The Culture High

Well i will start by saying like others did that i had watched "The Union The Business Behind Getting High". I thought that this was the best documentary about legalizing marijuana. Well i was terribly wrong. The Culture High is beyond Godlike. It explains about the "Drug War" about the big drug companies that don't want marijuana to be legalized. The people that are being interviewed really blew my mind! I recommend everyone to watch this documentary even if you are not smoking it or something. Really it's a masterpiece and i hope that this doc was not the last one because world needs to know the truth about a lot of things. Keep it up guys!

First of all, I never usually write reviews, movie or product wise but having just finished watching this, I felt compelled to. I had no hesitation giving this movie ten out of ten! In order for me to feel like I haven't wasted 1-2 hours of my life watching a movie, I have one rule and at the end I ask myself a question. Did the movie I just watched make me feel anything. So many films that make the mainstream seem to be trying to stop us from feeling anything. The Cutlure High had the exact opposite effect on me. Despite what many might think, this movie is not just about pot legalisation. It is about personal freedom. Yours. Mine. Future generations to come. For when something such as a plant becomes illegal to consume, someone who doesn't even know you, who isn't even there, is taking away your right to decide what you may or may not put into your bodies. As explained in this movie, human beings only really learn from our mistakes. It's how we and Mother Nature have evolved. Trial and error. When the government takes away the trial, there can be no error and therefore no lesson. I am a live-in care worker. I look after a 92 year old man. When the doctors told him 2 years ago he had arthritis, they also subsequently told him there was nothing they could do but prescribe painkillers. I took to the Internet and started him on a regime of hemp oil shots twice a day every day. Since that very day, all swelling had disappeared. In the US it is illegal for just anyone to grow a plant like hemp just because it is too similar to its cousin. That is plain wrong. Watch this movie, I emplore you and once you have, care to share. It's movies like this that change the world! God knows we could do with some change. It's coming....

I always love a good documentary and this one has made it to the top of my list. Although I don't personally smoke I still found this film very accessible and frankly I think everyone should see it. They provided a wide perspective on the prohibition of marijuana dating back to its conception. They took into account the perspective of the public, media perception, statistics, and some recent scientific based evidence. Many current issues were wrapped up and coherently tied together. I've never considered the vast web of influence marijuana has on public policy. I hope legalization causes a ripple effect that forces people to recognize the old system doesn't work. It is sobering to consider all of the indirect influence legalization may have on incarceration rates as well as prescription drug abuse. It made me somewhat hopeful for the future of politics which I wasn't expecting.

I also really liked how it addressed the internet as a open source of information and a place of discussion as well as a rallying point for change. At one point in the movie I was expecting it to jump into issues regarding online censorship and attempts made to restrict and control the internet. Perhaps that would have been too much of a tangent or maybe it was a simple matter of timing. Either way, I would certainly love to see another documentary of this caliber addressing current issues effecting the freedom once associated with the internet.

The film's opening sequence of a man's house being raided, his dog being shot, and his family being terrified, by a SWAT team sent it for a weed bust aptly set the tone of this film. This film does not hold back in its attack against the forces that oppose the legalisation of weed. Naturally it's enemy is the Federal Government of USA. However in a broader perspective it looks at the influence of the prescription drug corporations and also the media.

Most of the points made in this film have been publicised before in other documentaries, articles, podcasts and interviews. However the academics and scientists interviewed manage to reinforce these ideas in an extremely compelling way, such that one can not feel like decriminalisation is an absolute necessity for the social wellbeing of our nature. The insights from other stereotypical "weed celebrities" such as Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa offer little to this film.

Where the film lacks is in its limited discussion of the most recent policy changes in Colorado and Washington State. If we want to look at the need for policy changes nationally, surely a longer conservation on the reform in these two states would give weight to decriminalisation. In a similar vein, this film pays no attention to the legalization of weed in foreign countries.

Worth a watch if you're at all interested in the subject of legalisation.

Like a big brother with more knowledge and wisdom up their sleeve, we all watched his little brother, The Union, take a swing as it taught us about the absurdity of cannabis illegality. Now The Culture High feels much like a big brother stepping in and helping to show the little brother how to really swing for the fences!

There are some amazing gems, some truly golden moments, quotes that will go viral from the amazing slew of people interviewed in The Culture High. I found myself saying things like this several times, "Oh wow, so powerful!" "Incredibly well phrased". There was also a few times I was quite surprised by some facts put forth... and I know a lot about cannabis. Once I even made that noise, you know where you lean forward, your mouth drops open and you make a shocked little "oh!" sound.

I wanted to acknowledge some of the people that blew me away so I started typing celebrity names here, but deleted them because there are so many who are just amazing. When I say celebrities I'm also referring to the doctors, scientists, et al, that just really deliver the goods in this profound documentary. The way interviews were done, filmed and edited together actually had me at one point really holding back tears, though there were several areas different people may find themselves doing the same, because all our stories are different and we all relate to that which hits hardest, home.

Don't make the mistake of watching The Culture High and expecting it to be "legalise weed" "legalise weed" "rah rah rah" or even just smashing you in the face with a million facts about the awesome cannabis plant. Not that those elements are missing from The Culture High, more just the fact that this time around they're of greater significant substance and work together to deliver a more important message.

In the two hour runtime The Culture High aims to be much bigger than The Union and to deliver a much more profound message to us all; humanity. The "Culture" High does just that. The pace fast, the strides long, but just slow enough to wait for those uninformed, so we can all get there together.

If you see one documentary this year, make it The Culture High! After all, humanity seems to finally be coming together on this issue, be unfair to let yourself miss out.... ;)