Cannabis Science to Film Specialty Documentary

Political Activist Filmmaker Kevin Booth Retained by Cannabis Science to Film Specialty Documentary
DENVER, Mar 19, 2012
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/political-activist-filmmaker-kevin-booth-retained-by-cannabis-science-to-film-specialty-documentary-2012-03-19

Cannabis Science, Inc. a pioneering U.S. biotech company developing pharmaceutical cannabis (marijuana) products, is thrilled to announce that the company has retained filmmaker Kevin Booth to collaborate on a documentary researching cannabis as a medicine and the truth behind the science of marijuana.

Many people know Kevin Booth’s work with the late comedian, Bill Hicks. Kevin produced most of Bill’s CDs and videos that led to the comedian’s own HBO specials and multiple appearances on David Letterman. The story of Kevin’s seventeen-year friendship and working partnership with Bill Hicks was recently explored in a feature length BBC documentary that just ended a year long run of festivals and theatrical screenings. After Bill’s death from pancreatic cancer in 1994, Kevin’s filmmaking took on a political turn and he produced documentaries with talk show host Alex Jones about the incident in Waco, Texas, the American two-party political system, and 9/11. In 2005, Kevin traveled to the UK in order to promote his book titled “Agent of Evolution” about his friendship with Bill Hicks - published by Harper Collins.

Several of Kevin’s family members died as a result of alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceutical use. In 2003 Kevin began investigating the drug war in the United States and produced the documentary “American Drug War: The Last White Hope.” In his investigations, he discovered the United States government considers marijuana more dangerous than crack cocaine or crystal meth. Kevin sought to separate fact from fiction by traveling across the United States, documenting the “fallout” from the War on Drugs and seeking possible solutions and alternatives that have worked elsewhere. Kevin has toured the country, showing his film and lecturing at universities in hope of sparking a meaningful debate. “American Drug War” won best feature documentary at several film festivals from coast to coast and aired continuously on the Showtime network between 2008-2010. During this same time the film was also broadcasted on major networks in Canada, Australia, Poland, Lebanon and South Africa. Kevin recently returned from filming in Juarez Mexico for the follow up to “American Drug War" and is aiming for the sequel’s release later this year.

Kevin Booth’s body of work also include “How Weed Won the West" (a light hearted and humorous look into the California Cannabis culture) “Bill Hicks - Sane Man”, multiple music videos, feature length comedy concerts of Bill Hicks, Fear Factor’s Joe Rogan and groundbreaking comic Doug Stanhope. Kevin’s production of the Hick’s CD “Rant in E Minor” was recently awarded the 11th best comedy album of all time by Spin magazine competing against Bill Cosby, Chris Rock, Lenny Bruce, Rodney Dangerfield, Eddie Murphy, Sam Kinison, Woody Allen, George Carlin and Richard Pryor just to mention a few. Kevin’s audio productions “Rant in E Minor”, “Arizona Bay” and “Marble Head Johnson” all contain music written and performed by Kevin Booth and Bill Hick who first started playing music together in a high school punk-rock band named STRESS.

Today Kevin runs Sacred Cow Productions dba SCP Enterprises and self distributes through his own sites including SacredCow.com, AmericanDrugWar.com and Amazon. Several of his titles can be found distributed through Warner Brothers and Gravitas VOD that has now broken Booth’s work into the Latin market on both Netflix and ITUNES.

As previously announced, Cannabis Science has begun pre-production of its documentary, in which prohibition of marijuana, medicinal benefits of the plant, and international medical marijuana programs will be explored. Booth’s interests and demonstrated experience will be a true asset to Cannabis Science’s endeavors. The documentary will expose audience members to the subject of medical marijuana so that they may gain a better understanding of the research, science, and planning that goes into running Cannabis Science, one of the top marijuana research companies. The documentary will teach viewers about the medicinal benefits for a wide variety of conditions and show them that prohibition is unnecessary. This is clearly a topic for which Kevin Booth will provide great assistance, and Cannabis Science is excited to begin this project.

About Cannabis Science, Inc.

Cannabis Science, Inc. is at the forefront of pharmaceutical grade medical marijuana research and development. Our formulations will address the needs of patients choosing to use concentrated cannabis extracts to treat their ailments. Eventually, all Americans will have access to a safe and effective FDA approved medicine regardless of which state they live in. To maintain that marijuana is a dangerous, addictive drug with no medical value is scientifically absurd. Cannabis medicines, with no effective lethal dose, are far safer than aspirin, acetaminophen, and most other OTC drugs that kill thousands of Americans every year.

