BBC Documentary looking to speak to the cannabis community

[Doc-U-Maker]

i can give a written account of what its like for me? i could probably write the whole show for you tho :\
it would be nice to undo the "skunk causes mental illness, its not like the stuff you smoked in the 60's" lines the government use, 60's sativa weed is higher in thc=more anxiety.

Hi Smokey,

I gather from you saying you can give a written account means you don't want any filming done with you, identity obscured or not? Unfortunately in our doc we are going to use just moving pictures.

Thanks for the offer of writing the show but we are not trying to work to a script and just tell the stories of people we can film with. I know you were half joking by the way!

 

[Doc-U-Maker]

why does he not go to his nearest college or uni and follow his nose ...this would be easier than trying to persuade people on here to do it -people here deliberately hide there identities for obvious reasons . just a thought

I suppose I thought if I just went to a uni then we would only get one view point rather than a number. Wouldn't not want to give everyone the chance to be involved if they choose to do so.

Cheers for the tip though.

 

[Doc-U-Maker]

Interesting project for sure, especially if you intend it to be objective, but have you thought that the outdoor growing season you're interested in is about to finish? "Later in the year" has to be between may/june and october.


h

Thanks Hanuman. Yes I'm aware the harvest is upon us. This is why I am so keen to speak to people that grow outdoors earlier rather than later to try and film them on their harvest. As mentioned I am not into exposing people or their grow spots and we can talk about how best to go about this on the phone.

We are hoping to transmit in late Jan so really want to get our filming done by 2nd week of November. In an ideal world. Which means its getting anxious time for me in terms of speaking to people.

Thanks all for your posts so far.

 

[GMT]

When the home office demand a list of everyone involved in the making of this documentary, under threat of imprisonment, what form of protection would you, yourself, have against it? In the absense of such protection, why would you expect people to believe that you would not turn over such a list?

 

[the herbsman uk]

this sounds intresting!

 

[Herbal extasy]

Hi BBC guy. I love those good documentaries BBC do, but please, if you distribute those to other european broadcast companies, please insist that it is shown as it is. Last BBC documentary we saw from Cannabis was somewhat cut(10 minutes) here for favourite against it. Most positive comments were cut away.

 

[Sandnut]

you should really post a picture of you bart or whatever your name was, a face would give more trust than just a wall of text, I doubt any big time grower would like to have you filming their outdoor grow, its gonna be hard for you to find a person willing to do that, indoors will be easier since you can be transported to/from with bakalavas and the surrounding is not exposing where the grow really is, also you should get more into how you protect the grower if police should demand infomation of any kind.. people want to feel safe since their doing this to help YOU, good luck!

 

[Doc-U-Maker]

When the home office demand a list of everyone involved in the making of this documentary, under threat of imprisonment, what form of protection would you, yourself, have against it? In the absense of such protection, why would you expect people to believe that you would not turn over such a list?

The advice we have been given is that the police are unlikely to persue us for it. If they did want our records then they would have to go through a strong legal challenge that the BBC would fight against. I have no interest in handing over people to the police, I am not here for that purpose. I would like to tell a range of different perspective from people who are involved with cannabis.

Hope that answer it.

 

[cheesey]

just came off the phone with bart , from what he has said the program will show both sides . unlike other programs what have been on tv in the past . thanks for the info bart

ukc

 

[GMT]

I really hope that the other side, isn't someone who suffers from mental health problems, who rather than accepting he's made that way and smoked cannabis, blames the cannabis for his mental health problems.

 

[Doc-U-Maker]

Hi BBC guy. I love those good documentaries BBC do, but please, if you distribute those to other european broadcast companies, please insist that it is shown as it is. Last BBC documentary we saw from Cannabis was somewhat cut(10 minutes) here for favourite against it. Most positive comments were cut away.

Hi I am not sure if we are going to distribute internationally yet. I suppose they cut it back if it needs ad breaks which is a shame. One of the joys of the BBC, no ad breaks!!

 

[Grat3fulh3ad]

Well, I'm not from the UK nor do I live there, but I have some remarks I'd like to make.


First off, I'd rather get my world news from the BBC than from any US media outlet, and I place more trust in their general accuracy than most all of our news stateside.

Secondly, I am good friends with several of the people who seem keen on participating, and if this docu is going to end up as billed, then I could not think of better choices to represent our community than Dr.D, truecannabliss, and oldpink.

