The 10 Best Weed Documentaries to Stream Online

Part of the process of becoming a conscious stoner is realizing that the 2010s was a decade of tremendous victories for the free marijuana movement worldwide. This is especially true of the US, the largest sponsor of the war on drugs in the 20th century. To understand that victory, we need to understand the social cost of getting us to where we are now, even if the battle is not over.

These 10 informative documentaries paint the big picture of the complicated relationship between the United States and cannabis. Every aspect of the impact of marijuana on social life is addressed in these documentaries.

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1.Grass is greener (2019)

• Year: 2019
• Duration: 1h 37min
• IMDb: 7.1 / 10
• Director: Fab 5 Freddie
• Actors: B-Real, Steven Hager, Damian Marley, Snoop Dogg
• Where to see: Netflix

Available on Netflix, Grass is Greener is a masterpiece by Fab 5 Freddy on the origins of marijuana in the US and the contradictions that evolved from it. It reveals the American history of cannabis through legends such as Bob Marley, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Snoop Dogg, and many others. It’s a celebration of marijuana’s great legacy for jazz, hip hop, and world music. Put on your headphones because music is a crucial part of this documentation.

The film also explores the war on drugs. The ban on marijuana was an important part of the repression of people of color, women and anti-war movements in the 20th century. It reveals the injustices that have been committed to this day under the name of Prohibition and how the “reefer madness” took the United States by storm.

2. Roll papers (2015)

• Year: 2015
• Duration: 1h 19 min
• IMDb – 6.2 / 10
• Directed by Mitch Dickman
• Cast: Whoopi Goldberg (archive), Ricardo Baca, Ryan Clendenin
• Where to see: Netflix

Directed by Mitch Dickman, Rolling Papers covers The Denver Post and its innovative stance in creating a cannabis journalism section under the direction of Ricardo Baca. This documentary shows how a shrinking economic niche of journalism is turning its fortune with the power of the free marijuana movement.

This documentary examines journalists’ personal lives, reflecting on polarized issues such as parenting and cannabis, as well as the lingering prejudices about the war on drugs.

So get your Netflix account ready because rolling papers are a must, and not just for cannabis enthusiasts. It shows the myriad of opportunities for cannabis companies. Also enjoy the brilliantly edited cutscenes of strains of marijuana.

3. Weed the People (2018)

• Year: 2018
• Duration: 1h 34 min
• IMDb – 7.1 / 10
• Director: Abby Epstein
• Actors: Amanda Reiman, Donald Abrams, Bonni Goldstein
• Where to see: Netflix

Winner of the 2018 Audience Choice Award for Best Documentary at the Nashville Film Festival, Weed the People is a documentary about American families and cannabis available on Netflix.

Directed by Abby Epstein, Weed the People explores the fight by cancer patients and their families against former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and anti-marijuana legislation. The film examines the scientific prohibition tendencies of the Americans in the fight against drugs and the more advanced international studies on cannabis and cancer research.

Image by Jan Vašek from Pixabay

4. The cultural high (2015)

• Year: 2015
• Duration: 2h
• IMDb – 8.2 / 10
• Directed by Brett Harvey
• Actors: Joe Rogan, Snoop Dogg, Ronald Reagan (archive)
• Where to see: Amazon

The Culture High is a spectacular 2014 documentary directed by Brett Harvey. The film was nominated for best documentary at the AMPIA Awards 2015 and has been nominated several times at international film festivals.

The Culture High is available on Vimeo and deals with the disinformation and hypocritical prohibition discourse that was promoted en masse in the 20th century. The documentary demystifies the relationship between cannabis and schizophrenia, addiction, lung damage, existential fear, and other aspects of human sociability.

5. High Country: The Future of Weed (2013)

• year 2013
• Duration: 44 minutes
• IMDb – not rated
• Directed by VICE Motherboard
• Where to see: Youtube

Vice takes the wheel with the 2013 short documentary High Country: The Future of Weed. It came after decades of discrimination and negation of the value of marijuana to people, as many US states began legalizing marijuana recreational use considered. Vice Motherboard arrives in Colorado, the first regulated, taxed, and legal cannabis market to study the booming growth of cannabis companies.

RELATED: 3 Reasons Hollywood Stopped Making Stoner Comedies

The documentary available on YouTube features professional cannabis growers and describes a growing model that does not waste plants during the production process and uses everything from leaves to flowers with no loss of value to cannabis.

Then it focuses on the booming cannabis technology market, the multitude of ways cannabis can be processed from seed to consumption, and the jobs it can create. This documentary will convince you that there is no telling how far the cannabis industry can go.

