Barry Cooper was a star narcotics enforcement officer in the Texas police force until he got PTSD from his activities during raids with the police and met a new partner who encouraged him to try weed to help with his symptoms. In a “come to Jesus” moment he decided to use his skills from his former life to help people who used small amounts of weed evade detection.

This was in the form of the “Never Get Busted Again!” DVD that he planned to advertise in the High Times magazine. They magazine was suspicious of him at first and thought he was a plant from the police, but eventually agreed to it and it took off. Barry also decided to go on all the media interviews that would be the most against him as he knew his argument and could stand up for himself.

Hollywood beckoned and he went and did some stuff on show called MANswers, a very early 2000s type show that was none the less popular and up for working with him. For his next project he wanted to turn the spotlight on the police and came up with a project KopBusters to help out a wrongly convicted mother Yolanda Madden who fell victim to a setup by the local police that Barry worked with. The operation is a success but at a terrible cost to Barry and he now no longer lives in the USA.

Initially I was interested in this as I always try to go to see a few documentaries at MIFF and there didn’t seem to be as many that jumped out at me this year. This one definitely did as you have someone who does a total 180 degree turn from one side to the other and felt he was right both times.

Having the interviews with the people who are against him was interesting as you would think they would not want to talk about it either or be suspicious that their words would be taken out of context or edited to look bad.

“The War on Drugs” is still ongoing but maybe not as much with weed these days since it has gone corporate and even Cheech and Chong are successful CEOs these days.

It is worth watching this one even if you are not into the legalities around drug enforcement or policing in the USA. There are many other ways this could have gone and turned into something else or just a sensationalist sort of thing but it does not really seem that way. Well worth your time.

Film details:

Featuring Barry Cooper, Texas Law Enforcement figures

Directed by Stephen McCallum

Writer & Director David Anthony Ngo

Genre: Documentaries, Crime & Punishment

Country: Australia

Language: English

Length: 105min

Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gou3xaxsiCs