How Weed Won the West

Not a weed consumer myself anymore, but this film definitely opens anyone's eyes concerning the detrimental economic, social and human ramifications created by marijuana prohibition. This film is a must-see as it destined to become an icon of the marijuana anti-prohibition movement. It takes the viewer through a journey of real life stories involving the relatively new California legal marijuana industry. It does not focus strictly on the medicinal value of marijuana, but the widespread responsible consumption of marijuana for personal recreation and mood enhancement as well. While there are many light and entertaining moments which are implied by a somewhat playful title, the subject matter and the production values of this film give it a serious and mainstream position in documentary film history.

Since this is not the directors first piece I wonder how he can put out this disaster of a documentary. The editing, shaky camera-work use of music and storytelling is the worst I have ever seen and remind me of bad school projects. Technically everything is a mess here... even the lower thirds are irritating. I also was constantly reminded of the Family Guy Episode where Lois and Peter make music on weed and think its cool while everybody else is annoyed of the display of lack of talent. It just fits this "documentary" on many levels.

As for the content... Its hard to concentrate with the irritating editing that seems to put random shaky pictures of bad footage in a hectic music video fashion on top of an off-speaker who is as annoying as most of the people interviews here. Its hard to feel sympathy with most of the people appearing in this documentary from the messed up stoner's to Alex Jones who delivers some painfully staged statements in his typical "He who screams loudest wins" fashion. Honestly if this movie achieves anything it makes you wonder if legalizing weed is really the right thing to do, although you were 100% sure its right before watching this. This movie screams "Drugs are bad" at you while talking about the opposite.

There are loads of interesting and well done documentaries on this subject but this is a totally incoherent mess ... its a shame someone puts out such atrocious work after 20 years of work as a director and editor. Most of the comments here must be written by people involved in this production because this documentary fails on every level like usually only beginners do, so I can't possible think why anyone would rate this higher than 3 stars. Stay away!

Not your typical "stoner" movie, Kevin Booth's newest documentary on the varied and complex issues in the hemp movement showcases the most recent, hot-off-the-presses, real-life situations involved in the move for hemp/ cannabis re-legalization, and deserves national attention. It's high production quality and in-depth, respectful, and honest look into the lives of the people this issue affects, puts it well above the bar of marijuana joke movies. This is an issue that is far too important for people to sit back on any longer. Kevin's film reflects the humanity behind an often demonized and misunderstood, healing, and possibly economic panacea herb -- Cannabis marijuana, hemp. Used to be legal. Should be again! Great, educational, funny, and moving movie. Peace. S