The Company works with world authorities on phytocannabinoid science targeting critical illnesses, and adheres to scientific methodologies to develop, produce and commercialize phytocannabinoid-based pharmaceutical products. In sum, we are dedicated to the creation of cannabis-based medicines, both with and without psychoactive properties, to treat disease and the symptoms of disease, as well as for general health maintenance.

Forward Looking Statements

This Press Release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934. A statement containing works such as "anticipate," "seek," intend," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "project," "plan," or similar phrases may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Some or all of the events or results anticipated by these forward-looking statements may not occur. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include the future U.S. and global economies, the impact of competition, and the Company's reliance on existing regulations regarding the use and development of cannabis-based drugs. Cannabis Science, Inc. does not undertake any duty nor does it intend to update the results of these forward-looking statements.

SOURCE: Cannabis Science Inc.

Dr. Robert J. Melamede, 1-888-889-0888
President & CEO
CannabisScience.com
info@cannabisscience.com

Robert Kane, 1-561-234-6929 Investor Relations Management rkane@cannabisscience.com info@cannabisscience.com

Awesome Quotes: Wall Street

"I had a vision of a way we could have no enemies ever again, if you're interested in this. Anybody interested in hearing this?

It's kind of an interesting theory, and all we have to do is make one decisive act and we can rid the world of all our enemies at once.

Here's what we do. You know all that money we spend on nuclear weapons and defense every year? Trillions of dollars.

Instead, if we spent that money feeding and clothing the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded ... not one ... we could as one race explore inner and outer space together in peace, forever."

Bill Hicks, Comedian
December 16th, 1961 - February 26th, 1994
Okay, this quote isn't exactly about Wall Street, but it might as well be...

“I spent 20 years overseas, I’m a war correspondent. I came back and realized that corporations have carried out a coup d’état in my country.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges

“'Fortune' is a word for having a lot of money and for having a lot of luck, but that does not mean the word has two definitions."
Lemony Snicket

“I think historians when they look at this time, they’re going to wonder why the wealthy overplayed their hand like this. Why would they, when they had it so good? They had the middle class voting for the politicians that the wealthy bought, everything was running just fine, they were posting profits of a billion a year, but that wasn’t enough for them.”
Michael Moore

“I think there’s a difference between Wall Street and capitalism. I’m good with capitalism. I have a lot of trouble with Wall Street.”
Patrick Byrne, Overstock.com CEO

How Corporate America Is Pushing Us All Off a Cliff...

a letter from Michael Moore
Friday, November 19th, 2010

Friends,

When someone talks about pushing you off a cliff, it's just human nature to be curious about them. Who are these people, you wonder, and why would they want to do such a thing?

That's what I was thinking when corporate whistleblower Wendell Potter revealed that, when "Sicko" was being released in 2007, the health insurance industry's PR firm, APCO Worldwide, discussed their Plan B: "Pushing Michael Moore off a cliff."

But after looking into it, it turns out, it's nothing personal! APCO wants to push everyone off a cliff.

APCO was hatched in 1984 as a subsidiary of the Washington, D.C. law firm Arnold & Porter -- best known for its years of representing the giant tobacco conglomerate Philip Morris. APCO set up fake "grassroots" organizations around the country to do the bidding of Big Tobacco. All of a sudden, "normal, everyday, in-no-way-employed-by-Philip Morris Americans" were popping up everywhere. And it turned out they were outraged -- outraged! -- by exactly the things APCO's clients hated (such as, the government telling tobacco companies what to do). In particular, they were "furious" that regular people had the right to sue big corporations...you know, like Philip Morris. (For details, see the 2000 report "The CALA Files" by my friends and colleagues Carl Deal and Joanne Doroshow.)

Right about now you may be wondering: how many Americans get pushed off a cliff by Big Tobacco every year? The answer is 443,000 Americans die every year due to smoking. That's a big cliff.

With this success under their belts, APCO created "The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition." TASSC, funded partly by Exxon, had a leading role in a planned campaign by the fossil fuel industry to create doubt about global warming. The problem for Big Oil speaking out against global warming, according to the campaign's own leaked documents, was that the public could see the "vested interest" that oil companies had in opposing environmental laws. APCO's job was to help conceal those oil company interests.

And boy, have they ever succeeded. Polls now show that, as the world gets hotter, Americans are getting less and less worried about it.

How big is this particular cliff? According to the World Health Organization, climate change contributes -- right now -- to the deaths of 150,000 people every year. By 2030 it may be double that. And after that...well, the sky is literally the limit! I don't think it's crazy to say APCO may rack up even bigger numbers here than they have with tobacco.

