Perry Belcher
How a Medicinal Herb Became an Outlaw Weed
Propaganda & Marijuana
"It's an issue I hold to heart, and I present the truth of the history of cannabis and how media has played such a large role in the evolution of the misinformation surrounding this herb," Perry Belcher states. "I'm taking all my media experience and doing a presentation that is informative, honest, interesting and that's gets people thinking, wondering about what they can and cannot trust in the news they are told is objective" as Perry says with enthusiasm. "It's all about the truth," he notes, "and not just about marijuana."
In an entertaining and illuminating multi media presentation, Perry, the Executive of Public Relations and Media at the Medical Marijuana Academy (MMA) in Commerce Township, Michigan, demonstrates how the government in the first half of the 20th century — in conjunction with the FBI, private interests hoping to eliminate competition (alcohol, tobacco and producers of synthetic fibers) and inflammatory tabloid journalists — effectively promulgated the American public's perception of the then legal and medically useful plant, turning a common medicinal remedy into the "Killer Weed". It continues to today.
The propaganda techniques that unleashed almost a century of persecution and prosecution of those who use cannabis was the time specific/agenda driven equivalent to the propaganda we still experience today, not only against marijuana users, but also against health care reform, gay rights, immigrants, Muslims and minorities.
At MGCC (the second Cannabis College in the United States), Perry created a media division to educate and illuminate how the propaganda and lies used these days may be more sophisticated, but are gradually losing power. If marijuana is legalized in California, where it has been prescribed as medicine for many years, it will be a tipping point in American public policy. In the face of very recent overwhelming evidence that, far from being a killer, marijuana has a legitimate place in the pharmacopoeias and is in fact, when used recreationally, relatively harmless in comparison to many legal drugs — alcohol, tobacco and many of the psychotropic pharmaceuticals which have much graver consequences than cannabis.
“History surrounds us” Belcher says, “and cannabis is debated now…it's been widely and wisely used throughout history for many sensible purposes and it’s useful properties.”
Today there are overwhelming reasons to legalize it: our bulging penal system, the economic benefits of being able to tax a substance so widely used. “There are ways to create strong economy, good medicine, and durable and safe products. Cannabis happens to be one of those good things when associated with unfettered research. The truth is that the full benefits of cannabis are yet to be known, and the plant has presented fantastic results thus far, and that's amazing.”
Perry’s background in television allows him to explore through first hand experience the wider correlation of anti-marijuana propaganda with other types of government and corporate control. The Oklahoma Bombing happened on his second day working at NBC, and provided a crash course on how news is manipulated from above rather than truly reported on the ground -- including camera, editing, and writing for broadcast. "Those days in television were my foundation, where I was able to see how the media machine worked and how to be a functioning part of complete show or idea.” Perry goes on to say, “yet the perception…was what we were doing was important…{Manipulation of the news…} was a persuasive and addictive journalism style that was written by producers and performed by the reporters and anchors…These were very nice people, yet they were classically trained to write with a dramatic edge for ratings and shares.”
Perry left NBC in 1997 to focus on doing more television freelancing. At the beginning of the millennium, Perry began working on his own projects. "By taking what I knew and applying a more creative element to my ideas I was allowed to work and write on personal projects that will always have great meaning to me." By using the knowledge he had gained from his media career, Belcher writes, produces, and shoots full-scale video for a diverse and select group of clients.
When he began to teach "The History of Cannabis" he discovered how much he really wanted to educate people on media manipulation and propaganda, using marijuana as the vehicle. By presenting the information through visual methods, Perry says “I can go into much greater depth on how the media works; and I can present more video, art, and just superior imagery that fully express the points that I'm discussing.”
Perry became a medicinal marihuana patient in 2009 after Michigan overwhelmingly passed new legislation in 2008.
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