Refeer Madness: 71 Years Later

I just watched the 1936 movie classic "Reefer Madness" which in no small part helped to criminalize marijuana. I haven't seen it for at least a decade and I had forgotten just how absurd it was. Here's how my TiVo sums up the description "Young people go from marijuana smoking to wild piano playing, hysteria and death." Wow. Especially considering that the THC content was so much less back in the 30s, I don't know how this was happening. But, then again, this was propaganda, so as with all propaganda, the truth really didn't matter that much.

The reality was that this was something black jazz musicians were using (and had been using it) and it starting creeping into the use of a minority of white folks. Hey, something to bridge the gap between the different cultures and ya know, we just couldn't have that. Plus, a new way to get power and money... Henry Anslinger was all over that.

What got me totally was the beginning of the movie, which I'm going to transcribe here (this flashes up as something to read):

The incidents and characters portrayed in this motion picture are purely
fictional and any similarities to actual occurrences and living or deceased
persons is coincidental.

[Next screen]

Forward:

The motion picture you are about to witness may startle you. It would not have been possible, otherwise, to sufficiently emphasize the frightful toll of the new drug menace which is destroying the youth of America in alarmingly increasing numbers. Marihuana is a drug - a violent narcotic - unspeakable scourge - The Real Public Enemy Number One!

Its first effect is sudden, violent, uncontrollable laughter; then come dangerous hallucinations - space expands - time slows down, almost stands still .... fixed ideas come next conjuring up monstrous extravagances - followed by emotional disturbances, the total inability to direct thoughts, the loss of all power to resist physical emotions ... leading finally to acts of shocking violence ... ending often in incurable insanity. In picturing its soul-destroying effects no attempt was made to equivocate. The scenes and incidents, while fictionalized for the purposes of this story, are based upon actual research into the results of Marihunana addiction. If their stark reality will make you think, will make you aware that something must be done to wipe out this ghastly menace, the the picture will not have failed in its purpose....

Because the dread Marihuana may be reaching forth next for your son or daughter ... or yours ... or YOURS!

While doing a little more research on "Reefer Madness," I found a wonderfully informative site which clearly shows how manipulated the public was on the issue of marijuana back in the 30s. Please, direct yourself to Hypnosis and Reefer Madness for a very cohesive analysis of why this particular piece of propaganda worked so well in addition to the research to show how the individuals within the government lied and placed their own facts and figures so that they could attain power and prestige.

Now that we're all clear on our history. The movie was complete fiction. Didn't happen. But, the hyperbole in the beginning is classic 30s, 40s, 50s overkill. We know that our drug policy was shaped on lies and misinformation, yet it is still in place today. Why? Isn't it time we examined the whys of our laws? We build so many jails, but there is no money for treatment for the people with the heroin addictions, the crack addictions and now the huge problem with meth that is turning up all over the Northeast. Jail 'em up seems to be the answer for everything. How does this help? And locking up pot smokers accomplishes what? Will someone please tell me?

The argument about marijuana being a gateway drug - you might as well argue that cigarette smoking, coffee and alcohol are gateway drugs too because I haven't met one drug abuser that hasn't used or is currently using at least one if not all three of those drugs as well. Thus, that argument is completely and totally moot. The very idea of a "gateway" drug is absolutely ridiculous from a psychological standpoint. A person is either inclined to use drugs, illicit or not or they are not. They legality of the drugs doesn't matter. Using marijuana isn't going to make someone a junkie unless that person is going to be a junkie anyway. There are more variables involved than just that and to pretend that there are not is living in a fantasy land. We all need to inhabit the real world here, folks, so c'mon, get with it.

I want new answers because the old answers haven't been working. I know we can do better. It has been over 70 years since "Reefer Madness" was released, but you know, you would be hard pressed to know it by our federal laws. I think its a shame.