Marijuana in the UK
This was filmed in 1999 at Cannabis College, Amsterdam, a centre growing cannabis plants for education purposes. This two-channel video juxtaposes two texts on the effects of hashish– on the left Walter Benjamin’s “Hashish in Marseilles”, from the 1930s, and on the right Charles Baudelaire’s “Artificial Paradises”, from the 1860s. These texts have a close relationship as Benjamin quotes from “Artificial Paradises” at the start of his essay and responds to some of Baudelaire’s claims in his behavior as he walks around Marseilles. Unlike Baudelaire, Benjamin was enthusiastic about hashish and undertook many experiments, or protocols, with the drug.