Fact1: 65-year-old Howard Marks going onto stage to great applause, Fact2: remarkable aptitude earns him scholarship to Oxford University, Fact3: Kadegis introduces him for first time, Fact4: academic lives suffering as result, Fact5: trio of Kadegis and Plinson promise to turn over new leaf
Output: The film begins in 2010, with a 65yearold Howard Marks going onto a stage in front of a packed theatre to great applause. Marks asks if there are any plainclothes policemen sat in the audience, to which the reply is negative. Then, while lighting up a joint, Marks asks who here is a dope marijuana smoker?, to even greater applause. The film then diverts into Marks internal monologue as he recounts his life. Born in the Welsh valleys in 1945, young Howard Marks Rhys Ifans – later nicknamed Mr Nice – excels academically to much higher than the national standard of the United Kingdom. This remarkable aptitude earns him a scholarship to Oxford University at nineteen years old, reading philosophy and physics, but Marks destiny changes forever one night when dutifully studying alone in his dorm. A beautiful, rebellious and hedonistic foreign exchange student from Latvia, Ilze Kadegis Elsa Pataky  breaks into Marks room, looking for a secret passageway within. Marks follows Kadegis through the secret passageway and into a forgotten storage space used by one of the schools top marijuana dealers, Graham Plinson Jack Huston. Kadegis seduces Marks, and introduces him to cannabis for the first time. For the next few years, Marks becomes an enthusiastic customer of Plinsons, and continues his love affairs with both Kadegis and cannabis; the group enjoy a series of wilder and wilder nights, with their academic lives suffering as a result. Circumstances change for the worse when Plinson introduces the group to LSD. When rich heir Joshua Macmillan, a friend of Marks, dies of an overdose, and Marks impales his foot on a spike, Marks vows to never touch drugs again  or at least the harder variety of drugs. The trio of Marks, Kadegis and Plinson promise to each other to turn over a new leaf, and they pass their scholarships through some intense lastminute revision, and a little cheating. They then all move on to teacher training courses at the University of London in 1967, where Marks hastily marries Kadegis. Fractures begin appearing in the early stages of the marriage, with Marks becoming despondent, apathetic and suspecting Kadegis of having an affair. What is more, Marks gets into trouble at the London University for having long hair and flashy suits. When plans to bring a large cache of hashish into England via Germany go wrong with Plinson getting arrested, Marks steps in to help  figuring he has nothing left to lose anyway. Marks goes to Germany and drives the car with the stash inside across the borders himself, simply driving through customs. The customs officers are on the lookout for Plinsons crew, but dont know Marks, who sails through without incident. Marks says the thrill of getting away with it was like religious flash and an asexual orgasm. When selling the hashish back in London to an Arab oil sheik named Saleem Malik Omid Djalili, Marks makes a fortune, and swiftly becomes addicted to this new but dangerous lifestyle as a big league marijuana trafficker  eventually running a large percentage of the worlds cannabis. It is a path that will lead Marks facetoface with terrorists, government agents, and lose him his freedom to one of the toughest prisons in the United States in 1988, through to the present day as a media personality and cult hero.