Permitted for recreational use in New York and medical purposes in Morocco - things are gradually shifting for cannabis. Long demonized and banned, the plant has caused a rift between parents and children for generations.
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:08 It's not my choice when it comes to cannabis because I am not a cannabis person.
00:13 [MUSIC]
00:17 I smoke because I want to.
00:20 No, we are not doing that.
00:23 My mom sees drugs specifically in one hand and then handcuffs in the other.
00:29 [MUSIC]
00:39 We, the new young generation, want to change our region.
00:47 Legalization should be the first step.
00:50 [MUSIC]
00:52 We don't understand it.
00:54 Where will they be grown?
00:56 Who will benefit?
00:58 Who will buy our crops?
01:00 [MUSIC]
01:04 Unlike the older generation, who rejected legalization and lived excluded in poverty in the Reef Mountains.
01:10 [MUSIC]
01:16 Since 1956, you were asleep and were paying for it now.
01:20 We weren't asleep.
01:22 [MUSIC]
01:23 Y'all betrayed me.
01:24 Can I say something?
01:25 Non-stop.
01:26 That is why y'all should have stayed within my perimeter.
01:29 That's why we smoked weed is what I'm trying to tell you.
01:33 Thank you.
01:34 [MUSIC]
01:39 Kids, cannabis and parents.
01:42 Of course there's going to be conflict.
01:44 [MUSIC]
01:46 Young and old.
01:48 Our realities and dreams can be so different.
01:51 Seriously, it seems like there's a huge gap between the generations.
01:56 Sometimes we just don't get each other.
02:00 The question is, can we fix it?
02:03 [MUSIC]
02:17 The government is trying to prohibit the illegal use of legalized marijuana.
02:22 Under the new legislation, license holders will be required to submit a monthly cannabis report to the agency.
02:28 [MUSIC]
02:34 Sounds like the state is officially starting its cannabis legalization project.
02:38 [MUSIC]
02:41 It's difficult to implement now, especially since people still don't understand why they legalized it.
02:47 What are the objectives, its consequences, and the fears?
02:51 It hasn't been easy to get here, but we have to keep going.
02:55 Don't forget, we were criticized in the beginning.
02:58 People didn't accept the idea at all.
03:01 Legalization is here, but we don't know how it'll be implemented.
03:05 We don't understand it.
03:08 It wasn't easy, my friend.
03:10 People criticize us.
03:13 They still don't agree.
03:15 They see us as troublemakers, like we don't belong.
03:19 If legalization had been proposed back then, the older generation wouldn't have even considered it.
03:26 For that generation, the plant is sacred, and no kind of legalization is acceptable.
03:31 It should all remain illegal.
03:36 My father, like the rest of his generation, was against legalization.
03:41 They're a mistrustful generation.
03:46 Will the state itself supply the seeds?
03:49 With local or foreign seeds?
03:51 Where will they be grown?
03:53 Who will benefit?
03:54 Who will buy our crops?
03:56 Do we send them to the laboratory, the factory, the co-op, or the regulatory agency?
04:01 We still don't know these things.
04:07 I've discussed the issue with him several times.
04:13 Sometimes I choose not to discuss it, because we have different views, and it only makes things worse.
04:23 Why are people against legalization?
04:26 Because they're afraid this law will not guarantee them a dignified life or pay a livable wage.
04:31 That's why they're scared.
04:34 So they'd rather stay illegal.
04:37 Hold on a sec. Marijuana is being legalized in Morocco?
04:41 Yes, but just for industrial, cosmetic, and medicinal uses.
04:45 At least at first.
04:46 The Moroccan Interior Ministry is expecting that by 2028,
04:50 annual revenues from the European market alone will reach up to $630 million.
04:56 The law, passed by the Moroccan government in May 2021,
05:00 is aiming to limit illegal trade and help improve farmers' incomes.
05:04 Farming communities are worried that they're being left behind
05:07 and are afraid of competition from powerful investors.
05:11 This has led to serious tension between Mohamed's and his father's generations.
05:16 My name is Monet Schultz. I'm 26 years old.
05:22 My beautiful daughter, Monet.
05:25 My name is Stacia Jacobs Canterbury.
05:28 I love her so much.
05:31 I grew up in Georgetown, Guyana.
05:34 Which is a beautiful country.
05:36 I am a migrant, and I live in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York.
05:42 I really love living in Far Rockaway.
