Decoding America's War on Marijuana: A Review of 'The Culture High'

Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, once said, “Federal and state laws should be changed to no longer make it a crime to possess marijuana for private use.” Ironically, Nixon also claimed America’s biggest problem was drug use and tried concealing information on weed in order to start this war on drugs. The Culture High, a documentary on the journey of weed in America, explains Nixon’s role in marijuana. The documentary also covers much, much more. The Culture High is a two-hour long documentary covering everything on the criminalization of weed: from those opposing its legalization, to those making money from it, the health benefits, derailing marijuana myths, the history of the war on drugs, and more. More than just hippies

THC causes the high feeling, but also reduces nausea, increases appetite, decreases inflammation, pain, and muscle problems. CBD can reduce pain and control epileptic seizures (“Is Marijuana Medicine”). There are dozens of other problems marijuana can help with, including: HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s, glaucoma, Tourette syndrome, cancers, arthritis, and more. Treating these conditions doesn’t even mean you need to smoke cannabis or eat pot brownies, you don’t even need to get high. Using the chemicals and oils, like CBD, extracted from a cannabis plant, patients only need to take a drink, like a shot of cough syrup, to get the benefits without feeling high! The Culture High shares a story about a young boy named Jayden. When Jayden was not even 4 years old yet, he was having about 500 mini-seizures every day. By 4 ½ years old, Jayden was taking 22 pills per day. By 5 years old, he had consumed over 25,000 pills. When the outlook wasn’t getting better for Jayden, his father sought emergency medical advice. His father brought up medicinal marijuana and his doctor agreed anything was worth a shot. The first day Jayden used cannabidiol as medicine, he had his first seizure-free day. Jayden continued to use medicinal marijuana and

Those fighting for its criminalization to stay argue it’s classified as a Schedule 1 drug for a reason. Schedule 1 drugs are listed as having high potential for abuse, having no medical use, and potentially hazardous. Besides marijuana, other Schedule I drugs are: cocaine, LSD, and heroin (“Schedule”). However, marijuana is a Schedule I drug because professionals have not performed enough official tests yet. Dr. Roger Egeberg, Assistant Secretary of Health in 1971, remarked, “Since there is still a considerable void in our knowledge of the plant… marijuana be retained in Schedule 1 at least until the completion of certain studies.” Marijuana is listed in the same category as heroin not because there is evidence suggesting they are similar, but because there is a lack of evidence to put it elsewhere. Back when Dr. Egeberg made this statement, there were minimal tests on the uses and effects of marijuana. Nowadays, there are thousands of tests, reports, and statistics to support removing marijuana from Schedule 1. Also, it’s the same people that made weed illegal that classified it in Schedule 1, the same government that started this war on drugs, and the same government that is making a fortune on