365 Movies Day #42 "Reefer Madness"

So from 1919 to 1932 the government experimented with the outlawing of alcohol...and gave us some of the greatest organized crime of all time (to include the Kennedys). A total failure that ended with the repeal of the 19th amendment responsible for the fiasco, a whole bunch of law enforcement officials were in danger of losing their jobs. Like most bureaucracies, they were not going to go quietly into the night.

Finding marijuana as a great scapegoat, Harry Anslinger and the boys decided to let the public know about the dangers of marijuana with this 1936 dramatization of kids smoking weed, murdering their parents, sexually assaulting one another, getting into fights and ramming their cars into random people. All things anyone who has ever experience marijuana first hand, will recognize as totally accurate.

In fact, most people high on marijuana are more likely to watch this film, eat pizza and laugh than do ANYTHING else. Definitely not a violence inducing drug as depicted here. But, the demonization worked and all these years later we are left with overcrowded prisons for a drug less dangerous than alcohol. Thanks Harry!

REEFER MADNESS ON IMDB