
- 1409
- 01:34:16,400 --> 01:34:17,902
- -[buzzer sounds]
- -Let him out.
- 1410
- 01:34:17,985 --> 01:34:20,529
- [cheering and laughing]
- 1411
- 01:34:20,613 --> 01:34:23,824
- Big brother! What you doing?
- 1412
- 01:34:24,325 --> 01:34:27,244
- Oh, brother!
- 1413
- 01:34:27,328 --> 01:34:28,788
- Ooh.
- 1414
- 01:34:28,871 --> 01:34:31,582
- -Miss y'all.
- -Oh, we miss you, brother.
- 1415
- 01:34:31,999 --> 01:34:33,584
- Oh, brother got braids.
- 1416
- 01:34:35,002 --> 01:34:36,253
- So glad.
- 1417
- 01:34:37,254 --> 01:34:38,798
- I'm glad that's over.
- 1418
- 01:34:41,133 --> 01:34:46,305
- I'm just so relieved to be out
- of this kind of predicament.
- 1419
- 01:34:46,389 --> 01:34:52,144
- I'm still not sure, you know,
- how did this happen.
- 1420
- 01:34:52,812 --> 01:34:55,731
- It's been confusing the whole entire time.
- 1421
- 01:34:55,815 --> 01:34:58,609
- I, uh... I met a couple of other guys in.
- 1422
- 01:34:59,110 --> 01:35:04,115
- Uh... They were facing life sentences
- for small amounts of marijuana.
- 1423
- 01:35:04,198 --> 01:35:08,035
- And I look at the news all the time
- 1424
- 01:35:08,119 --> 01:35:11,497
- and I see how stuff is going on
- with marijuana laws.
- 1425
- 01:35:11,580 --> 01:35:14,625
- And I'm just--
- I'm still confused about it.
- 1426
- 01:35:15,292 --> 01:35:17,795
- But I finally made it out,
- 1427
- 01:35:17,878 --> 01:35:22,425
- and I'm real grateful just to be here
- right now standing out.
- 1428
- 01:35:23,175 --> 01:35:24,760
- I'm a free man.
- 1429
- 01:37:16,705 --> 01:37:20,209
- Like Harriet Tubman said, baby, we out.
- 1430
- 01:37:20,292 --> 01:37:21,168
- Yeah.
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