Canada, 80 Minutes
Unapix Entertainment

"Tightly rolled with archival images chronicling 50 years of U.S. government anti-pot crusading, GRASS is one heck of a good trip."
- Brendan Kelly, Variety

The world of marijuana, now reported to be a $10 Billion to $30 billion industry in North America, comes vibrantly alive in this fact-filled and fascinating story of our love-hate relationship with this resilient weed, also known as grass, pot, or dope. GRASS is about the history of a hysteria: the longest-running and most disobeyed prohibition in the history of the USA. It is an epic tale of how Government bureaucrats created a climate which turned and still turns literally millions of users, at least technically, into criminals.

This film traces the consumption of GRASS, which began as a recreation activity of Hispanic and African minorities, to how it has become a widespread, middle class activity. And it reveals that in spite of continuous and ferocious attempts at repression (and millions and millions of dollars spent to do so), the number of North American pot smokers has risen from 60,000 (at the time it was outlawed) to 30 million today.

Years in the making, Ron Mann's much-anticipated documentary presents a humorous and surprisingly balanced history of recreational MARIJUANA use in the late 20th century. Those who remain pure will see the degradation you've been missing. Those who have succumbed to temptation will learn how a nice person like yourself became a dangerous criminal.

Grass-the regular synopsis

Marijuana is the most controversial drug of the twentieth century. Smoked by generations of musicians, students and workers to little discernible ill effect, it continues to be reviled by the vast majority of governments around the world. Veteran filmer Ron Mann brings his impeccable historical facility and story telling skills to recount how marijuana has become the focus of jubilant celebrations and legal repression through the decades.

Mixing a treasure trove of hysterical anti-marijuana archival footage with playful psychedelic graphics by underground cartoonist Paul Mavrides, Mann has utilized the vocal talents of grass activist Woody Harrelson to narrate the darkly comic tale of how grass become the drug of choice for not only pot heads but also U.S. federal officers. Grass features a motley crew of characters ranging, on the right, from the first head of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics Harry J. Anslinger, to such archly conservative pot prohibitionists as Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to, listing leftwards, politicians Fiorella La Guardia and Jimmy Carter, and grass victims Robert Mitchum and Gene Krupa. Each takes his place on center-stage as the on-going story of "feds versus heads" is played out.

Mann paints a picture of a drug that has been used as an excuse by American authorities to stamp out generations who enjoyed a recreational puff. The manipulative Anslinger comes across with particularly impressive force: he is a man who emulated the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover and rode his suppression of marijuana from a successful American crusade into a United Nations' sanctioned global ban of the drug.

With a rueful yet incisive script, deft editing and an impressive soundtrack featuring original songs by Mark Mothersbaugh and a veritable pot-pourri of tunes ranging from the Swing Era's "Reefer Man" through Dylan's "Rainy Day Women" to the hippie lament "One Toke Over The Line," Ron Mann's Grass boasts extraordinary production values. Funny yet political, Grass charts the terrible loss in imprisoned lives and billions of dollars wasted fighting a drug that refuses to go away.