05:44 Even though there were a few devastating things that happened in Far Rockaway
05:48 that it tore apart of me.
05:52 With the smoke outside of the house, I left it there.
06:04 Because that's me, of myself, talking to my children.
06:08 One day I just looked at it and I was like, "Mom, should we take this down?"
06:11 And she was like, "No, absolutely not. This is going to stay right here
06:14 because this is what my rules are. You all just break them."
06:19 So I like to smoke on my balcony.
06:23 But I just, you know, I stay out of the common areas.
06:26 And sometimes the smell does seep into her quarters.
06:31 And she does say her comments, "Oh, you're going to be lazy.
06:36 You're going to be this if you keep smoking.
06:39 Ah, here she goes with this stuff again.
06:42 And then she makes me have a heart attack. I'm going to fall down.
06:45 She's going to stress me out."
06:47 And I'm just like, "This is so dramatic."
06:50 When it comes to marijuana and cannabis,
06:52 within your loved ones and your kids,
06:55 you want to keep them away from prison.
06:58 That's number one.
07:00 Prison? Yeah, marijuana still isn't legal in all of the U.S.
07:04 Around half of the 50 states have legalized recreational cannabis use.
07:09 In March 2021, New York also joined the Legalization Club
07:13 with the hopes of bringing justice and equality
07:16 to African Americans and other minorities
07:18 whose communities were torn apart by the old system.
07:21 In just a couple of years, the yearly tax revenues of legalized marijuana
07:25 are expected to be around $95 million U.S. dollars.
07:28 And in a few more years, four times even that.
07:32 Being someone coming out of prison because of that,
07:38 you're being looked at differently.
07:40 The other fear is that they develop mental illness.
07:44 I was still worried when we decided to migrate to this country.
07:48 And I always tried to talk to my kids,
07:50 have them understand the ifs and the buts.
07:54 I think coming from Guyana to the United States
07:58 and seeing the way historically the police has interacted
08:02 with black communities,
08:04 I think she saw cannabis as one of those factors
08:06 that would surely lead us into the hands of either the crack house
08:10 or the jail system, right into prison.
08:14 The city of Tetouan is on the Moroccan-Spanish border.
08:22 And the stereotype is that it's a smuggler city,
08:25 especially for food and drugs.
08:28 It's the heart of our region
08:32 because it's where the young people from Issaqen study.
08:36 I worked as a journalist and founded the Journalism Institute,
08:43 where I also work as a lecturer.
08:45 It's the only institute of its kind in the north.
08:50 My goal was to change the stereotype of northern towns
08:53 being known as smuggler towns.
08:55 Lux MJ is my baby.
09:01 The MJ stands for Marijuana Justice.
09:06 And Lux MJ is an ancillary business
09:09 which deals with grinders and trays and holders.
09:13 And they're also equipped with a Know Your Rights Facts sheet,
09:18 so folks are not being recriminalized
09:21 under the legalization of marijuana.
09:23 And then the other piece is the equity and advocacy,
09:27 and that comes through the collective.
09:29 Thinking about the effect of the war on drugs,
09:31 you cannot forget the impact on the families of those incarcerated,
09:36 particularly what happened with women in those households.
09:40 Not only were they also incarcerated,
09:43 but they were also the ones left to pick up the pieces
09:46 when the men in their family were targeted
09:49 specifically for cannabis use.
09:52 After graduating high school, I studied law in Fes.
10:07 There I met other young students from my region,
10:11 and we formed our own group.
10:14 We discussed local issues, lack of development,
10:17 the marginalization.
10:19 And out of university, we created an association,
10:25 the Association of Youth for Issagan's Future.
10:42 My cousin used to sell weed and would smoke weed,
10:44 and they were like the rapper environment,
10:46 so I always thought it was so cool how people can come together
10:49 and laugh and smoke, and just, like,
10:51 it felt very positive in those environments.
10:53 Like, it was not tense, it was so relaxed.
10:55 Granny has always been opinionated
11:05 and has always been very outwardly disapproving
11:08 of weed and cannabis and marijuana.
11:11 When Quentin was alive, like, that was the only thing
11:14 you could really say that was, you know,
11:16 what they didn't like about him.
11:18 Yeah, because I think that's why Quentin had...
11:21 ..did not respond in a way, because we did disapprove.
11:25 Everybody was on him, and because he was the only person.
11:28 Exactly. Everybody was on him.
