If “The Wire” had a documentary cousin about the war on weed, this would be it—complete with dirty cops, corrupt laws, and Snoop Dogg keeping it real the whole way through.
Joe Rogan recommended this one, and it’s easy to see why.
My colleague Rob Kelly ranked this #3 on his list of “The 14 Best Cannabis Documentaries (Ranked 2024)”.
Trailer for “The Culture High”
You Can’t Make This Sh!t Up
- In 2014, a SWAT team raids a man’s home over a marijuana tip, shoots his dog dead in front of his terrified family. They find zero drugs. No apology. No consequences.
- Richard Nixon pressured the Shafer Commission in the early 1970s to bury findings that marijuana was not dangerous. This was because legalization threatened his political control strategy.
- Richard Branson reveals private prisons were earning roughly $5 billion per year by incarcerating over 50,000 non-violent marijuana offenders, turning prohibition into a profit engine.
Watch “The Culture High”
You can watch “The Culture High” on Prime Video and other platforms.
Ratings:
- My Rating: 90/100
- IMDB Rating: 8.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 91/100 (Users)
Director’s Note: “The Culture High” is directed by Brett Harvey. It is the follow-up to his 2007 documentary “The Union: The Business Behind Getting High.” This sequel widens the lens.
Release Date: 2014
My Review of “The Culture High”
The Setup
This is an investigation into how marijuana prohibition was manufactured, sold, and enforced in the United States.
The film connects the dots between Nixon-era politics, modern policing tactics, private prisons, and the lives destroyed in the process. And it is specially poor and minority communities.
It’s less about stoners and more about power, money, and who benefits when a plant is treated like a felony.This is an investigation into how marijuana prohibition was manufactured, sold, and enforced in the United States.
The film connects the dots between Nixon-era politics, modern policing tactics, private prisons, and the lives destroyed in the process. And it is especially poor and minority communities.
More Highlights from the Doc
- The film lays out how marijuana arrests skyrocketed even as usage rates stayed flat. This is proof that enforcement wasn’t about public safety.
- Former law enforcement officers admit quotas, asset forfeiture, and funding incentives encouraged drug raids.
- Medical experts dismantle decades of fear-based marijuana science with peer-reviewed studies that were ignored or suppressed.
- The doc compares alcohol and prescription opioid deaths to marijuana—highlighting how legal substances kill exponentially more people.
Cameos – Lesser-Know Details from the Doc
- Richard Branson doesn’t hedge—he directly calls the War on Drugs a moral failure and a business scam.
- Snoop Dogg, former cops, and neuroscientists dismantle marijuana myths with facts and humor.
- Politicians and former insiders admit the laws were never meant to be fair, just enforceable.
- Footage shows how early legalization advocates were ridiculed using false talking points.
Wrap Up:
If you want a documentary that explains how prohibition was engineered and who profited, this one is for you.
Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc