Savage Garden

Oliver Stone’s latest flick deals with a topic that’s very close to his heart

Oliver Stone’s Savages is a tale of peaceful marijuana growers facing off against the Mexican drug mob. After refusing an “offer they can’t refuse,” the main characters experience the type of violence that occurs when gangsters run the marijuana business instead of honest compassionate citizens. Stone, who is no stranger to politically relevant narratives, did not adopt a preachy tone in his latest film. Still, Savages does give him a platform to speak about his views on cannabis.

“There’s good weed everywhere in the world, but my God, these Americans are brilliant,” the 65-year-old told the Associated Press last month. The three-time Oscar-winning director has smoked in every corner of the world, but he is definitely a “Made in the USA” type of guy. Maybe it is his appreciation of homegrown product that makes him such a proponent of legalization.

He continued, “[Legalization] can be done. It can be done legally, safely, healthy, and it can be taxed and the government can pay for education and stuff like that . . . That would be my personal solution, but as a politician, I would fight for decriminalization first, because that is the immediate by-product of this mess that we got ourselves into. It’s very hard to pull out of a $40 billion-a-year industry, which is the prison industry. It’s probably more than $40 billion. But they will fight you tooth and nail to keep these prisons as big as they are.”

Stone’s stable of political films includes the presidential biopic Nixon (1995), which earned four Academy Award nominations. Fittingly, it was Nixon who initiated the War on Drugs over 40 years ago. The director now believes it is a war to protect profits.

As far as what it will take to make the change, Stone told MTV News, “It would take a bold man. Obama promised it, but he never delivered. He certainly talked about it. He let us down in a big way on that issue. You know what it’s going to take? New leadership. Young people like yourself to get out there and get in front of things and just call a spade a spade. Maybe when some of these old, ignorant bastards die, we can change things.”

Still, the director is not hopeful that change will happen soon. Speaking with Yahoo, he said, “Look, it is legal in . . . California as well as . . . other states, and the federal government is cracking down. I think the federal government is dead wrong. Prosecuting the War on Drugs will get us nowhere. It’s just going to end up with more people in prison, more money being spent, more damage to Mexico, more damage to our own culture. We have an entire African-American underclass in prison because of victimless crimes such as marijuana. It’s gotta stop, but it won’t. The system is built on money. So, I’m not optimistic about America’s ability to extract itself from the war on drugs—it’s a mistake in the first place.”

Corporations and mobsters make money, while the average person suffers, just like in Savages. It is a shame for such an otherwise peaceful plant.”

Stoned added, “Marijuana is a healing drug, and it’s been a very kind friend to humanity for about three, four thousand years. Probably cavemen smoked it, for Christ’s sake.”

Big in Texas

Iconic filmmaker Oliver Stone has suggested we need a change in leadership before marijuana laws are radically reformed. He went so far as to say he would have liked U.S. Rep. Ron Paul—who had been seeking the GOP’s presidential nomination—for president. The congressman from Texas is an unabashed critic of the War on Drugs and has pushed for dropping the federal government’s prohibition against marijuana and other substances. “[Ron Paul is] the only one of anybody who’s saying anything intelligent about the future of the world,” Stone told Rock Cellar Magazine.