11:30 You guys were very harsh and judgmental. It was very hard.
11:32 And there were times that, you know,
11:34 I had to, you know, perform corporal punishment on him
11:37 because I wanted him to continue doing the best.
11:40 He could not have understood,
11:42 your other cousins could not have understood,
11:44 you, none of you could not have understood why we were doing it.
11:47 It was very hurtful.
11:49 And...
11:51 ..I can't talk.
11:55 I was angry at my, you know, community for a little bit,
12:00 because, you know...
12:02 I wish that never happened.
12:08 That never happened. Never.
12:10 I just felt like...
12:14 ..you know, he didn't have to...
12:18 ..he didn't have to go that way,
12:20 and it didn't have to be that way.
12:22 The way they did it...
12:24 ..God knows, it was not right.
12:28 When I got to that spot and I saw they were there
12:32 and they told me, "You can't go," I said,
12:34 "No, I will have to go and see my nephew.
12:36 "Let me go.
12:38 "Let me go.
12:40 "Just for one time, just let me hold him."
12:42 I also kind of felt connected to him
12:47 when I would smoke and, like, be back in cannabis,
12:50 because, like, those are the memories that I had of him,
12:53 of him being happy and with his friends
12:55 and listening to music and smoking.
12:58 And, you know, even though my family
13:00 didn't really like that about him,
13:02 that was where he found the most joy.
13:05 But it's OK. It's still OK.
13:08 Because that's where I live.
13:11 That keeps me going.
13:13 And every time I pass the area in the Far Rock Way,
13:16 I said, "This is my nephew's...
13:19 "..this is where his last soul lies."
13:24 And that is part of me.
13:29 (birds chirping)
13:32 I spent my childhood in the mountains.
13:46 It was beautiful.
13:48 What's interesting here in Issygen
13:53 is that all the families in this part of the Reef Mountains
13:56 lived from growing cannabis.
13:59 Where did the cannabis come from?
14:07 I don't know. I haven't known anything else.
14:10 My parents always grew cannabis.
14:13 My father grew up in the '70s and '80s,
14:19 during the hippie era.
14:21 There were also plenty of tourists
14:23 who came to discover cannabis for themselves.
14:26 The wave of hippies had a big influence
14:35 on my father's generation.
14:37 It changed their lives.
14:40 They didn't influence us back then,
14:44 but there were lots of things we learned from them.
14:51 Things were different back then.
14:54 Both the product and the seeds were original,
14:57 from the region.
14:59 But now they've introduced Pakistani varieties,
15:02 critical, amnesia, and so many others.
15:06 The introduction of genetically modified plants
15:13 has had a 100% negative effect on the region,
15:16 causing environmental and economic crises.
15:19 Smoking this new variety is kind of like
15:22 taking hard drugs, the kinds we used to fear,
15:25 like heroin or LSD.
15:27 People on LSD go crazy.
15:29 You don't want to get too close to them.
15:32 But it's not like that with local cannabis.
15:35 It calms you way down.
15:37 If you need to do something, you do it.
15:41 And if not, you just sit there so calmly.
15:44 All you want is peace.
15:47 [♪♪♪]
15:50 [phone ringing]
15:58 Hello?
16:03 Hello, father. How are you?
16:05 Good, and you?
16:07 I'll be there in a moment. Where are you?
16:10 At Hajj Mohammed.
16:12 I'll be there in five minutes.
16:15 Okay, see you then.
16:18 Who was that?
16:22 Hajj Mohammed is a local.
16:27 The family lived abroad,
16:29 and he and his brother would come here in the summer.
16:32 At that time, I was about 10,
16:34 and they were 18 or 20 years old.
16:37 They're from this area. He's one of us.
16:40 [indistinct chatter]
16:44 [laughter]
16:46 [speaking in foreign language]
16:52 The most I'm going to get complacent
16:56 is actually, like, of color,
16:59 even more importantly, like, black women election lawyers.
17:03 I think when it comes to me being, you know,
17:06 a petite, seemingly non-threatening individual
17:10 and me revealing that I smoke,
17:13 for most people it's like, "Oh, okay, that's very cute.
17:16 "That's very dainty. You know, she speaks well.
17:19 "She's smart. She graduated.
17:21 "She has intelligence," all these things.
17:24 Whereas for my brother, he's like 6' dark-skinned male, tattoos,
17:28 so he fits a description for people to be afraid of him.