6. WEED: A CNN special report by Dr. Sanjay Gupta (2013)

• year 2013
• Duration: 3 parts each 43 min
• IMDb – not rated
• Director: CNN
• Actor: Sanjay Gupta
• Where to see: Youtube

“WEED – A CNN Special Report by Dr. Sanjay Gupta ”is a full-length documentary series broadcast on CNN in 2013. It reflects the changed perception of the US media about marijuana. The series portrays the war on drug propaganda as a common misconception developed by the first drug czar in the United States, former Federal Bureau of Narcotics Commissioner Harry J. Anslinger. It is theorized that Anslinger opportunistically turned marijuana into the No. 1 public enemy in order to gain political capital and increase his department’s budget.

CNN is taking a surprising and progressive approach to cannabis. It is available on multiple sources on the internet and criticizes the poor management of US marijuana policy over the decades.

7. Weediquette (2016)

• Year: 2016
• Duration: 3 seasons
• IMDb – 8.1 / 10
• Directed by VICE media
• Actors: Krishna Andavolu, Jason Cranford, Catherine Lewis
• Where to see: Viceland TV

Weediquette is an unfinished Viceland TV documentary series starring Krishna Andavolu in his quest for the science, culture, medicine and economy of the cannabis boom.

The project is not yet officially over, but in total Viceland and Krishna released 24 episodes in 2016 and 2017, touching on many social aspects affected by cannabis and the war on drugs. The subjects are varied, and approach myths and facts about war veterans’ cannabis use to treat PTSD, treatment for autism, driving under the influence of marijuana, deportation, parenting, and many more controversial topics.

Serving as an ode to marijuana and its uses, weediquette has almost encyclopedic value to the cannabis world given the high quality of the information, state-of-the-art video editing, and writing.

8. grass

• Year: 1999
• Duration: 1h 07min
• IMDb: 7.2 / 10
• Director: Ron Mann
• Cast: Woody Harrelson, Harry J. Anslinger, George Bush
• Awards: Genie Award for the best full-length documentary
• Where to see: Vimeo

This documentary explores the history of marijuana in the US in the 20th century. The film addresses critical issues such as xenophobia towards Mexican immigrants, who have been associated with marijuana use for decades, federal laws and severe penalties, social stigma, and the consequences of recreational cannabis use.

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This documentary is now 22 years old and many things have changed, including the perception of marijuana in modern American society. Still, many of the topics described in this film are relevant to this day. The main reasons for negative attitudes towards weed are propaganda, old and rusty films like Tell Your Children (1936), which describe weed as a drug that induces murderous tendencies and as a gateway drug that leads to severe addictions. Grass dismantles these myths and gives us a retrospective look at society’s attitudes towards marijuana. More than 20 years later, we have a slightly different picture in front of us, so we can look even deeper into the past and see what has changed and where we are headed.

9. Break habits

• Year: 2019
• Duration: 1h 27min
• IMDb: 6.5 / 10
• Director: Robert Ryan
• Actor: Sister Kate
• Where to see: iTunes

Well, you don’t see that every day: a group of nuns comes up with the idea of ​​growing their own grass and selling it to the people in the California Valley. The documentary describes how Sister Kate, an enterprising California woman, came up with the idea of ​​helping people in pain by giving them a natural and healthy remedy – cannabis. Sister Kate formed a group of activists and decided to sell weed in the area. The film describes her struggles with local anti-weed activists and the positive and negative sides of the business.

This documentary is tightly focused on a single group of people who happen to be selling marijuana in California, almost as if the film was promoting their product. Well, let’s face it, the movie is a huge commercial for the Sisters of the Valley, and it feels like a drama show at times. Have you seen the tiger king? Well, dial it down a lot, trade the tigers for weed and gun-bearing rednecks for weed-selling nuns, and you’ll get a general idea of ​​what’s going on there. Some scandals, some shootings, some police raids – it feels fun and entertaining. While the documentary isn’t as revealing or illuminating as you might want it to be, it’s still a fun plot.

10. A normal life

• Year: 2011
• Duration: 1h
• IMDb: 6.7 / 10
• Directed by Rod Pitman
• Actors: Russ Belville, Dominic Corva, Tonya Davis
• Where to see: Vimeo

A NORML Life is a 2011 documentary that illustrates the state of cannabis legalization in the United States at the time of publication. The film is based on numerous interviews with people who are involved in one way or another with cannabis – doctors, breeders, users, scientists and so on. All of these people are talking about the positive effects of marijuana. The evidence is overwhelming; From the personal reports to the actual scientific data, everything points to the simple fact: Marijuana can have a tremendously positive impact on people’s health and has almost no side effects when used moderately.

The film is a bit out of date considering how the situation has changed over the past decade. Nevertheless, it offers a lot of information and brings valuable suggestions to the mind of the viewer. Once again, we have the chance to take a retrospective look at weed in our society and get a fuller picture of the direction we are headed.

Fortunately, things have changed for the better when it comes to cannabis legalization over the past decade, and this documentary shows us how we’ve grown since then. It’s a very informative documentary that can give you a deeper understanding of how weed works and how it can benefit us personally and socially.