How to Make Money Selling Drugs

Half of my picks for the festival this year were feature films and the other have were documentaries. How to Make Money Selling Drugs (official website here, trailer here) was one of those documentaries.
My memory of the write-up about the film by the team at TIFF is pretty much that the film will reflect its name. I thought I would learn about drug dealing and there would be some cameos by some Hollywood celebrities. And who doesn't love celebrities in a film?
So the beginning of the film was exactly what I expected. It was slick and very entertaining. And I really did learn about drug dealing. In fact, it was so convincing, that for a brief moment, as I was watching the film, I considered the feasibility of getting into the game myself. I thought about the people that I knew who are/were involved with drugs, and I thought about my networks and how suitable they are to this 'industry'. And then I forced myself to remember that all of these thoughts were ridiculous. That I should just keep going on the path that I'm currently on. But it does show that the film was compelling.
And then, the film took an unexpected turn. Suddenly, I was learning about the drug wars in the US and how the government is a puppet master of sorts. Full disclosure: I saw this film at the end of a long day and immediately after seeing another film, so I was pretty tired during the screening. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I dozed off for a brief moment, and as a result, I'm not entirely confident about how the transition between themes happened. I think it had to do with the fact that although there's a financial/power ladder in the drug dealing game, there's a secret additional rung to that ladder and that's where the politicians come in. But again, I don't know for sure...errr, I was kinda tired.
The production team (Matthew Cooke, Bert Marcus and Adrian Grenier) and a couple key people in the film were in attendance and participated in a Q&A. During the Q&A, I realized that this film was really more about educating the viewer and encouraging them to take action and be activists for rethinking current drug policies. I also wondered what's going on with this issue here in Canada. This film was very much American but maybe some of the message is applicable to Canada as well. I'm just not educated enough to know for sure.
I enjoyed this film and would recommend it to others, but it wasn't the best film that I've ever seen. It definitely was entertaining and made you think about interesting issues, but I admit I'm not blown away. So, I'd say it's a great film, but not awesome.

- picture courtesy of www.tiff.net