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Loud & Proud is a digital docuseries from CULTURE MACHINE in collaboration with LAST PRISONER PROJECT that uncovers the hidden history of queer and BIPOC cannabis activism during the AIDS crisis and beyond, showing how the power of community care and collective joy continues to be a radical form of resistance today.
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EPISODE #1
THE SPARK
EPISODE 1 uncovers how, during the AIDS crisis, queer and trans communities built underground networks of care when the government turned its back. In the absence of medical support, cannabis became a tool of survival, easing pain, restoring appetite, and fueling a movement. This episode reveals how radical queer compassion not only saved lives but also laid the foundation for modern cannabis legalization.
EPISODE #2
PROP 215
EPISODE 2 reveals how Prop 215, the nation’s first medical cannabis law, was born from queer survival and solidarity. While cannabis offered dignity and relief to those suffering, legalization came at a cost: Black and Brown communities were criminalized and erased, even as white figures like Brownie Mary were uplifted. This episode confronts the movement’s dual legacy of care and injustice.
EPISODE #3
PROPAGANDA
EPISODE 3 uncovers how propaganda and racism fueled the criminalization of cannabis. From Harry Anslinger’s fear campaigns in the 1930s to Nixon’s War on Drugs, this episode reveals how media, politics, and misinformation weaponized cannabis to divide communities. What began as a tool of healing was recast as a threat, laying the groundwork for decades of systemic oppression still felt today.
EPISODE #4
WAR ON DRUGS
EPISODE 4 exposes the carceral legacy of cannabis criminalization. Nixon’s own officials admitted the War on Drugs was designed to jail Black Americans and silence the anti-war left, creating a pipeline of free labor through mass incarceration. Today, despite billions in cannabis tax revenue, arrests still number in the hundreds of thousands, disproportionately impacting Black, Brown, queer, and trans communities. This episode uncovers the stark divide between generational wealth and generational harm.
EPISODE #5
EQUITY
EPISODE 5 confronts the broken promises of cannabis equity. Legalization was supposed to repair the harms of the War on Drugs and return wealth to the communities most targeted by prohibition. Instead, Black ownership has plummeted, small operators are buried in debt, and queer and BIPOC entrepreneurs are being pushed out of the industry they helped build. This episode reveals how equity became lip service and what it would take to build systems of real support.
EPISODE #6
WEST HOLLYWOOD
EPISODE 6 traces the parallels between queer nightlife and cannabis spaces, and how visibility transformed both. In the 1960s and 70s, West Hollywood emerged as a refuge from police harassment, building a city rooted in care and community. By turning hidden bars into vibrant, open spaces, queer joy reshaped public culture and challenged stigma.
EPISODE #7
QUEER JOY
EPISODE 7 explores drag, pride, and queer joy as acts of resistance. In a world where visibility carries risk, choosing authenticity becomes both survival and protest. This episode shows how creativity, love, and daily defiance fuel the fight against erasure, and why joy is not naive, but necessary to endure and imagine change.
EPISODE #8
THE DANCE
EPISODE 8 celebrates joy as the force that kept queer communities alive through crisis and continues to drive the fight today. In the face of grief, people created beauty, community, and culture, transforming mourning into music, dance, and care. This episode shows how joy is not an escape but a necessity, the reason to keep going, and the legacy that links cannabis, queer survival, and American culture itself.
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS AND SPONSORS FOR MAKING THIS SERIES POSSIBLE.