17:32 He fits a description for the police.
17:34 He has to have a different level of responsibility
17:37 and heightened awareness when he's in that world versus myself
17:41 because, you know, I'm just like, I'm the cool chick that you want to, like,
17:45 you want to smoke with me, you want to hang out with me.
17:48 But for him, it can come off a lot more threatening.
17:51 There's a huge mistrust in government,
17:53 in black and brown communities, for very, very good reason.
17:57 For our community, it looks like, you know, fear.
18:02 Fear and mistrust,
18:04 especially when we're talking about marijuana.
18:07 Even though studies show that white and black people in the US
18:11 consume in approximately equal amounts,
18:13 black people are four times as likely to be imprisoned for using marijuana.
18:18 In 2021, 96% of cannabis arrests by New York police involved people of colour.
18:25 Because they're just so worried about all of the factors
18:31 that are just already placed on them before they already, you know, open their mouth.
18:36 You were in a constant state of fear, as if you were a criminal,
18:45 and lived like you always had one foot in jail.
18:49 Whenever you left the region, you were branded as a Ketemi,
18:52 a drug dealer and a bandit,
18:55 even though farmers had nothing to do with any of that.
19:00 That's enough.
19:02 We've been suffering since 1956.
19:07 Your generation was asleep, and now we pay the price.
19:14 No, no, to the contrary.
19:16 We weren't asleep.
19:18 You were asleep, and we're paying for it now.
19:21 We couldn't do anything. What could we have done?
19:25 Back then, giving your honest opinion and speaking the truth,
19:30 they'd have prosecuted you and wrongfully thrown you in prison.
19:35 I'm one of them. I unjustly spent seven months in prison.
19:41 He hasn't cultivated his land at all. Not for years.
19:46 They burned my forest, my trees.
19:49 Right over here.
19:50 They burned it all.
19:52 You never demanded legalization like we have.
19:55 That's why we asked for an alternative.
19:58 An alternative or a solution?
20:00 An alternative and a solution.
20:03 There was fierce resistance.
20:05 People were against legalization.
20:07 They'd say, "Stop. Don't talk about it. It's not allowed."
20:10 There was fear.
20:12 You should trust young people more and give them a chance.
20:15 No one trusts or motivates the young people.
20:18 Exactly.
20:19 I do agree with you on that point.
20:22 For me, freedom is better. It's incomparable.
20:29 Why would I choose a way of life that's forbidden and go to jail for it?
20:34 All your life, no matter where you'd go,
20:38 being accused of being a criminal, when you're just a farmer.
20:46 After so much discussion and back and forth,
20:49 he's now about 60 to 70 percent in favor of legalization.
20:53 When I found out that my daughter and my son
21:14 were using it as a recreation drug,
21:17 I did not know, because I guess they didn't want to hurt my feelings.
21:22 Because they knew that I'm very much against it.
21:25 At the end of 2018...
21:27 That's how you know?
21:29 Yes.
21:31 That's how long I was so naive and stupid.
21:34 And somebody's clearing the truth, because I understand that it was longer.
21:42 No, you don't.
21:44 She thought that I influenced you to start smoking in college.
21:50 I've been smoking since I was 13 years old.
21:53 Jesus Christ.
21:55 I started smoking at 16, though.
21:58 Jesus.
21:59 But not regularly.
22:03 Well, I don't know. It's just like...
22:10 It is a lot to swallow.
22:12 It's jarring.
22:13 Yes, it is.
22:14 The most I can do is swallow my saliva.
22:17 You guys are so...
22:19 Are you mad now?
22:22 I'm not really mad, but just...
22:24 Do you feel scammed?
22:26 A little betrayed.
22:28 You feel betrayed?
22:29 Yeah, by the two of you guys.
22:31 You guys have been there...
22:35 From the age of a baby until now, to know that...
22:39 That's something that I disagree with.
22:41 Can I say something?
22:42 No, stop. Let me talk.
22:44 Why would you all go behind my back?
22:46 Knowing that I fight with everybody else...
22:52 As my own, bringing them up from baby to now.
22:56 I know I feel as though I was hypocrite to my nephews...
22:59 That I fight to stay in order.
23:01 And you guys go behind my back.
23:04 And that's something...
23:06 I wouldn't take out of my mind until I die...
23:09 Because I'm going to tell you guys about it...
23:11 Because you all betrayed me.
