I just dedicated the last hour of my life to watching the Discovery Channel’s latest marijuana TV show ‘Pot Cops.’ To be perfectly upfront, I wish I had half of that hour back. During the show, I kept asking myself ‘what is the point of this show?’ I am a big fan of the Discovery Channel, and I find most of their shows educational. However, there was little to be learned from this blatant attempt at spreading Reefer Madness. Did Harry Anslinger create this show?
The name of the episode is ‘cartel threat.’ However, throughout the show, they keep showing legal medical marijuana gardens, and small recreational gardens. It is sad to see the creators try as hard as they can to blur the line between legal medical marijuana and illegal cartel marijuana. Over and over, the narrator and cops kept talking about the violence and danger associated with marijuana, yet not once did they capture any of it on film.
I liked at the end of the episode when they showed a cartel grow, finally, and highlighted the environmental impact such grows have on the areas they are occurring. But I would rather have seen an entire episode about it, with parts dedicated to explanations of how these gardens are different than responsible medical marijuana gardens, and how if prohibition was gone, these grows wouldn’t occur. About the only thing that can be learned from this show is that as long as marijuana is illegal, precious resources will be spent to to try to eradicate it in a never ending battle.
Even the Humboldt County Sheriff admitted that it’s a losing battle. He also admitted that local gardens, not cartels, generate enormous sums for the local economy. Imagine if the State of California gave up the sham that is marijuana prohibition, and also the rest of the United States. How much money would that generate? How many cartels gardens would be be gone because the system would be in place for taxing and regulating marijuana?
If the show is titled ‘Cartel Threat’ than why did they have any non-cartel marijuana gardens and growers in the episode? Why was there not one cartel member caught on film, much less caught and put in handcuffs? Why did I have to watch the cops laugh when they saw a garden, claiming that the guy growing it ‘must be really sick?’ Do these cops and show producers not realize that it’s possible to grow for more people than just yourself? I know people in California that grow for dozens of people, which guess what, results in lots and lots of plants. All of the end recipients of the marijuana use it only for medicinal purposes, yet they are indirectly bashed during most of the show. Ridiculous.
I would like to see an educated activist given equal time during the episode to explain that the recreational marijuana community, as well as the medical marijuana community, wants what the show claims the cops also want – to eradicate the black market for marijuana and to keep cartels from infiltrating public lands. The ‘pot cops’ can spend countless hours, and untold sums of resources, and still not succeed. Yet, if marijuana was legalized, it would happen virtually overnight, and the cops would be better off, the environment would be better off, non-violent growers would be better off, patients would be better off, tax payers would be better off, etc. Hopefully the Discovery Channel sees this, and creates a show that finally, finally is accurate. Weed Wars was good, but needed to be expanded on. Weed Country and Pot Cops is a total blight. I guarantee if a solid, accurate, expansive show was created, it would be very popular, and people would actually be educated from it.
Please do not watch Pot Cops. Supporting Reefer Madness via viewers is the last thing that needs to happen, as it encourages more shows like this one.
