Reefer Madness

A long time ago, media was a new thing, and people were easily swayed by what they were told.
Seeing something in print or watching it on a reel to reel, seemed to make it all the more believable.
In our time it is hard to believe that someone would really accept the propaganda being dished out in Reefer Madness, but many people did.
What we begin to realize after a bit of watching, this was not put out as an educational film.
It was against the law to show drug use or anything pertaining to immoral acts. This being purported as a warning, turns out to be merely exploitive; in order to get around the strict laws in the 1930’s and make a quick buck.

http://www.archive.org/details/reefer_madness1938

Considered THE archetypal sensationalized anti-drug movie, but it's really an exploitation film made to capitalize on the hot taboo subject of marijuana use. Like many exploitation films of the time, "Reefer Madness" tried to make a quick buck off of a forbidden subject while skirting the Motion Picture Production Code of 1930. The Code forbade the portrayal of immoral acts like drug use. (The illegal drug traffic must not be portrayed in such a way as to stimulate curiosity concerning the use of, or traffic in, such drugs; nor shall scenes be approved which show the use of illegal drugs, or their effects, in detail.)

There are many shocking scenes that made it through the sensors. When our apartment owner sans drug seller slowly slides her delicate nylons over her long thighs, we know we are not watching a drug educational film. We know we are being duped.
Not only is it an unpleasant movie, but boring too. Too much emphasis put on the lack of moral character of the pot smokers. One of the quotes from this movie states that Marijuana is worse then heroin. After I stuck it out through the one hour and eight minutes of horror, I felt irritable, missing time, and restless, many of the symptoms reported by the pot smokers in this light hearted film.
I am in no way a supporter of the wonders of pot, in fact, I don’t think it has much use at all, it is only a guess that it might be a pain reliever and its only main characteristic is it keeps people from barfing, which would be useful for chemotherapy patients. If people have cancer I think they should be able to eat, drink, and smoke whatever they want. For everyone else, grow up. Pot is harmful.
However after watching the movie, I would be so mad that I would want pot made legal.
Most of us don’t like being played. That is what this movie tries to do; it wants us to believe that it is based on facts from police archives without naming any true news sources. It runs a bit like an urban legend, only more annoying.
In conclusion, possibly the only thing this movie can claim is it must have stood the test of time for entertainment value, only I don’t know how, for it is a poor story plot and very bad acting.
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