This trailer of the original 1936 propaganda film is so over the top it shows why the movie is a cult hit. Marijuana is claimed to be "soul destroying", and a sure road to "inslavement" and end in "hopeless insanity". Even at this late date, when a few pioneering states are taking the first rational steps towards regulation and taxation, marijuana suffers a very strong cultural bias. How else does one explain our society's willingness to tolerate alcohol and nicotine which have greater long term health impairments than marijuana, or its legal classification with much more dangerously addictive drugs: heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine (Controlled Substances Act of 1970). The sad truth is that marijuana was a poor person's escape, originally brought to the attention of law enforcement because of its widespread use among itinerant Mexican workers. Its close association with an alien, socially inferior, non-white culture doomed it to virulent suppression, despite previous government study, including a study of the drug's use in the Canal Zone by the US Army in 1925, which found moderate use to be non-habit forming or dangerous. A recent RAND Corp. study concluded the so-called "gateway drug" effect can be be explained by another theory. The medical use of marijuana in the US dates back to the 19th century, and cannibus appeared in the US Pharmacopeia until 1941. George Washington grew hemp for its fibre, but who knows if some of it also ended up in his pipe at the end of an exhausting day of overseeing his slaves.
There are more than 700,000 marijuana related arrests per year in the United States. An arrest record has significant adverse social and economic consequences.†
†Big Chief Idowanna sez: when on tribal ground, play own game. Run & gun Johnnies meet big D.