Keep Off the Grass (1970)

• 51%
• 1970
• Documentary
• Drama
• Ib Melchior

While vacuuming in Tom's bedroom, his mother finds a joint hidden in a box. When his parents question him about it, high schooler Tom admits that it is his, but denies that he is morally depraved because of or due to smoking marijuana, which he has only been doing for a few weeks. Tom defends his use of marijuana, and sees his parents' beliefs against it as hypocritical as they smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol, substances which Tom sees as comparable in terms of their negative connotations. Tom's father does not deny the risks associated with his own activities, but still sees the many dangers for Tom, a teenager, to be smoking marijuana. As such, Tom and Tom's father enter into a negotiation, the result being an experiment where Tom is to do his own research on the effects of marijuana. Although Tom's father would rather he go through conventional literature to do this research, Tom instead decides to travel around within the world of marijuana, from going to pot parties to visiting with dealers to watching individuals under the influence go about their day-to-day lives, and critically view this world through clean eyes. Tom may or may not come out of the experiment with a different view of smoking pot, especially for someone his age.