|
| 'Savages' Boss Oliver Stone Knows Good Weed |
|
Posted by CN Staff on July 07, 2012 at 04:39:21 PT By David Germain, The Associated Press Source: Associated Press 
Los Angeles -- Oliver Stone has smoked great marijuana all over the world, from Vietnam and Thailand to Jamaica and South Sudan. But the filmmaker says the best weed is made in the USA and that pot could be a huge growth industry for taxpayers if it were legalized.Stone, whose drug-war thriller "Savages" opens Friday, has been a regular toker since his days as an infantryman in Vietnam in the late 1960s and knows a good herb when he inhales one. He insisted in a recent interview that no one is producing better stuff now than U.S. growers. "There's good weed everywhere in the world, but my God, these Americans are brilliant," said Stone, 65, who sees only benefits from legalizing marijuana. "It can be done. It can be done legally, safely, healthy, and it can be taxed and the government can pay for education and stuff like that. Also, you can save a fortune by not putting kids in jail." Stone is known for mixing polemics and drama in films such as "JFK," ''Born on the Fourth of July," ''Wall Street" and "Nixon," his saga of the president who declared the war on drugs 40 years ago. Yet "Savages" may be closer to a pure thrill ride than anything he's done, the action coming without much in the way of preaching for legalization. Still, the film offers a fictional portrait of violence among a Mexican drug cartel and California pot growers that makes legalizing marijuana seem like a sane option. "That would be my personal solution, but as a politician, I would fight for decriminalization first, because that is the immediate by-product of this mess that we got ourselves into. It's very hard to pull out of a $40 billion-a-year industry, which is the prison industry. It's probably more than $40 billion. But they will fight you tooth and nail to keep these prisons as big as they are," Stone said. "It's worse than slavery, per capita. In the black community, it is a form of slavery, this drug war, because it imprisons a huge portion of people, destroys their lives, coarsens our culture. And why? Marijuana is much less harmful than tobacco and prescription drugs in many cases and certainly alcohol. This puritanical strain got started with Nixon. It was a political issue for him, and it's gotten worse. It's like the Pentagon. You can't stop it." "Savages" co-star Salma Hayek had some worries that the film could have become a sermon in favor of drug legalization. She was glad the film wound up sticking to a good story and generally keeping politics out of it, even though she agrees that legalization makes sense for marijuana, at least. "Yeah, marijuana, if it's legalized and controlled," Hayek said. "Some of the other drugs that are on the market are really, really dangerous. The legal drugs. That your doctor can prescribe. And they can kill you with it slowly." Hayek plays the merciless boss of a Mexican cartel aiming to seize control of a California pot operation whose leaders (Aaron Johnson and Taylor Kitsch) grow the best marijuana on the planet. The film co-stars Benicio Del Toro as Hayek's brutal lieutenant, John Travolta as a corrupt Drug Enforcement Agency cop and Blake Lively as Johnson and Kitsch's shared lover, whose kidnapping puts the two sides at war. Stone, who has two Academy Awards as best director for 1989's "Born on the Fourth of July" and 1986's "Platoon" (the latter also won best picture), has had a fitful career since the mid-1990s, with critical bombs such as "Alexander" and modest box-office results for "W.", "World Trade Center" and "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps." With gorgeous Southern California scenery, wicked humor and relentless action, "Savages" may have more commercial appeal than anything Stone has done in decades. While the film itself doesn't preach, it has given Stone a soapbox to play devil's advocate, even landing him on the cover of the marijuana magazine High Times, smoking a joint. "He's Oliver Stone for a reason. There's no filter, and he is who he is, and I admire that," said "Savages" star Kitsch. "At the end of the day, who you're going to be facing is yourself. If you can stay true to that — and I tell you, this business tests every minute of it — I love that. I love to see someone that is like, 'Look, this (expletive) movie is what I've done. Take it or leave it.' It's an admirable quality, especially in this business." Stone considers his pot use part of a healthy regimen. "It doesn't hurt me," he said. "As you can see, I'm still functioning at my age. My mind feels good. I may not be the brightest rocket in the room, but I certainly feel like I'm competent." Source: Associated Press (Wire) CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archives Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help
|
 |
| Comment #13 posted by FoM on July 11, 2012 at 05:33:54 PT |
| Thank you. I know the news is really slow but this Fall before elections it should pick up. We are winning. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #12 posted by observer on July 10, 2012 at 21:21:00 PT |
| Thank you! I appreciate you and everyone here, working to set people free, cannabis-wise.
[ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #11 posted by Hope on July 10, 2012 at 09:37:38 PT |
| Other things prohibition is denying me, and others, that I and they need. I still have some nueropathy, especially towards evening when I'm getting tired. My imagination is impinged upon somewhat, since chemo. A sense of delight in everyday things sometimes needs a boost here and there and cannabis can do that. And of course. There are people that need daily help with nausea. I've read that it can have a positive effect on the urinary tract. It's obviously a stunningly amazing plant. And yet the blind to reality mock, and laugh, deny, and heap scorn on the truth. The amazing truth. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #10 posted by Hope on July 10, 2012 at 09:31:02 PT |
| I believe it. About the weight control and cannabis. I noticed it decades ago. I'm leaner and more active... and somehow, a better active... when I consume the blessed plant. I've told people for years that I had noticed that regular use made it so much easier to maintain a normal weight. I need it now! And so many of the other benefits that I know come from use of the amazing plant. I'm very interested in what they can find about how it might help osteoporosis, too. I can't take the bone drugs and now they say calcium hurts a person's heart. I need safe bone strengtheners! I need the cancer resistance! I need the weight control aspect. I need a bit of protection from glaucoma. One of the first things I noticed about using the plant was that I did not have night terrors when I used it. I've had nightmares and night terrors most of my life. Not to even mention easy muscle relaxation, a sense of peace and joy and a heightened sense of beauty. It's good stuff. It's a crime that it's prohibited by governments and busy bodies. I don't want prohibs to use cannabis. It's against their principals. I don't want to encourage anyone to go against their own principals. But they have no right to inflict their principals of consumption on me and others when we absolutely do not agree with them. Prohibitionists are a plague on mankind. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #9 posted by Paint with light on July 09, 2012 at 23:35:21 PT |
| Article from The Week. Several other interesting articles there. http://theweek.com/article/index/230293/how-marijuana-could-help-cure-obesity-related-diseases Legal like alcohol. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #8 posted by FoM on July 09, 2012 at 19:59:41 PT |
| I second what Hope said. Thank you for all you are doing. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #7 posted by Hope on July 09, 2012 at 19:48:14 PT |
| He's been with us so long, now he's like an old friend and fellow irate citizen. He's getting even fancier and handier as he matures. Thanks, Observer. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #6 posted by observer on July 09, 2012 at 17:01:00 PT |
| A new toy, to keep your mind expanding! http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/apps/blurb.htm News feed reader specialized for the newsbot site, with drug-policy analysis features... [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #5 posted by Hope on July 09, 2012 at 10:04:27 PT |
| People will think more maybe. Most people are already sure that the Drug War and prohibition is a bust... to say the least. About the only ones still holding on to it are the ones who make their living from it and it's reverberations. Many people will watch it. It will be slick and entertaining, violent, and scary. Most people love movies like that. I have managed to watch some Tarantino and Stone and I appreciate their artistry... but I don't like being shook up all that much. The funny stuff is entertaining. And of course, watching fascinating or beautiful people is always interesting. If it's as sort of funny as Pulp Fiction, it might be worth the effort to watch it. FoM and I probably won't be able to watch it though. I know I probably won't. I might try. But it sounds horrific, not unlike the reality that is born of prohibition. I have to think about and despise the fruit of the Drug War tree daily. I don't think I can watch the movie for entertainment. Painful. Fiction or not. Still painful. Maybe to be "in the know", I can. I hope it maybe opens some eyes that might still be closed to the reality of the obvious. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #4 posted by Hope on July 09, 2012 at 09:50:04 PT |
| It's always nicely amazing to me how scientific study always winds up supporting what so many of us noticed to be true, but oh so "anecdotally", so many years ago. We'd know it was good for us in amazing and varied ways... but if we dared say it... we'd get ... "Yeah... addiction talking." *sigh* It's so evil, in so many ways, for it to be prohibited. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #3 posted by ekim on July 09, 2012 at 08:26:59 PT |
| http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-07-09/dr-nora-volkow [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #2 posted by FoM on July 09, 2012 at 06:07:25 PT |
| URL: http://www.emaxhealth.com/1275/marijuana-may-have-role-type-2-diabetes [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by RevRayGreen on July 08, 2012 at 10:32:23 PT |
| related vetnures, why not use a few million $$ in profits and buy some politicians.......then blackmail them out of office, just like, well, Washington. this weeks episode Green Central Station...... 7/6/12 DMPD Chief Bradshaw in the Hotbox……… [ Post Comment ] |
| Post Comment |  |
 |  |
