Is How Weed Won The West an entertaining film? Yes, absolutely. You won’t get bored watching it.
The film takes a compelling look at California’s Emerald Triangle, one of the major marijuana production areas in the world, and looks at the scene in dispensary-heavy Los Angeles, where things are in flux just before what looks to be a major crackdown on the horizon.
Additionally, the jack-booted tactics of San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis are rightly called to task.
Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance, certainly one of the most intelligent and articulate spokesman for drug reform policy in the United States, thankfully gets plenty of screen time, along with Don Duncan of Americans for Safe Access (ASA) and cultivation legend and multiple Cannabis Cup winner Bret Bogue.
And yeah, to be honest it was a thrill to see one of my
SF Weekly “Chronic City” articles during the film, sharing the screen with Alex Jones.
But is it, on balance, a valuable film for the movement? That depends.