I am conservative, middle-aged and frankly, drug laws and the drug war were quite off my radar. However, I did have many friends in college who smoked pot...probably sold a little pot here and there. Luckily for them and probably for society, they never were arrested and never fell into the justice system..they are now normal hard working professionals with families and decent careers. This documentary made me realize that, had they not been lucky, they, their friends and family members lives might have been permanently blighted...probably to no good purpose. Most middle aged working Americans like me know nothing of "conspiracy laws", "mandatory sentences", the use of informants who are under tremendous pressure to inflate even fabricate testimony. 420 shows that a long "disinformation" campaign worthy of the Vietnam War days with skewed statistics and outright untruths has led us to be the world's number one jailer...mostly of non violent, minor drug offenders. This documentary also shows the disconnect between what young people, particularly college students experience and what the official media reports...420 makes us feel their distrust of official positions...and makes us understand why this has come about...a good well edited documentary, very convincing. A documentary I would recommend to peers and friends.
Review of 420: The Documentary
