Although the 4/20 weekend is over for this year, TWB is still getting some great submissions for content about this stoner holiday. When this one, done by a group of Harvard students called On Harvard Time (OHT), included Harvard Economist Jeffrey Miron, we knew we wanted to share it. You may recall that Miron co-authored a study in 2012 that was commissioned by the National Cannabis Coalition about the budgetary implications of legalizing marijuana in Missouri, my home state.
Miron stated that “The savings to Missouri’s state and local governments from marijuana legalization consists of three main components: the reduction in expenditures by police from eliminating marijuana-related arrests; the reduction in spending on prosecution and judicial resources; and the reduction in spending on jails and prisons as well as probation and parole. In addition to these savings, marijuana legalization would allow taxation of commerce in production and sale of marijuana which are currently tax free.”
OHT is a Harvard comedy video group with over 8,000 subscribers that is a team of about 30 students who write, direct, act, and edit comedy videos about all kinds of things. The students explained their story for this special video they created featuring Miron for 4/20/17:
When we decided to do a video for 4/20, we wanted to make sure that the comedy came along with a message and while support for legalization is at an all-time high (61% of Americans according to the latest polls) we thought that many of the biggest supporters may not even fully understand some of the most important reasons why legalization is so essential. We decided to team up with Jeffrey Miron, Director of Undergraduate Studies at Harvard University & marijuana legalization expert, to try to make a video that portrayed the most essential information about legalization in a way that would be entertaining for stoners. As Jeffrey Miron states, Boston’s legalization will come with a myriad of benefits including, but not limited to, a freer society, greater respect for the law, increased tax revenue, and no more time or money spent on prosecuting crimes related to weed. Exposing these benefits to the general public helps continue the upwards trend of support for the cause.
When we got Miron recorded and set, we got to work making the video fun for stoners! Outside of the absurdity seen in the video, we also filmed other bits like ‘Tasty: Stoner Edition’, ‘Harvard Students High’, and more. It was lots of experimenting with what played well and what didn’t. The drug dealer bit is my personal favorite! When I proposed the idea to the guy (who is truly a wonderful & pleasant weed dealer with the best prices & product in town) he thought it was hilarious and jumped on board enthusiatically. It was fun to see how his answers, many of which are sadly cut from the video, are so similar to those of Professor Miron. While at first we were a bit worried that the video would not come across as funny to non-stoners, we soon realized that this video was for a target audience. We have been pleasantly surprised at the amount of people who have told us that this uplifted their 4/20, while at the same time, giving them valuable information on an interesting topic.Enjoy!
