Arquivo

Marijuana is the most controversial of all drugs in the twentieth century. Generations of musicians, students, and laborers used grass. Use of grass is unlawful in most countries and has proved as much an object of avid consumption as of systematic repression. The drug exerts a fascination over consumers, and also, over the staff of the Federal Department of Narcotics in the United States. This documentary utilizes file images and psychodelic comic strips by underground cartoonist Paul Mavrides, to produce a kind of historical background to marijuana, extending from those who revere grass all the way to those who abominate the drug. Passages from films show how vehement opponents of the drug such as Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan became experts on the subject. Actor Robert Mitchum and jazz musician Gene Kruppa, who fell victim to criminal charges on the part of the government, also tell of their experiences.