Thursday, October 24, 2013

Proposing The Acceptance Of Marijuana Through The Grow Jamaica Movie

By Elena McDowell


The Grow Jamaica movie was inspired by a book with a similar title written by Leeroy Campbell and Janice Campbell. The front cover of the text sums up the authors' perspective on cannabis with four words, food, fuel, fiber and medicine encapsulating the plant's many uses. As with the book, the film extols the many benefits of a plant widely known as marijuana and proposes its formal and legal acceptance in Jamaican society.

A film cannot exist without a cast and this one is no exception to this rule. A dynamic cast helps to spread the message which is essentially the value of marijuana. One of the authors of the text Leeroy Campbell is among the cast. He is joined by Oliver Samuels, a star player in Jamaica's acting industry and Stephen Marley a reggae star and actor who himself hails from fame with a Robert Nesta Marley (or Bob Marley) for a father.

There is a wider campaign geared at raising awareness of the good things that can come from the plant. This campaign includes web promotion, musical promotion and written essays and texts. The film is one aspect of this broader campaign. It is an important phase though since it appeals to a wide variety of viewers in an age of viewing.

Marijuana is also known as weed or herb by most Jamaicans and, contrary to what many outsiders believe, its use is illegal on the island. In fact, Jamaica's legal history is rife with cases of arrests linked with the plant. A number of individual shave been advocating for this to change for the last few years. Members of the Rastafarian faith have always been front-runners in this cause since the plant is central to their religious practices.

The structure of the film reflects the diversity of the plant itself. It is basically a documentary designed to inform enlighten and entertain at the same time. It consist of a number of interviews, some executed on the streets of Jamaica to give an idea of how the layman views the plant. Others are conducted in offices and in residential communities with middle to upper class interviewees who represent expert opinions on the subject of decriminalization.

The thought provoking documentary lasts sixty minutes. For those who wish to view it at their convenience, it is also available in DVD format. This makes it easy for anyone who wants to use it at a group meeting or promotional event to use it. Those who wish to use it for educational purposes may also do so by using the DVD format.

The entertaining and informative documentary is designed to change the island's, and by extension the world's view of marijuana. This is the dream envisioned by Dr. Campbell as the revolution. This change of legal and social stance on the plant is expected to result in its widespread and uninhibited use by Jamaicans of all classes.

There is no doubt that the Grow Jamaica movie has the potential to positively influence the marijuana legalization campaign. The message that it conveys is bound to captivate even the most unwilling viewer. This is due to the fact that the producers take a holistic and multifaceted approach to the topic.




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