Square Grouper: The Godfathers of Ganja

Edit links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Square Grouper: The Godfathers of Ganja
Movie poster
Directed byBilly Corben
Produced byAlfred Spellman
Billy Corben
Release date
  • March 11, 2011 (2011-03-11) (SXSW film festival)
Running time
99 min
LanguageEnglish

Square Grouper: The Godfathers of Ganja is a 2011 documentary by director

marijuana
thrown overboard or out of airplanes in South Florida in the 1970s and 1980s.

In sharp contrast to the brazenly violent "Cocaine Cowboys" of the 1980s, Miami's marijuana smugglers were cooler, calmer, and typically nonviolent. Square Grouper paints a vivid portrait of Miami's pot smuggling culture in the 1970s and 1980s and its major players: the smuggling

Everglades City
.

Synopsis

In 1979, the U.S. Customs Service reported that 87% of all marijuana seizures in the U.S. were made in the South Florida area. Due to the region's 5,000 miles of coast and coastal waterways and close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America, South Florida was a pot smuggler's paradise. Square Grouper: The Godfathers of Ganja is a colorful portrait of Miami's pot smuggling scene of the 1970s, populated with redneck pirates, a ganja-smoking church, and the longest serving marijuana prisoner in American history.[1]

The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church

In the early-1970s, a fundamentalist Christian sect known as the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church formed in Jamaica. The Coptics' beliefs were typical of any fundamentalist Christian organization... with the exception of one. The Church believed that marijuana (or "ganja," as they called it) was their sacrament... and all members, including children, smoked it around the clock. The Church started a massive marijuana export operation and expanded throughout the 1970s, eventually becoming the largest employers and landowners in the struggling Caribbean nation.

In 1975, the Church bought a mansion on Miami's exclusive

spliffs" of marijuana caused public outrage and compelled the government to finally put an end to the Coptics. Soon after, many Church members were indicted and eventually convicted of smuggling large quantities of marijuana.[2]

The Black Tuna Gang

Robert Platshorn and Robert Meinster moved to

Fontainebleau Hotel for their base of operations. At the same time, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) was facing budget crises and possible dissolution and the film makes the claim that they used Platshorn and Meinster as their targets to justify their continued existence.[3]

On May 1, 1979, Attorney General Griffin Bell held a press conference announcing the indictment of Platshorn and Meinster and several of their associates, labeling them as the "biggest marijuana smugglers ever", and claiming they were responsible for importing at least a million pounds of marijuana—ten times the amount the organization actually moved. Platshorn was sentenced to 64 years in prison and Meinster to 54, making them the longest serving prisoners related to marijuana convictions in American history.[3]

Everglades City

mangroves known as the Ten Thousand Islands. The unique geography, coupled with the fact that only locals knew how to navigate it, made the town a perfect location for smuggling.[4]

Smuggling activity in Everglades City had a long history. In the early 1900s, they smuggled

rum running. When drugs flooded South Florida in the 1970s and 1980s and the National Park Service began to phase out commercial fishing, the mainstay of the Everglades City economy, residents involved themselves in marijuana smuggling.[4]

The DEA decided they had to put a stop to the smuggling. They executed two large, highly publicized raids in 1983 and 1984, leading to the arrest of nearly 80% of the adult male population of Everglades City.[5]

Distribution

Square Grouper premiered at the 2011

SXSW film festival[6] and was distributed by Magnolia Pictures
.

References

  1. ^ "Square Grouper – (rak on tur')". Rakontur.com. 2011-04-16. Retrieved 2011-10-28.
  2. ^ "Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church". Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church. Retrieved 2011-10-28.
  3. ^ a b "Robert Platshorn". Black Tuna Diaries. 1979-05-01. Retrieved 2011-10-28.
  4. ^ a b "Everglades City Florida: One Of Florida's Last Pioneer Frontiers". Florida-backroads-travel.com. Retrieved 2011-10-28.
  5. ^ "Square Grouper (rak on tur')". Squaregroupermovie.com. Retrieved 2011-10-28.
  6. ^ Spears, Drew (2011-03-14). "Rakontur's Square Grouper Debuts at SXSW Film Festival – Miami Art – Cultist". Blogs.miaminewtimes.com. Retrieved 2011-10-28.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Square_Grouper:_The_Godfathers_of_Ganja&oldid=1217558792"