Marijuana (1968)

[Music] everybody remain seated where you are you put me why isn't alcohol made ille and gr like hangers and Roes and besides grass is habit for me like alcohol besid cigarette man as much as you want quit a party there's nothing wrong with grass a thousand times you'll never go to harder don't take any films of me you're not going to use them anyway well speak your mind any okay I will no one has the right to tell me what I can do with my own body what I can eat drink or smoke this is a free country and no one has the right to take away my constitutional right I didn't do anything I didn't terrible that the American people have accepted a law that makes smoking a harmless illegal legal all over the world there's no question about it marijuana should be made legal now [Applause] now anyway's B feeling good good bad right wrong that's not where it's at in this film right wrong good bad those are things for you to decide too many people have already decided for themselves and you whether grass is good or bad what's most important is what you think so without any preaching from this film let's examine the facts and only the facts there are too many false Impressions and prejudices to do it any other way okay then why is an alcohol made illegal it's a lot I take juice freaks man they get hang rooses of the liver besides breast is inhabit for me like alcohol right the facts are if you drink enough alcohol will give you hangovers therosis of the liver and what's more it can even kill [Music] you if you are a certain emotional and psychological type you may become dependent both physically and emotionally and will join the 5 to 6 million known alcoholics in the United States now what are the facts about marijuana what do doctors and psychiatrists have to say about which is worse for you physically and emotionally alcohol or Marana the facts are at this time there are no known damaging physical effects from the use of Marana but unlike alcohol when you take too much at one time you don't pass out you more than likely run the risk of an unpredictable and unpleasant bummer [Music] the occasional drink before dinner by adults like the occasional use of marijuana does not necessarily lead to an emotional dependency in the stable mature personality sure go ahead great Olive you like that I'm glad good olives well that's smart however teenage is not a time of great maturity and ility for most teenagers already the pressures of school parents finding your own identity and self-confidence set you up for a drug dependency that could just as well be alcohol if you prefer that to grass [Music] some adults are not mature or strong enough to stand the pressures of their daily [Applause] [Music] lives these adults can become just as emotionally dependent on marijuana as on alcohol whichever is more socially acceptable and easier to get even when the alcoholic is physically withdrawn from his body's need for alcohol he always goes back to it until he learns how to handle his [Music] problems just as the alcohol Drinker who finds himself needing a drink more and more frequently is the warning sign of his dependency so it is with the pothead the more he needs the escape from reality or the pleasure of marijuana the more he is becoming emotionally dependent exactly as the square and unhip alcoholic adult does do two wrongs ever make one right cigarettes a much worse that's right it's a fact no one ever got C cancer from pot but it's also a fact that no one ever dropped out of school because they were hung up on Tobacco and no one who just finished smoking a cigarette ever forgot she was driving a car as she tripped out on the beauty of a back road nature trip [Music] and no cigarette Pusher ever tried to turn you onto hard drugs or the needle another basic difference is that you can smoke cigarettes and do other things you wouldn't dare to do this un pot or this or this and would you rather your pilot had just finished a joint not a cigarette or your surgeon operating on your heart your attorney pleading your case your [Music] sergeant your dentist your flight [Music] leader your team Center your [Music] lso your school bus driver your country's [Music] astronauts or even the guy who is just changing your front tire would you rather he was smoking a cigarette or a joined however neither your government nor any responsible person recommends smoking so two or three wrong don't make one right either everybody knows weed you can blow as much as you want I'm here and quit any time you want blow as much grass as you like and your body won't need it right you can quit any time you like not true for everybody and that's the problem the World Health Organization of the United Nations with its leading medical and psychiatric experts from over 100 member nations has this to say about marijuana being habit forming without one descending vote [Music] there's nothing wrong with blowing crap yeah times you'll never go to harder that may be true for the great majority of smok pot but it's not true for the many thousands who have gone on to acid amphetamines barbituates and end up on heroin however it is not a fact that practically everyone on grass turns into a flaky drug addict that's just not true every informed person knows this what is true may be discovered in this