“THE MARAJUANA CONSPIRACY” Getting High in Canada

Based on a true story, the film The Marijuana Conspiracy gets played out on the screen as a drama. More historical and informational the film deals with moral and legal issues surrounding Canada’s cannabis issues. The drama’s pretty much standard and if really factual nothing to write home about. The acting and direction could have been a bit more challenging and the script’s conventional at best.

Five ladies between late teenagers to mid-twenties are chosen by John Bradow (Derek McGrath) on behalf of the Ontario Addiction Foundation for an experimental trial on smoking marijuana. They are Mary (Julia Sarah Stone) a single woman who gets fired from her job has already been experimenting with drugs, Janice (Kyla Young) a traveler who has spent her life savings seeing the world, Mourinda (Tymika Tafari) an African American woman living in Toronto who is saving money to go to college and has recently been fired by her racist boss, Marissa (Morgan Kohan) who resigned from a big firm and wants money to start her own business, and Jane (Brittany Bristow) a married woman who was curious about the trial.

The test subjects are sequestered for 98 days and have to smoke 2 joints each day. During that time the women get to know each other laying out their problems and why they are taking a chance on “enjoying” weed for monetary gain. When the THC levels in the marijuana gets elevated, the subjects open up even more with doubts about being the tested human guinea pigs. The side stories deal with many of the problems of the late 70’s and early 80’s while the girls smoke pot. They deal with racism, women’s lib, family dysfunction and other problems of the late while the girls get high on pot.

While a good measure of The Marijuana Conspiracy is pretty good, most of its meaning is old hat. Even though Canada’s Premier Trudeau was pressured by the masses to approve marijuana as a recreational drug in 1972, for the most part the measure failed. Today however, like some states in the USA, marijuana is considered legal in Canada for sitting around the apartment and blowing smoke rings.

The Marijuana Conspiracy has not been rated by the MPAA, but contains language, drug use and a scene of sexuality. The film is now available on VOD and Digital HD. My rating is 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Additional Film Information:
Cast: Brittany Bristow, Morgan Kohan, Julia Sarah Stone, Tymika Tafari, Kyla Young, Marie Ward, Luke
Bilyk, Gregory Calderone, Derek McGrath, Paulino Nunes
Directed and written by: Craig Pryce
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: Not rated, drug use, language, sexual implications,
Running Time: 2 hrs. 4 min.
Opening Date: April 20, 2021
Distributed by: Samuel Goldwyn Films
Released in: VOD and Digital HD