Grass (1999)/#####/***  A documentary history of marijuana criminalization in the U.S. [Dir: Ron Mann/ Woody Harrelson (narrator)/ 80min/ Documentary/ Legalize Drugs, Propaganda/ Canadian]

Each year, hundreds of thousands of Americans are arrested for marijuana use. The cumulative cost of these arrests (and subsequent incarcerations) is estimated to be in the hundreds of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars. That's a lot of pain and effort to ban a drug that even government experts have concluded to be relatively benign, as indeed marijuana must be since roughly a quarter of the U.S. population has used it without noticeable ill effect. So how did U.S. government policy with respect to marijuana get to be so absurd? That's the question this documentary sets out to answer.

As told here, it all started with a man named Harry Anslinger, head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930-1962 and an enthusiastic Prohibitionist. He's the chief villain of this story. In league with some of the more yellow press and naive Hollywood, Anslinger created public hysteria over marijuana by blaming it for widespread murder and insanity. The feds and the states then banned marijuana without debate or scientific investigation. After an embarrassing study (commissioned by Mayor LaGuardia of New York) disproved Anslinger's preposterous allegations with regard to pot, Anslinger effectively stopped all research on it by cutting off the supply to researchers. Later, he encouraged the idea that marijuana was a commie plot, and then finally topped off his career by getting the UN to ban marijuana around the world. In short, with regard to pot, Anslinger was the metaphorical Hitler of the War on Drugs.

But the campaign against pot didn't end with Anslinger. As is so often the case with government programs, once started, it became an unstoppable juggernaut, impervious to reason, that gathered more resources and caused more suffering as it rolled ever forward. We see this in the second half of the film, in reviews of the marijuana policies of the various post-Anslinger presidents. Under Nixon, the war on pot was expanded, even though Nixon's own government panel recommended decriminalization. Carter favored decriminalization but lacked the clout to carry it through. After Carter's defeat, Reagan and Bush picked up where Nixon left off and further fueled the war. Ironically the liberal Clinton (who smoked pot but "never inhaled") turned out to be the biggest anti-pot warrior of all -- with more pot arrests under his administration that any previous.

You learn all that and much more in this well-researched and entertaining documentary. Although this film is serious in its implications, the telling is light, even comic at times, as the main focus is on mocking U.S government marijuana policy and those who would defend it. In this regard, good use is made of early (now laughable) propaganda films on pot, like "High on the Range" and "Reefer Madness" as well as videotaped speeches and interviews by drug warriors.

This is an enjoyable film, and the comic aspect of it also makes it a good pick to drag non-libertarian friends to, as it communicates its very libertarian message in a relatively palatable form. And just in case you were wondering, a note near the end of the film states that "no hippies were harmed in the making of this movie."

Note: Peter McWilliams, renowned medical marijuana activist and the author of "Ain't Nobody's Business if You Do," died on June 14. Peter had been suffering from both AIDS and cancer. Like many other likewise afflicted people, Peter had used marijuana to control the nausea associated with anti-AIDS and anti-cancer medications. Following his 1998 arrest for marijuana possession, he was no longer able to use marijuana, accordingly could not keep down his medications, and accordingly died. You can learn more about Peter, his accomplishments, and what was done to him by the feds here.

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Miss Liberty's Guide to Film & Video: Movies for the Libertarian Millennium.