narcotics Rehabilitation Center in some of the group therapy sessions where we will learn what former drug addicts have to say about marijuana turning them onto hard drugs how many of you started on pot before you started her I didn't I need to I did too I did so did I I did I did me too me too I did I did so did I I did I do that means all of you used marijuana then I was 11 when I first started using I was about 19 I think it's kind of hard to uh deal U marijuana because it's so bulky you know and you have to go through the trouble of chopping it up and cleaning it I think it's much easier to deal heroin you know marijana really cuz uh you know all that bulk and everything it's much easier just to have a small bag of balloon that you can carry and then you can cut that up and get a lot more money for it you know and and all the troubling you have to go through with it you know like uh cutting it up especially if you get a kilo you know you have to cut it up then you have to clean it you know and then you have to roll it and box it you know can it you know it's just a big really big hassle behind it you know that's why I think the dealers go on to dealing heroin and then get us to buying heroin I think if you smoke marijuana or take pills or get loaded in any way at all that you will be accepted into the dope world and eventually you will have contact with this environment I definitely think that if you get loaded on marijuana you are subjected to the environment and it does become readily available to you that's the way it is man you know when you're around a crowd and you're all smoking weed and then they start using some other drug and you go right ahead along with them and uh you end up using it and get higher and then the weed isn't good enough anymore and then you turn on to heroin too most of you started smoking marijuana when you were introduced to narcotics I did I started smoking me for me it was but uh I wanted a different High you know and weed wasn't uh it wasn't good enough and I heard that heroin and stimulants crystals were a better high and that's why I went to him you know yeah I'm the same way man I guess uh a lot of people uh started that way speaking for myself I did I started on weed and uh got burn out and I needed something stronger so I went to ha well I started smoking we you know because I was running away from some you know something which was myself and out of all the I've run through a lot of highes trying to run away from myself heroin LSD methoden I I like marijuana I just couldn't handle it myself uh I was looking for something else I myself think uh really the real reason I started smoking marijuana man because usually I was one of the youngest dudes from my neighborhood I wanted to be accepted I was weak scared and U from this it led to heroin and it just been an endless time of going to jail back and forth man uh I don't like it and I hope nobody else will use this not because of the fact that it's bad itself but what it it leads to man is the way I feel well I can only speak for myself but I imagine some of the other dudes in here feel the same way I do about it that some people are addicted prone to it I mean uh like myself I can't handle it because I mean this is just the way I am I use it for an escape I've did it before i' i' I've came in here I hope when I go out that I've changed and which I feel that I have but but I'm a I'm a small minority of people that uh we can't handle anything you know like my alcohol I can't handle that I couldn't handle heroin I mean uh weed because I needed something stronger to escape or anything else like that and there's more people like me that I feel you know and uh I imagine some of the other dudes in here could uh could go along with couldn't have liquor either no it's a it's a personality thing where there sure there's a lot of people that can go out there and enjoy these are the files of the research and statistics office of this narcotics rehabilitation center it's like out of 100 drawers 95 of them are filled with file folders of people who have started on marijuana the rest started on glue pills alcohol and a few on heroin itself [Music] a more accurate percentage is 78% of the inmates started on marijuana however what the computer doesn't say is there's certain kind of people that'll avoid taking care of business and will turn to grass when they get hung up and forget about everything else they're supposed to do when they're behind grass marijuana doesn't uh you not addictive but by using it uh you uh don't you you don't do the things that you should do for instance like in school uh you try to do the things that you have to do in school but your mind is uh it's not all there you understand nobody can tell me what to do with my own body what I can eat drink or smoke this is a free country and nobody has the right to take away my constitutional rights that could be a fact if you were the only one affected by what should do but the Constitution and the laws that came out of it were designed to protect the individual and the group from irresponsible individuals which is why there are speeding laws building safety laws Pure Food laws pure drug laws laws to protect your money laws to protect children children laws to protect the Aged and even a law to protect you from taking your