Four Cannabis Videos You Should Be Watching
Keeping up on the legal marijuana movement can be a challenge. There are literally dozens of books available on the market about cannabis. But rather than sitting down with a book, maybe you’d prefer to curl up with a video?
A lot of the documentaries that have been done on cannabis in America in recent years are already outdated, due to the legal cannabis sector’s constantly evolving political, regulatory and financial landscape.
But here are a quartet of video programs, all currently available on YouTube, that can get you up to speed on cannabis; either one program at a time or as part of a massive binge-watching session. Click on the titles to be taken to the video links.
Weed: CNN, Parts 1-3
In 2013 Dr. Sanjay Gupta, neurosurgeon and CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent, published a headline-making editorial on the network’s website, entitled “Why I changed my mind on weed”.
At the time, while working on the first part of his Weed documentary, Gupta described how he’d been traveling around the world to interview medical leaders, experts, growers and medical marijuana patients about their experiences with cannabis.
“What I found was stunning,” he said, while apologizing for his previous, anti-marijuana stance.
“I apologize because I didn’t look hard enough, until now,” he added. “I didn’t look far enough. I didn’t review papers from smaller labs in other countries doing some remarkable research, and I was too dismissive of the loud chorus of legitimate patients whose symptoms improved on cannabis.”
The result of Dr. Gupta’s studies is an in-depth, three-part series, produced between 2013 and 2015, that looks in detail at what he ends up calling the Marijuana Revolution.
Marijuana in America: Colorado Pot Rush – CNBC
This CNBC doc takes a closer look at the legal cannabis industry in Colorado, where recreational marijuana was legalized in 2014 and where marijuana sales are expected to exceed $2 billion by 2020.
It also profiles the state’s “new breed” of entrepreneurs while examining the regulatory, social and cultural issues surrounding the Centennial State’s historic experiment with cannabis legalization and finance.
The Scientist: Are we missing something? 
Here’s a surprisingly relaxing, humorous and informative documentary on the life and work of Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, the so-called godfather of cannabis. In the 1960s the Israeli chemist determined the structure of THC, marijuana’s psychoactive compound. Mechoulam was also one of the first researchers to identify cannabidiol (CBD), another key cannabis compound that is still being researched for its medical potential.
Through a combination of interviews, animation and reenactments, the video take us through the history and possible scientific future of cannabis and its uses, while outlining Mechoulam’s important contributions to the study of this very versatile plant.
Weediquette – Vice.com
The title might sound like a do’s and don’t’s program when it comes to marijuana, but this ongoing series on Vice actually looks at the economics, culture and science of cannabis from a wide variety of viewpoints. The program’s host, Vice correspondent Krishna Andavolu realizes the historic significance of what he’s covering.
“We’re at an age we probably won’t go through again in our lifetime — watching an illicit substance become legal,” he told Time Magazine.
Weediquette travels the globe and around the U.S. examining such issues as cannabis legalization in Uruguay, medical marijuana refugees in Colorado, Christianity and cannabis as well as an introduction to butane hash oil, aka BHO.
