When was reefer madness made

Weed is pure evil. Public enemy No. A narcotic that destroys the human spirit, transforming men into violent monsters and women into ravenous whores. Watching the film now, it plays as broadly comedic, but back then it was deadly serious.

Funded by a church group, the minute morality tale was originally titled Tell Your Children. The Reefer Madness campaign was an attempt to create a narcotics scare and … to paint marijuana as a narcotic that was as dangerous as heroin and cocaine.

Because marijuana was so little known in the early s, the government took it upon itself to create an awareness of the drug — an awareness cloaked in peril and anxiety — while taking plenty of liberties in the process. In contrast to booze, which was the intoxicant of choice among Whites, marijuana was considered a drug used disproportionately by Blacks and Latinos.

However, in one of many comic ironies surrounding the film, Simunek points out, it helped generate the financing needed to launch the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Founder Keith Stroup bought a copy of the film for a couple of hundred dollars in and started screening it on college campuses to raise money for his organization, which was promoting itself at the time in Playboy and High Times as a lobbying firm for pot smokers. All those subjects were fair game for the exploiteer—as long as it was in bad taste! Exploitation movies existed on the fringes of mainstream cinema in the s, since their sensationalism kept them out of regular movie theaters.

But they reflected real social anxieties, and none was more relevant in than pot panic. The criminalization of marijuana was then well underway, as states ranging from California to Louisiana classified possession as a misdemeanor. It reached the federal level with the Marihuana Tax Act of , which placed a tax on the sale of cannabis and laid the foundation for the harsher criminalization that followed.

Reefer Madness , with its lurid story of impressionable white teenagers driven to death and destruction, was very much of the moment. As the years wore on, its relevance waned, and the copyright expired, releasing the film into the public domain. Privacy Policy Contact Us You may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the provided link on any marketing message. Stroup realized that he had something unintentionally hilarious on his hands.

The watch parties functioned as fundraisers for his campaign to legalize marijuana, and they were a hit. Reefer Madness still enjoys that status today. Showtime aired a musical spoof in , starring Kristen Bell and Alan Cumming, following a successful stage musical version in Los Angeles. Although Reefer Madness was designed to exploit the taboo topics of its day, it has stayed a feature of the cultural conversation for a surprisingly long time—thanks in part to Stroup, and in part to the timelessness of marijuana panic.

Join our new membership program on Patreon today. JSTOR is a digital library for scholars, researchers, and students. Take Two. Top credits Director Louis J. See more at IMDbPro. Trailer Reefer Madness - 75th Anniversary Expanded Edition. Photos Top cast Edit.

Dorothy Short Mary as Mary. Kenneth Craig Bill as Bill. Lillian Miles Blanche as Blanche. Dave O'Brien Ralph as Ralph. Thelma White Mae as Mae. Carleton Young Jack as Jack. Joseph Forte Dr. Carroll as Dr. Carroll as Josef Forte. Harry Harvey Jr. Junior as Junior. Bob Burns Juror as Juror uncredited. Phil Dunham Juror as Juror uncredited. Edward Earle Mr. Wayne - Federal Bureau Investigator as Mr. Wayne - Federal Bureau Investigator uncredited. Edward LeSaint Judge as Judge uncredited.

Louis J. More like this. Watch options. Storyline Edit. Film that relates the story, as told by high school principal Dr. Carroll to parents at a PTA meeting, of the scourge of marijuana.

The tale revolves around Mae and Jack, accomplices in the distribution of marijuana, who manage to entice the local high school kids to stop by Mae's apartment to smoke reefer. The lives of all who are involved with this menace are inevitably shattered. One man becomes so addicted to the killer weed that the guilt over framing a teen for murder causes a judge to order him to be committed for life to a mental hospital.