23:13 Knowing that I did not like it.
23:15 See, the difference between being betrayed and feeling betrayed...
23:18 Is the action.
23:20 Nobody betrayed you.
23:22 You felt betrayed.
23:23 I know.
23:24 How many hours a week do you think you spent with us?
23:26 You remember, you know that even though I work...
23:29 I still used to look and make sure...
23:31 No, mom. No, you didn't.
23:33 No, you didn't. You know why?
23:34 Because you were busy trying to make sure that we survived.
23:36 Which we are very grateful for.
23:38 That's fine.
23:39 That's why you all should have stayed in my perimeter.
23:42 That's why we smoked weed.
23:44 That's why we smoked weed, is what I'm trying to tell you.
23:46 We found healing from trauma, right?
23:49 Like real life trauma...
23:50 That comes with migrating to a new place...
23:53 At a certain age, in a new environment.
23:56 You know, in a different type of familial environment...
23:59 Where you're working, not at home the way you were in Guyana.
24:02 So it's a different world here.
24:04 The part that really, really, really hurts is that...
24:08 Is the 13 year.
24:09 The 13 and the 16.
24:10 The reason why I started smoking weed when I was 13 was because I was alone.
24:14 I always felt alone. I was always the middle child.
24:16 And that's always what it's been.
24:18 So I used weed to help me be in myself.
24:21 Like it helped me be comfortable with being in my head.
24:23 Because that's where I was most of the time.
24:25 Where did it go wrong?
24:26 We just wanted to smoke weed.
24:27 It didn't go wrong.
24:28 It's not wrong. That's the problem.
24:30 Who's to say that you... Even if you were in my life...
24:32 Who's to say I wouldn't have started smoking weed?
24:34 I would have still smoked weed.
24:35 I like smoking weed.
24:36 I like...
24:37 Maybe you should try it.
24:38 No, no, no.
24:39 Why would you think that I would try it?
24:41 Because we like it.
24:42 Yeah.
24:43 A lot of people like it.
24:44 No, no, no.
24:45 No, stop.
24:46 It surprised me a great lot.
24:52 Because I never knew that really, really...
24:58 It... I felt a...
25:01 In my stomach.
25:03 Tell me, Mzidu, what do you want to do when you grow up?
25:12 I want to be a university professor and teach medicine.
25:16 University professor? You'll have to study hard.
25:19 I'll keep on going until I finish my dissertation.
25:22 The university's medical faculty is in charge of analyzing cannabis,
25:25 so it can be used as medication.
25:27 Would you be interested in that kind of research?
25:29 No, not really.
25:32 Why not?
25:33 Cannabis isn't my thing.
25:37 And do you want cannabis to stay in Issyaigin?
25:41 It should stay, until they find a permanent alternative.
25:46 We'll be by their side all the way to the end.
25:52 I want people from our region to be able to show their IDs without fear
25:56 and say proudly, "I am Ketemi."
26:24 Cannabis can be a resurrecting or restoring factor
26:27 for particularly communities that are in cities, inner cities,
26:32 that are experiencing high levels of gun violence.
26:35 I feel confident and comfortable
26:38 that I'm getting better in life when it comes to cannabis and marijuana use.
26:43 If they can see honest engagement in the cannabis industry,
26:48 I think that there is an opportunity to build back
26:51 those communities in ways that are productive.
26:54 Even my grandma says things like,
26:56 "Oh, okay, well, maybe the weed is not that bad."
26:59 Before there was no maybes, ifs, ands, or buts.
27:03 It was just strictly, "This is how I feel, this is my position,
27:07 and there is nothing you can say or do about it."
27:10 It's not my choice when it comes to the cannabis business,
27:16 because I am not a cannabis person.
27:19 But as time goes by, I develop the comfort,
27:24 and as the laws change, my comfort becomes more.
27:27 And I will support her as much as I can to work towards her goal.
27:32 Her thing is, if me or my brother makes it onto a large platform or a big thing,
27:39 then she will smoke with us.
27:41 No, we will never see Stashe using it. Never.
27:45 Stashe will never use that. Nope.
27:48 [Music]
27:51 Do you want me to take the glasses off?
27:59 My memory is giving out. I couldn't remember everything.
28:08 If you want me to repeat that again, forget it.
28:12 [Music]
28:16 [Music]
28:19 It's still working.
28:23 [Laughter]
28:26 Let's do that again.