Please do a good job with this thing, Bart, the majority of the public is unduly influenced by their television and the world needs the truth more than news organizations need sensationalized stories. Additionally, when safeguarding identities, don't forget that these are real people with real families, and you have a real responsibility to them to repay their assistance by taking every possible care with their anonymity.


just my 2¢

 

[Grat3fulh3ad]

I really hope that the other side, isn't someone who suffers from mental health problems, who rather than accepting he's made that way and smoked cannabis, blames the cannabis for his mental health problems.

I think this is a hugh part of the public perception problem.

first off that the government and media usually present the cart before the horse, when reporting correlation in mental health issues and self-medicating with cannabis. correrlation does not indicate causation.

secondly, when people present marijuana use as an excuse for their bad behavior, or as a cop-out for their failings... the media is all to quick to present the story as though the person's excuse were a real reason. 'the weed' never made anyone do it, regardless if that's the excuse or not.

 

[Grat3fulh3ad]

The advice we have been given is that the police are unlikely to persue us for it. If they did want our records then they would have to go through a strong legal challenge that the BBC would fight against. I have no interest in handing over people to the police, I am not here for that purpose. I would like to tell a range of different perspective from people who are involved with cannabis.

Hope that answer it.

In the mind of most of the people involved, "having no interest in handing over people" might not be enough. You have to be willing to "have interest in making damn sure people are not handed over"

 

[Doc-U-Maker]

you should really post a picture of you bart or whatever your name was, a face would give more trust than just a wall of text, I doubt any big time grower would like to have you filming their outdoor grow, its gonna be hard for you to find a person willing to do that, indoors will be easier since you can be transported to/from with bakalavas and the surrounding is not exposing where the grow really is, also you should get more into how you protect the grower if police should demand infomation of any kind.. people want to feel safe since their doing this to help YOU, good luck!

I didn't realise a picture of my face was important. I'm not that good looking!!

At this initial stage we are simply looking to chat to people on phone then if they did want to take part then we can talk about confidentiality issues.

Don't want people to worry so much just over a phone call.

 

[Doc-U-Maker]

Well, I'm not from the UK nor do I live there, but I have some remarks I'd like to make.


First off, I'd rather get my world news from the BBC than from any US media outlet, and I place more trust in their general accuracy than most all of our news stateside.

Secondly, I am good friends with several of the people who seem keen on participating, and if this docu is going to end up as billed, then I could not think of better choices to represent our community than Dr.D, truecannabliss, and oldpink.

Please do a good job with this thing, Bart, the majority of the public is unduly influenced by their television and the world needs the truth more than news organizations need sensationalized stories. Additionally, when safeguarding identities, don't forget that these are real people with real families, and you have a real responsibility to them to repay their assistance by taking every possible care with their anonymity.


just my 2¢

Thanks for this. We, and certainly I, really do care about our contributors and I for one that someone's life is more important than a TV programme. So we will look at making sure everyone is happy with what we are filming at all times.

 

[Honkytonk]

What's the title of your docu?

Has it something catchy like reefer madness and devil's weed in it?

Good luck, I'm looking forward to the finished thing.

 

[GMT]

Bart, I realise that you must think to yourself in private, what a bunch of parranoid guys these folks are, I guess cannabis does make you parra. But you have to appreciate that we are a hunted group of individuals, who only survive because we are good at hiding what we do. You are talking about putting a spot light on our activities, and that makes those who are good at hiding seek cover. This is why it is important that someone who has our details, yet is not a part of the scene, understands that if they don't take every precaution as to our safety, then we face our doors being kicked in, our dogs shot, our family terrorised, being kidnapped and held against our will, publicly villanised, imprissoned and upon our release, having our employment prospects reduced to zero. It is this rather than the cannabis itself that creates the parranoia.

 

[VerdantGreen]

yes that is the thing, really the best way to represent the cannabis scene in the UK would be to come up with some mechanism whereby people could tell their story or air their views without having to go on camera and with some kind of guarantee of anonymity.

if you just took the people who were happy to have their face on camera, a good proportion of them would be folks who were smoking because it was 'cool' or as an act of rebellion.
the people you really want to talk to and get the story from are those who have been keeping their heads down and growing their own for years and years, but to get those people to come out of the woodwork is going to be tough because the very reason why they have got away with it for so many years is because they have kept their heads down. you could call it paranoia, but a bit of paranoia can be a good thing if it makes you more careful.

are there any ways you could give the kind of assurances that these people would need ??

VG

 

[Doc-U-Maker]

HI VG,

We can go down the route of obscuring identities and film things in a way that do not give away people's locations. I am happy to speak to people on the phone about how we go about this. I am not wanting to force people to do things that they do not want to do and would prefer to work together to make people happy.

Bart