With this track record, you can see why, when the health insurance industry wanted to come after "Sicko," they went straight to APCO. The "worst case," as their leaked documents say, was that "Sicko evolves into a sustained populist movement." That simply could not be allowed to happen. Something obviously had to be done.

As Wendell Potter explains, APCO ran their standard playbook, setting up something called "Health Care America." Health Care America, according to Potter, "was received by mainstream reporters, including the New York Times, as a legitimate organization when it was nothing but a front group set up by APCO Worldwide. It was not anything approaching what it was reporting to be: a 'grassroots organization.' It was a sham group."

Health Care America showed up online in 2007 (the year "Sicko" was released) and disappeared quickly by early 2008. You can still find their website archived here. As you'll see, their "moderated forum" allowed normal, everyday, in-no-way-employed-by-the-insurance-industry Americans to speak out. For instance, here's something Nicole felt very strongly about:

"Moore shouldn't be allowed to call his film a 'documentary.' It should be called a political commercial. We need to fix our health care system, but we shouldn’t accept a Hollywood moviemaker’s political views as the starting point."

Here's what Wendell Potter revealed about the insurance industry's media strategy:

"As we would do the media training, we would always have someone refer to him as 'Hollywood entertainer' or 'Hollywood moviemaker Michael Moore.' They don't want you to think that it was a documentary that had some truth."

Thanks for your perspective, "Nicole"!

Now, how big was THAT cliff? A pretty good size -- according to a recent study, 45,000 Americans die every year because they don't have health insurance.

And here we are in 2010. A lesser PR firm might be resting on its laurels at this point, content to sit back and watch hundreds of thousands of people continue to be pushed off the various cliffs they've built. But not APCO! Right now they've taken on their biggest challenge yet: leading a giant, multi-million dollar effort to help Wall Street "earn back the trust of the American people."

We may never know the size of this particular cliff. But we can be sure it's gigantic. According to the New York Times, one of the things Wall Street's recession gave us is "the crippling of the government program that provides life-sustaining antiretroviral drugs to Americans with H.I.V. or AIDS who cannot afford them." Internationally, organizations fighting AIDS and other diseases are "hugely afraid" of cutbacks in funding.

Of course, there are the 101 ways recessions kill quietly. For instance, children's hospitals are seeing a sharp 55% rise in the abuse of babies by parents.

And that's just the previous cliff. If APCO and its Wall Street co-conspirators lull us into turning our backs on them again, we can be sure the next cliff -- the next crash -- will be much bigger.

Anyway, this is all just a way for me to say to APCO: No hard feelings! My getting mad at you would be like a chicken who's still happily pecking away getting mad at McDonald's. Compared to the millions you've already turned into McNuggets, you've actually treated me much, much BETTER! Spying on my family, planting smears and lies about me, privately badgering movie critics to give the film a poor review, scaring Americans into believing they'd be committing a near-act of treason were they to go to the theater and see my movie -- hey, ya done good, health insurance companies of America. And, most important, you stopped the nation from getting true universal health care. Good job!

There's only one problem -- I'm not one of those "liberals" you fund in Congress, the ones who fear your power.

I'm me. And that, sadly, is not good for you.

Yours in good health,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com

P.S. It seems to me that APCO's discussion of pushing me off a cliff should legitimately be part of their Wikipedia page. And why not something about their role in Wall Street's new PR offensive? So I'm asking everyone interested to write something up that meets Wikipedia's guidelines and help bring the APCO Worldwide entry up to date. Post it somewhere online and send a tweet about it to @mmflint. I'll award a signed copy of "Sicko" by noon Sunday to the best entry...and then deputize you to post it on Wikipedia for real and make sure APCO's minions don't take it down. Just be sure afterward not to walk near any cliffs!

P.P.S. The late, great comedian Bill Hicks had some thoughts about marketing and the people who do it.

Bill Hicks: the man who said the unsayable

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/comedy/7690991/Bill-Hicks-the-man-who-said-the-unsayable.html

Bill Hicks: the man who said the unsayable
Bill Hicks took stand-up comedy to new heights – and depths – but died at just 32, on the brink of global fame. A hard-edged new biopic reveals and intense and dark young comic.
Andy Fyfe
12 May 2010

In Edinburgh in the summer of 1991, I became the first British journalist to interview Bill Hicks, a man once described as “the most dangerous comedian in the world”. The legendary American stand-up was jittery about how his first audiences outside North America would react to his volatile, controversial act. I was young, and nervous about meeting him. “OK, well, this is the strangest interview I’ve ever done,” he snapped after a few minutes, bringing an abrupt end to my attempts at small talk. “Are we actually going to get to any questions?”

Cowboy-booted, chain-smoking Hicks was the most significant American comedian of his generation, the natural successor to Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor.

He was rude, angry, uncompromising and saw within popular culture a conspiracy to dumb people down so that they could be more easily controlled. He died in 1994, at the age of 32, but still ranks high on most lists of the greatest comics of all time.

A new documentary American: The Bill Hicks Story serves as a reminder of how lucky I was to get away with a mild rebuke. In one clip taken from a live performance, he rounds on a heckler. “Once again,” he screams at the audience, “you, the pee’d on masses, ruin anything anyone tries to do because you can’t do it on your own.”

Hicks’ appearance in Edinburgh that year felt like a one-man stand-up revolution, a provocation to British comics.

But it was also important for Hicks, whose career was stalling in the US after comedy venues became reluctant to book him thanks to his previous wild behaviour, largely fuelled by alcohol and drugs. Despite cleaning up in 1988, he still struggled to get work but on tours of Britain and Ireland he was treated like a rock star and built a devoted following.

In Edinburgh, he reduced an audience of 300 to hysterical tears, with an assault on the modern world that was as brutal as it was brilliant. The first Gulf War? “That wasn’t a war. A war is two sides fighting each other. Iraq: 150,000 casualties. USA: 79. Does that mean if we had sent over 80 guys we woulda still won?” Abortion? “Pro-lifers, don’t link your arms around clinics. Link them around cemeteries. Let’s see how committed you really are.” The Media? “By the way, if anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourself. Seriously, there’s no joke coming, you are Satan’s spawn, filling the world with bile and garbage. Kill yourself now; it’s the only way to save your souls. Now, on with the show… ”

It was confrontational, often ugly stuff; an approach Hicks defined as “cynical humanism”. But he made you want to follow him into battle against the demons of evil, oppression, banality.

His life story is told in the film, which combines interviews with family and friends, performance footage and animated montages.

Born in 1961, he was raised in a strict churchgoing family in Houston. “People thought he was raised a fundamentalist Christian – hell no!” objects his brother Steve during an interview in the film. “We were Southern Baptists and that’s much worse.” His comic epiphany came watching Woody Allen in the 1967 James Bond spoof, Casino Royale. According to friend and early comedy partner Dwight Slade, “he couldn’t believe you could make a living being a comic”.

When Houston’s first comedy club, The Comedy Workshop, opened, the teenage Hicks would sneak out his bedroom window to perform at the club; the snippets of those early performances shown in the film are staggering. Even at 17 Hicks’ stage mannerisms are intact: the way he stalks the stage, the frustrated hair smoothing, the ever-present jabbing cigarette.

From there the story moves with 19-year-old Hicks to a disenchanting brush with Hollywood, and his return to Houston as a 21-year-old stand-up. There his drug and alcohol intake spiralled, and eventually he left for New York to clean up. By the early Nineties, Hicks was back on track with British tours, monologues on Late Night with David Letterman, festival appearances, and CD and video releases of his material, but he continued to challenge the status quo. His last routine for Letterman in October 1993, which featured an attack on pro-lifers that he had been using for years, was deemed too controversial and cut from the show. Hicks, typically, saw conspiracy: during a commercial break in the show he was cut from, the network ran a pro-life advertisement.

The fall out from the censorship gained him more notoriety in the US than any of his previous appearances, but it was too late. Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the previous April, he died in February 1994.

Most comedy is about taking our minds off our problems. Hicks didn’t want anyone distracted, he wanted us to fight back. “The American dream is a crock,” he told me back in 1991. “Stop wanting everything. Everyone should wear jeans and have three T-shirts, eat rice and beans. Don’t eat McDonalds. Don’t buy suits. F--- ’em, OK?”

His message comes across in American: The Bill Hicks Story, but the film serves up Hicks the comedian at the expense of the man. A huge hole in the story is the absence of his manager and fiancée, Colleen McGarr. Maybe she’ll surface in the Hicks biopic Russell Crowe is developing, but her input might have softened the documentary’s dark, intense image of Hicks. There was certainly a softer side to his nature, if not his comedy.

Hicks’ misanthropy had a heart: redemption is yours if you open your eyes and use your freedom of speech. No other comedian demanded that right to free speech – and a platform on which to preach it – as brilliantly as Bill Hicks.

