Rated: NR    Runtime: 120 mins.
April 20, 2008 -4:20pm.
Award-winning documentary Waiting to Inhale, the first documentary on the movement to legalize marijuana as a medicine, premieres in San Francisco. Filmmaker Jed Riffe (Ishi, the Last Yahi, Ripe for Change) returns with his latest and most controversial feature length documentary yet.

In San Francisco, renowned oncologist and HIV/AIDS researcher Dr. Donald Abrams, MS Patient Yvonne Westbrook and San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra Saunders will discuss medicinal cannabis, an issue that brings conservatives and progressives together against the federal government’s war on patients. Filmmakers Jed Riffe, Maureen Gosling and Kat Covell will be on hand to answer questions about the film.

Waiting to Inhale explores the battle between patients, doctors, activists and the United States government over the legalization of medical cannabis. Providing exclusive access with individuals whose powerful stories have never made it to the front pages, the filmmaker takes us inside a world where critically ill patients are arrested at gunpoint for growing the only effective medicine for their pain. These patients speak powerfully of the relief that cannabis has provided them from the debilitating symptoms of terminal illnesses, and question why the United States government continues to resist studies of cannabis’ medicinal properties when significant clinical evidence supports its efficacy in treating symptoms of cancer, epilepsy, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma. In response, the government contends that the movement to legalize medical marijuana is only a smokescreen for the legalization of marijuana altogether.

The film looks at the history of cannabis over the past century, documenting how its early use as an ingredient in patent medicines eventually led to its prohibition in 1937. The film also presents exclusive access to the first major scientific study of medical cannabis to take place in over thirty years, currently in progress at the University of California, San Francisco. This groundbreaking research, led by Dr. Donald Abrams, tests the ability of cannabis to provide pain relief for patients with HIV and cancer and has added an exciting new dynamic to the debate over legalization. Jed Riffe heads to its core by interviewing Dr. Abrams and patients affiliated with the study.

Waiting to Inhale takes the viewer from underground pot clubs to the United States Supreme Court; from Israeli science labs to government approved cannabis gardens outside London. It features leading experts and researchers from all over the world on both sides of the controversy over the therapeutic potential of cannabis. In the United States, 12 states have passed laws with medical cannabis provisions. Yet use, cultivation and possession - for any reason - remain illegal under federal law. We see the battle from the perspective of those who will be most affected by its outcome, and examine the subjective decisions that determine who is granted access to care. The film does not serve as propaganda for one opinion or another, but focuses instead on the real stories and struggles of people on opposite ends of this provocative spectrum. Above all, Waiting to Inhale opens our eyes to the unique world of individuals enmeshed in a conflict whose stakes are nothing short of life and death. For more info, check out www.waitingtoinhale.org http://www.waitingtoinhale.org/