“California, 90420″: The great marijuana hypocrisy

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 21:55:00 +0000

During a road trip to a quasi-legal medical marijuana growing facility in the legendary cheeba-producing region around Mendocino, Calif., a couple of students from Oaksterdam University encounter a cheerful little guy in a cowboy hat known as Human (no other name given). Human assures his visitors, with an ostentatious manner of saying exactly the right thing, that he's growing potent, high-quality "medicine," and he knows that the "patients" are out there waiting for it because they need help. Yeah, they need help -- help getting wicked high, you mean.

This scene occurs most of the way through Dean Shull's scattershot but entertaining documentary "California, 90420," which is sort of, kind of, a movie about Oaksterdam, the institution of higher learning -- ha! I kill myself! -- in Oakland, Calif., that provides the nation's first-ever cannabis-centered curriculum. (Yes, many of our campuses have provided such an education for decades, but none officially.) Although the film closely follows the failed 2010 campaign to legalize and regulate pot throughout the Golden State, it clearly gains currency from the recent federal raid on Oaksterdam, which has put the future of weed-ucation in jeopardy. (While California law allows local municipalities to license medical marijuana dispensaries, growing and selling the stuff remains a violation of federal law.)

Salon.com > marijuana

“California, 90420″: The great marijuana hypocrisy