own life [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] law after law after law all of them hopefully designed by a democratic government to protect both the individual and the group from aspirin to the latest vaccines the manufacturer and control of all drugs is government supervised would you really want it any other way like without government supervision [Music] as a drug marijuana comes under the supervision of the federal and state governments it is the assigned work of the police to enforce the law it is not something they dreamed up on their own from The Ten Commandments to the Constitution man has made laws to protect him from hurting himself in the common interest of the group called Society doctors psychiatrists social scientists chemists biochemists basically people who are not primarily concerned with the ethics or morality of the use of marijuana have provided their expert knowledge to our legislators which in turn has caused them to pass laws to make marijuana illegal not as a matter of morality but as a matter of Health mental health period I think it's terrible that the American people have accepted a law that makes smoking a harmless weed illegal marijuana is legal all over the world there's no question about it marijuana should be made legal now there's no question about it many young people agree with that let's examine the facts first marijuana is not legal all over the world it isn't legal in Mexico Egypt India Great Britain China Japan or any of the major nations in the Civilized World Nigeria is one of the latest countries to make marijuana illegal here The Pusher is given the death penalty [Music] though each year more and more teenagers commit crimes while up on grass this is not the major problem however grass as a factor in crime must not be overlooked especially in that percentage of unstable and aggressive types and those who wind up in trouble with the law because of something done while they are high on pot n [Music] [Music] too many average and decent teenagers smoke pot without committing crimes except for the illegality of the sale possession or the use of it so why not make it legal why not bring it out in the open and make it legal in America it's just that there are too many unstable people in America who would become emotionally dependent on marijuana and end up as nonfunctioning weed [Music] heads easy availability and the implied approval of society will in the opinion of many medical authorities create a drug dependency problem far more serious than that of the 5 to 6 million alcoholics today if the acknowledged effect of marijuana is much greater than alcohol it becomes easy to see why the emotionally unstable and immature may turn to marijuana in even greater numbers than to alcohol and eventually go to more dangerous drugs in the form of LSD pill and heroin who me who me who me who me it's possible who and that's the problem you can never tell who is so stable and so emotionally secure that they will not become dependent on marijuana or other drugs for pleasure and full-time Escape I'm feeling good nothing baby [Music] nothing years ago only the criminal and socially deprived blue grass or used heroin today the nicest people may be on grass why is that a fact I took it on a dare but only kids take dares I dare you [Music] man everybody blows pot but everybody doesn't blow I don't want it man I don't want [Music] it take it take a hit no I don't want it I don't want it no take a drag you won't hurt you come on you got the first sign of character and emotional weakness is when you do things just because others are doing [Music] them when I'm high it es my creativity this is the same subject matter and painter for both paintings one was painted before going up on weed and the other well high on weed can you see any significant creative difference when I'm high it enhances my creativity the artist thinks he's being more creative but do you see it in his work to some extent the very inhibited person may feel a greater freedom to be creative but this doesn't mean he will have the necessary talent to be so it really makes me understand myself if you don't understand yourself when you're down then there's no logical or scientifically accepted reason that you will when you're high besides while you're up on grass you may tell yourself only what you want to know if you are lucky enough not to be on a bad trip and discover a frightening thing about yourself at that time [Music] [Music] [Laughter] let's face it the reasons we've heard for blowing grass up to now are like an iceberg what about the underlying reasons that are like the 90% of the iceberg you never see the reasons below the surface that makes teenagers get so hung up on marijuana in spite of what their parents say and in spite of the big risk of being busted the world stinks adults keep making Wars next world will probably kill everybody on Earth including me parents are hypocrites they tell us one thing but then they do another why don't they practice what they preach why are adults so hung up with making money that's all they think about school's a real bummer dull teachers dull subjects I just can't wait to get out why can't we dress the way we want in school sure we're old enough to be drafted but we're not old enough to vote why are they