“The Doctor” – A documentary about a European pioneer of cannabis legalization

There are no supersonic jets or red carpets and Tom Cruise is nowhere to be found. Despite this, a new film, The Doctor, has garnered awards at the international film festivals.

However, if there is one person in the European cannabis industry who has always taken a “highway into danger”, albeit medicinally, it would be Dr. Franjo Grotenhermen.

The film, directed by Eduardo Hernandez, is a biographical look at Franjo’s life to date. And that is certainly an interesting journey. Per Hernandez: “Anyone who knows Franjo knows his story is incredible. He is a person who has dedicated his life to fighting for patients’ rights and pushing the frontiers of science. As a filmmaker, it seemed to me that the general public would be interested.”

Who is Doctor Franjo Grotenhermen?

The elevator pitch about Franjo, as he insists on his name, is easily explained in just three words. Pioneering cannabis doctor.

That said, it’s still a pretty radical claim, especially in Germany, but sadly still pretty much everywhere else. As such, the term still means a lot today, as medical professionals at large still struggle with the stigma surrounding the plant’s potency to overcome.

Grotenhermens is certainly a dramatic story. From the start, Franjo, who also suffers from a debilitating illness himself, has put himself at the forefront of the fight. In Germany, this is still a highly dangerous place to live and work.

“The goal was to reach an audience that is non-academic and doesn’t know what medical cannabis is,” Hernandez said via email when reached by High Times.

The film is set during the 10th Conference on Cannabinoids in Medicine, just before the pandemic broke out in late 2019. The IACM, which Franjo helped found, has been one of the most influential global conferences on medicinal cannabis for several decades. The Doctor also includes interviews with famous Israeli cannabis researcher Dr. Raphael Mechoulam.

So far, ‘The Doctor’ has made the festival round (and even won a few awards) and is set to have its world premiere this Friday in Amsterdam, before continuing on its international journey that’s literally taking its message around the world.

Courtesy of the film The Doctor

Doctors are still at the forefront of the medical fight

Although sadly it is still not widely known, doctors have often paid a heavy price for championing cannabis. This was certainly true in places like California, as prescribers could have their licenses to prescribe the drug revoked (thanks to the Clinton administration, both before and after California’s historic 1996 vote).

In many places, this threat has never really gone away. In fact, in Germany in the last five years since the “medical reform” doctors have been visited frequently by the police, who are still conducting “investigations” that all too often result in interrogations of both patients and doctors, if not arrests, criminal charges and prison sentences .

Franjo never wavered in the face of the challenge or the path. In fact, he went on a hunger strike in 2017 over the restrictive wording in Germany’s first medical cannabis reform law, which to this day prevents the majority of patients who need the drug from (legally) accessing it.

It is often a thankless journey.

The Doctor is not only a biographical profile of one of the most fearless medical crusaders for cannabis reform, but also an educational, medical and scientific perspective on the importance of reform on the eve of what is hoped to be the full and final legalization of cannabis in Germany.