Yvette Fisher BTEC Sub Dip Media Task 7

BBC Cannabis

Ex-EastEnders star James Alexandrou explores the truth about Britain's favourite illegal drug, from cannabis sold on the street to the hidden world of organised crime. He explores the use and effects of Britain's most popular illegal drug. James Alexandrou was caught smoking cannabis by the tabloids when he left the soap. Now he wants to find out the truth about the most popular illegal drug in Britain, see the lengths people will go to get it and discover exactly where it comes from. James looks at the effects of the drug on the streets of Britain, meeting a 17-year-old who smokes weed with his parents and a mum-of-three who uses cannabis to keep her emotions in check. He meets people who are growing cannabis illegally for themselves and goes out on patrol with a police drug squad as they clamp down on large-scale cannabis growers. He also travels to California, the first state in America to license cannabis for medicinal use.

The target audience of this documentary is both males and females from their teens upwards. This is because he finds that it is not just teens that have been smoking and growing their own weed, but adults have been doing so too. Therefore this documentary will appeal to a broader audience.

Yvette Fisher BTEC Sub Dip Media Task 7

Issues have been raised within the documentary about cannabis. For example, a researcher that used to work for the government found that smoking cannabis was less harmful than smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol and was also less dangerous than horse riding. Because his results did not correspond with the government’s ideas on cannabis, he was fired. James was curious as to whether the ban against smoking cannabis was based on scientific evidence or if it was just due to individual’s opinions. Another issue highlighted within the documentary was that in some states in America where cannabis is allowed to be smoked if a medical permit is owned, majority of those who owned the medical permit smoked the drug for recreational purposes whilst some individuals in England who genuinely need drugs to help with their medical conditions have to smoke it illegally and have a risk of getting arrested.

Yvette Fisher BTEC Sub Dip Media Task 7

James also found that cannabis is addictive even though some argue that it’s not addictive at all. In addition to this, even though it is illegal to smoke or sell this drug, it is perfectly legal to purchase the growing kit and the seeds, however as soon as you plant and water the seed to grow the cannabis it is breaking the law. This causes a grey area in the as to where the law stands on cannabis.

The political agenda behind this documentary was to find out if cannabis is beneficial or if it is addictive and can cause harm. It was also to inform the viewers about the drug wars and to put across the penalties of possessing and selling the drug.

The reason behind this documentary being aired is because after the presenter was caught smoking cannabis he was shocked at the public response. He then wanted to do his own investigation into cannabis and its pros and cons.

Yvette Fisher BTEC Sub Dip Media Task 7

This documentary used a lot of close ups with the cannabis plant in order to familiarise those who do no know what the plant looks like and to get a clear view of the drug being talked about.

Interviews were conducted in order to gain primary sources of information and have most of our questions about cannabis answered. Within these interviews people spoke about their different experiences with weed, some good and some bad. This was shown in order for people to decide whether they were in favour of cannabis being smoked, grown and sold, or if they were against it after getting different insights from different experiences that the people being interviewed had with this drug.