The 90’s, episode 203

Episode 203 of the award-winning TV series The 90's. This episode focuses on hemp and features the following segments:

0:24Copy video clip URL Cold open with Johnny Marijuanaseed.

0:52Copy video clip URL The 90’s opening.

01:33Copy video clip URL “Johnny Marijuanaseed” by Nancy Cain. Johhny Marijuanaseed, a hemp activist, tells Nancy Cain: “It was William Randolph Hearst who was instrumental in outlawing hemp. A newspaper baron, Hearst was concerned that newsprint manufactured from a hemp byproduct would interfere with his immense profits from the enormous tracts of forest that he owned…In 1937 Hearst along with DuPont and Mellon were instrumental in the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act, which made the growing of hemp illegal in the U.S. At the time the AMA fought the legislation arguing that hemp is a useful medicinal plant…”

05:00Copy video clip URL Interview with Gatewood Galbraith, Democratic gubernatorial candidate from Kentucky and marijuana advocate. “Reagan and Bush are not conservatives, they’re aliens…I believe that marijuana should be licensed and regulated as a cash crop and let our farmers make this money…When I was growing up, conservative meant you kept the government in the box…The government does not have the right to interfere in alot of different aspects of people’s lives in this state. Marijuana is a benchmark topic for this election… A society that can accommodate tobacco and alcohol should accommodate marijuana… The government, if not controlled, will grow to occupy the space currently occupied by our civil liberties…”

09:11Copy video clip URL “Hash Bash 1990” by Doug Susalla & Bill Kubota. At the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor students demonstrate for looser marijuana laws. A spokesman for NORML says that the problem is with the government ‘s drug policy, not with the drugs themselves. We are told that less than 1% of the American public is addicted to drugs. Gatewood Galbraith says that “the government knows that marijuana doesn’t make you crazy or lead to other drugs.” Bystanders express disgust at the pot smokers, who are by and large completely incoherent.

13:58Copy video clip URL “P.O. Park Ranger” by Robert Hanson. A satire of a severe, forceful park ranger who reminds us of a few park policies: “no running, no tomfoolery, no drugs, no herb, no shake, no flake…”

14:44Copy video clip URL Richard Dennis, chairman, Advisory Board Drug Policy Foundation, speaks: “The current drug policy is doing kids a disservice… it’s saying that all drugs are the same and it’s setting up kids to have endless doubts about what authority figures say if they can be trusted. Minority neighborhoods are being used as staging zones for drug warriors to attack dealers in order to protect people in the suburbs from themselves… the War on Drugs is regressive.”

15:50Copy video clip URL “Cook County Prison.” In Chicago, a group of singers made up of inmates and guards entertain prisoners.

18:09Copy video clip URL “Tom McKean” by Joel Cohen. Ex-cocaine addict McKean does open line radio and talks to school kids in Chicago’s inner city about how to avoid peer pressure and drug use. He says that “government is not the answer, prison is not the answer, rehabilitation is the answer…The reason we do drugs is because we live fast-paced lives and we have needs and we don’t know what to do…Kids need to be loved off drugs.”

24:07Copy video clip URL “Hon. Robert Sweet” by Esti Marpet. N.Y. Judge Robert Sweet speaks: “In 1972, a committee reporting to Nixon recommended marijuana be legalized…The National Academy of Sciences made the same recommendation a few years ago. Growing marijuana is the second largest cash crop in California. The American people have learned that the threat of ‘reefer madness’ is nonsense…If we want to be practical we have to realize that 75% of arrests in the criminal justice system are marijuana arrests…If we eliminate prohibition of marijuana we will ease the burden on the criminal justice system.”

26:31Copy video clip URL “Dead Are Not Dead” by Judith Binder. A Venice Beach musician sings: “Our spirit lives on and on, in the trees, in the water, in the fire that’s dying.”

28:11Copy video clip URL More from “Johnny Marijuanaseed.” Johnny tells us that no other plant has as many byproducts as hemp and is as good for the environment. “You can make fabric from it, you can make paper from it, you can make gas and electricity. It’s organically grown…it could replace fossil fuels.”