Bill Hicks on Jay Leno

Robert Sterling

The latest drama around the Jay Leno flop has reminded me of this bit from Bill Hicks, found on his Rant in E Minor:

I'm kinda bummed because I'm missing my favorite cultural trainwreck, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. I'm like a rubber-necker, man. Every night it's the crash of fucking metal when that show starts. Me and my friends have a little office pool, wondering exactly, which episode, which guest is going to be on when Jay finally puts a 9 millimeter in his mouth and blows his Doritos-shilling head off his fucking body. I think it's going to be Joey Lawrence, from the show Blossom. Other of my friends beg to differ and think Patrick Duffy a more likely culprit.

Leno voice: So, hi everyone, welcome to the show. Tonight we have Joey Lawrence. Hi Joey, how are ya'. It's good to see you again and boy it was always my comedic dream to be 44-years old and interviewing a little Tony Danza-wannabe every three months. Boy, I'm fulfilled as a human spiritually. So, so, anyway, Joey, you're 16 now, you're sixteen years old?

Joey voice: yeah

Leno voice: That's great. You're sixteen. Got a license, you driving, you driving?

Joey voice: yeah

Leno voice: That's great. You got a license, you driving, you got a car? You got a car?

Joey voice: yeah

Leno voice: You got a girlfriend, hmm? You dating somebody, anybody special?

Joey voice: yeah, no, well she thinks so, I don't. hee hee hee hee

Leno voice: Good God, what have I done with my life?

Boom! His brains splew out, forming an NBC peacock on the wall behind him. 'Cause he's a company man to the bitter fucking end.

To hear this audio:

http://soquoted.vox.com/library/audio/6a00cd9710dcc44cd500fad69c2aaf0005.html

Transcript courtesy of the So Quoted Blog:

http://soquoted.blogspot.com/2008/07/i-miss-bill-hicks.html

Humor Break: Bill Hicks

"I'm so sick of arming the world, then sending troops over to destroy the fucking arms, you know what I mean? We keep arming these little countries, then we go and blow the shit out of them. We're like the bullies of the world, y'know. We're like Jack Palance in the movie Shane, throwing the pistol at the sheepherder's feet.

"Pick it up."

"I don't wanna pick it up, Mister, you'll shoot me."... Read More

"Pick up the gun."

"Mister, I don't want no trouble. I just came downtown here to get some hard rock candy for my kids, some gingham for my wife. I don't even know what gingham is, but she goes through about ten rolls a week of that stuff. I ain't looking for no trouble, Mister."

"Pick up the gun."

(He picks it up. Three shots ring out.)

"You all saw him - he had a gun."

Bill Hicks on Letterman

Kenn Thomas
SteamshovelPress.com

In case you missed it last night, Mary Hicks and the previously censored Bill
Hicks bit is up at YouTube in three parts, the last of which (w/Bill) is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBC1dKGO2_A

Russell Crowe as Bill Hicks?

http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2008/08/crowe-bill-hick.html

Russell Crowe as Bill Hicks?
Aug 25, 2008
by Gary Susman
Categories: Deals, Film, To Care or Not to Care

Not sure how I missed the news that Russell Crowe wants to play Bill Hicks in a biopic of the late comedian. The actor is quoted talking about the project here, and a recent radio interview with longtime Hicks collaborator Kevin Booth (h/t to the Dead Frog comedy blog) confirms Crowe's role in commissioning a screenplay, which is not yet finished. I'm also not sure how I feel about the idea, since Crowe (who's not known for his jocular side) is already 12 years older than Hicks was when he died at 32, and since a botched biopic would trivialize Hicks as just another E! True Hollywood Story casualty, a guy who smoked too much and courted controversy and died of cancer on the cusp of fame. On the other hand, Booth's participation should ensure that Hicks gets the respect he deserves; and Crowe is protean and versatile enough to play pretty much anybody (Exhibit A: The Insider). Besides, Crowe reportedly wants to focus on performance sequences than biographical scenes, and anything that gets Hicks' legendary stand-up material more circulation (even in mimicked form) is good.

Bill Hicks Predicting the Death of Jesse Helms

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bill_Hicks

"You know that when Jesse Helms finally dies, he's gonna commit suicide out back in a washtub underneath a pecan tree. He's gonna slash his wrists and he's gonna write in blood, 'I've been a bad boy.' And you know they're gonna find the skins of young kids drying in his attic, swarms of horseflies going in and out of the eaves, and on CNN over and over, his wife going, 'I always wondered about Jesse's collection of little shoes…'