always treating us like children adults never have time to listen to us and when they do they just don't think what we're saying if adults like to make war so much why don't they go and fight in them I'm better educated than either of my parents but they don't listen to me how can I plan for the future with the draft waiting for me why don't you come back some other time when everything is all right with us and in the meantime I do what I want to do here and you do what you want to do when you live did why shouldn't I smoke grass why shouldn't I live now and have all the fun I can if I don't get killed in the war or by the big bomb all I can look forward to is making money like my father and I know he isn't happy you know sometimes I think it's like a war everyone over 30 is the enemy over 30 over 25 obviously these are things that bug a lot of the young people but this time rather than hear from The Establishment who run newspapers radio television book and magazine publishing companies political parties and schools let's hear from those other teenagers who aren't smoking pot not all teenagers are on grass I'm not and my close friends aren't every time someone wants to turn me on the pot they tell me I'll discover myself well I don't need that kind of crutch besides I've never seen any potheads come up with any kinds of answers that help them cope with the kind of problems they have or I have I think the teenagers of today are very idealistic but we don't have definite ways of showing it we're not old enough to vote and older people are always telling us what to do you can't blame us too much for fighting back but I don't think taking drugs is fighting back the most you can say for it is it's a sign of rebellion but what we reel about isn't change one bit by getting high on marijuana because when you come back down nothing's changed I think that parents have done the best they can you can't expect them to know all the answers lots of us have had a better education than they have but that doesn't find solutions for their problems instead of trying to find new experiences I say that teenage is the time to put up or shut up not to gripe and go on a trip inside yourself parents have to have to go out every day and deal with the things in the outside world that bug them too M I know my parents are too hung up on making money and putting on a show for the neighbors but that doesn't mean I have to put down money completely because when I get married I'm going to have to have money for my family too I just don't have to be as materialistic about it that's all the world is changing and some things are still too hard for our parents to understand but blowing grass and that's really a cop out and it won't help our parents understand the darn thing school is like everything else you only get out of it what you put into it it's not a party the way I look at it I'm here to learn even if some of the subjects or the teachers aren't the greatest I've got the best of it education and everything extra is just gravy there really is a communication gap but I think that if I have a better education and better life than my parents I should make the first move to make that Gap become smaller and smaller from what I've read and from what I've heard there are millions of adults over 30 who don't like are going to war any more than we do I honestly believe that adults are disappointed in us because it's always been expected of young people to try to change things to make things better or at least prepare to change things if we don't like them not to cop out on life through grass or other drugs no not for me I'm more interested in dropping into the world I live in than turning on tuning in and dropping out I don't like to criticize anybody but I think that too many teenagers don't have too much purpose it's like they don't have any goals I don't mean that they should just be planning to make money and all that but I think that trying to find something you'll enjoy doing for the rest of your life is the least you can do now because everybody has to work even girls before they get married and even after they do I think too many teenagers traded in their idealism for a stick of weed when I see some teenagers acting Superior to those of us who don't need drugs to feel good or understand ourselves I get real bugged well now you've heard from both sides of the question but what you do with your life is up to you if you become a pothead you risk blowing the most important Time of Your Life your teenage that unrepeatable time for you to grow up and to prepare for being an adult that can handle problems and make something meaningful out of life or you have the choice to have the courage to see and deal with the world for what it really is far far from perfect but for you and for me the only one there is while of you will actually go to the Moon and perhaps other planets if this world will be your establishment and you will be the establishment and what you do or do you're seeing you're the generation with the brain power and the opportunity to do more for the human needs of this world than any other generation in history let's hope that your teenage children don't have too much criticism about what you did or didn't do because you were on five [Music] [Music] [Applause] no [Music] a [Music]