Pubdate: Fri, 03 Oct 2014
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2014 The New York Times Company
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Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Daniel M. Gold

A DEBATE FULL OF SMOKE AND MIRRORS

'The Culture High' Explores Marijuana Decriminalization

THE CULTURE HIGH

Opens on Friday

Directed by Brett Harvey

2 hours; not rated

With legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington and 
interest elsewhere to follow that path, it might seem that 
decriminalization's time has come. Not so fast, Brett Harvey says in 
"The Culture High." Too many entrenched interests benefit from the 
status quo, he contends, to assume that a tipping point has been reached.

Mr. Harvey, who first examined marijuana's prohibition in "The Union: 
The Business Behind Getting High," gives a brief history here. The 
federal government effectively criminalized marijuana in 1937, but it 
wasn't until 1971, under President Richard M. Nixon, that marijuana's 
inclusion in the new "War on Drugs" proved politically popular. Among 
other consequences, billions of dollars have been spent policing pot, 
and hundreds of thousands of users have been jailed - even as alcohol 
and tobacco have had far more harmful health and social effects.

"The Culture High" notes that drug dealers and law enforcement 
agencies both support dope's continued illegality, since it gives 
dealers their business and the police their budgets. Among other 
interested parties the film cites: privatized prisons (which hold a 
disproportionate number of drug users); the pharmaceutical industry, 
whose drugs face competition from medical marijuana; and media 
organizations, which benefit from Big Pharma advertising.

Some of this seems like stoner's paranoia, and some of the film's 
talking heads, mainly comedians, don't make the best advocates. Over 
all, though, its experts - law professors, addiction specialists, 
economists, behavioral researchers and former law enforcement 
officers - argue forcefully for decriminalization. Libertarian in 
tone while pressing a "tax and regulate" solution, "The Culture High" 
makes its case for a side in the marijuana debate that often goes unheard.
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