How about a little awareness with your bong load tomorrow? Filmmaker Rebecca Cohen presented her kickstarter campaign for her film here on good.is for finishing funds and you helped push her over the line. Her film takes place in Montana, but similar battles are flaring up all over the country. She outlined in her piece the changing landscape of medical marijuana laws:
Our cameras stopped rolling in 2011, and we premiered our film, “Code of the West,” at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival in Austin. But even though our film crew had left Montana, Chris’s story kept rolling. Now, as we head into 2013, it’s taken on a new urgency. After a federal crackdown last year, Chris and his business partners were indicted on federal drug charges. Despite his efforts to follow state law and build trust and accountability through community and state outreach, Chris is now facing an 80+ year sentence for a crime that 80 percent of Americans and 18 states think should not be a crime at all. Unless he wins a successful appeal, he’ll be in prison until he’s 120.
According to Drug Policy Alliance, a national organization promoting alternatives to current drug policy, more than 800,000 people were arrested for marijuana-related offenses last year. The vast majority of these arrests were for simple possession. And though the federal government considers marijuana a Schedule I Narcotic (with no accepted medical use), an increasing number of states disagree. Today, two states have legalized marijuana for adult use, and 18 states and Washington, DC have legalized medical marijuana use for people suffering from debilitating medical conditions including cancer, epilepsy, severe nausea, multiple sclerosis, and chronic pain.
In celebration of 4/20, Cohen cut a new trailer for Code of the West. We hope you share it with your friends who enjoy their cannabis and support compassionate care giving.
