Montana's Medical Marijuana Battle: "Code of the West" Filmmaker Rebecca Richman Cohen

"Marijuana was ubiquitous in Montana, it still is," says Rebecca Richman Cohen, director of the new documentary Code of the West. "Medical marijuana didn't change the culture of Montana."

The film chronicles the legislative battle over a bill that would repeal the state's 2004 legalization of medical marijuana. The fight was spurred by some Montanans' concerns over the appearance of medical marijuana dispensaries and advertisements in age-inappropriate areas.

A culturally conservative state with a libertarian individualist streak and a popular Democratic governor (who appears in the film wielding a cattle-branding iron to veto the repeal bill), Code of the West shows a state struggling with an "anxiety about the identity of Montana...and a nostalgia for a past that was really imagined."

The film premiered at this year's South By Southwest festival, and can be viewed on numerous video on-demand outlets.

About 5.30 minutes.

Produced by Anthony L. Fisher. Camera by Jim Epstein.

Music: "Southern Born" by Waylon Thornton (http://waylonthornton.tumblr.com)


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