30:12Copy video clip URL More from Gatewood Galbraith, smoking marijuana as he speaks: “The problem is that the pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries control this country. Hemp is the greatest product. Hemp IS petroleum. It’s no coincidence that in 1937 when hemp was outlawed, nylon was patented. The true battle on this planet today is between the naturals and the synthetics.”

32:57Copy video clip URL “Don’t Go in the Basement” by Sally Cruikshank. An animated music video.

34:14Copy video clip URL Tony Serra commentary by Jesse Drew. Serra, a civil rights lawyer, talks about the legalization of marijuana: “The truth is that marijuana is more benign than alcohol and tobacco put together. Marijuana should be legalized. There is no nexus, no stepping stone between marijuana and shooting heroin. Total prohibition has created the drug problem.”

35:55Copy video clip URL “Surveillance in Los Angeles” by Aron Ranen. A documentary about the various forms of surveillance in and around L.A.

38:59Copy video clip URL “Mayor Barry” by Gross National Product. An “electronic cartoon.” A photo of Barry is in a frying pan, an egg is cracked into the pan and fried, ala the famous 1980’s anti-drug campaign. “This is Mayor Barry…on drugs…Why do you think it’s called the District of Columbia?”

39:17Copy video clip URL “Don Fielder” by Eddie Becker. Fielder, the Executive of NORML, speaks: “William Bennett is a dangerous man…anyone who speaks out against his drug policy is considered unpatriotic. The drug problem is an issue for the Surgeon General, not the Attorney General. Bennett’s solution is to create more prisons, more jails and take away our constitutional freedoms.”

40:59Copy video clip URL “Wavy Gravy” by Pat Creadon. At Weedstock in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, Wavy Gravy, the perennial countercultural figure, speaks about legalizing marijuana. He says: “Let’s get real, herb should be legalized, I’m tired of my friends getting put away for smoking a little herb. Part of my spiritual life is smoking herb.” “The 90’s are the 60’s standing on their head.”

42:49Copy video clip URL An excerpt from the documentary “Chef Ra Escapes Babylon” by Scott Kennedy/High Times Video. Chef Ra escapes fast-paced city life and flees to Jamaica. The Rastafarian chef takes us on a tour of a Ganja field. “Herb is different from cocaine and heroin. It is a blessed plant that could give you a little happiness.” He complains that the U.S. drug policy is hurting the Jamaican economy.

48:17Copy video clip URL More from Richard Dennis: “I don’t see what law enforcement does except add to people’s misery. It makes no sense. If I could have a ‘wish list’ of drugs to outlaw, the first would be crack, the second, tobacco. We should never talk of crack and pot in the same paragraph.”

48:45Copy video clip URL “Earth Day 1990: Washington DC” by Eddie Becker. Members of NORML sell clothing made of hemp. According to them, “Hemp is the only biomass capable of making America energy independent. One acre of pot equals four acres of trees grown for paper production. Hemp can be grown in any soil, it has no enemies. The only enemy is the U.S. Government. Smoking pot is good for you – it lowers stress, dilates the arteries and lowers your body temperature. Smoke pot – you’ll live longer!”

51:26Copy video clip URL “Father Guido Sarducci” by Don Novello & Willie Walker. 1970s Saturday Night Live character Father Sarducci returns to appear on the 90’s: “Marijuana is no longer under the patron saint of hard drugs, it’s changed. It’s now under the patron saint of beer and wine.”

53:02Copy video clip URL “The ‘Pope” by Esti Marpet. From Greenwich Village in New York City, a man claims: “I am the pope, self appointed. Marijuana can save the world. You can make clothes out of it, it grows quickly, it conserves soil. It’s the only safe drug.”

54:41Copy video clip URL More from “Johnny Marijuanaseed”: “Everything you can make from whale oil, you can make from hemp oil. You can process and texturize hemp into tofu… we could save the Whales!”

55:53Copy video clip URL End Credits.

57:36Copy video clip URL 30 second promo.