Ryan Killian English 101 J.

Reynolds 19 April 2014 Reefer Madness Research Paper

Reefer Madness is a film produced and released on January 1st 1937. It was originally titled Tell Your Children, and it was produced by a very wealthy right wing Christian organization. The film was bought by Dwain Esper, who specializes in propaganda exploitation films. Esper then added and subtracted scenes, leaving us with the film today. The film was a response to the Victor Licata murders. On October 16th 1933 Victor Licata killed his mother, father, two brothers and his sister with an axe. Victor was said to be under the influence of marijuana at the time. According to the Florida State Mental Hospital, Victor was diagnosed with advanced delusionary schizophrenia with homicidal tendencies. He was never even sentenced due to his mental illness. Even so, this case was used as fuel to the marijuana prohibition fire. The film is about a couple living out of wedlock that sell marijuana, Jack and Mae. Jack sells marijuana to whomever while Mae only sells it to adults. Jack invites two high school boys over and they run out of marijuana. Jack makes one of the boys that has a car drive to his bosss house to get more product. While Jimmy-the high school boy, waits outside for jack, he unknowingly smokes a marijuana cigarette. Resulting in him driving mad and running over a

citizen when they depart. The other high school boy, who is dating Jimmys sister begins an affair with one of Maes female friends. Jimmys sister comes looking for her boyfriend, and she unknowingly smokes a joint. She refuses the advances of another man who then tries to rape her. Her boyfriend comes out of the bedroom with Maes friend and hallucinates his girlfriend stripping for them which angers him. The two men begin fighting and Jack pistol whips his friend. The gun accidentally goes off and Jimmys sister is now dead. Jack puts the gun in the young boys hand, who just had woken up. The young boy immediately believes he killed his girlfriend and Jimmys sister. The ensuing court case drives one man to madness, Mae to jump out of the courtroom window rather than testify, another man being beaten to death, and the destruction of all people involved lives. The opening line of the film gives its first fallacy, improper cause and consequence. Yes I remember. Just a young boy under the influence of drugs who killed his entire family with an axe. Reefer Madness. This claim is false and absurd, because as I mentioned in the first paragraph, that did happen but the young man was an advanced delusionary schizophrenic with homicidal tendencies. The film just happened to leave that out. So to the majority of people that hadnt heard of that case in the early 1930s, this was a true claim. Smoke marijuana and you will kill your family. The republication of this film under the new title, Reefer Madness, by Dwain Esper coincides with the passing of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. Esper intentionally meant to scare people with this film. Even though it was not financed or produced by the government, which I had previously thought. In the 1920s Esper also had a bunch of scare tactic films on the inescapable destruction alcohol will bring to your home, family and society if you drink it. This really makes anything in Reefer Madness easy to dispute. This film as a whole uses the logical fallacy of ad bacculum, or an argument based on fear. You

could say the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 is an example of ad bacculum. Harry Anslinger the U.S Commissioner of Narcotics was almost single handedly responsible for the passing of his new law. He cites Mexicans and African-Americans and other undesirables as the reason for growing marijuana use. Racism fueled the war on marijuana, and fear of Hispanics and the growing African-American population propelled this law into effect. According to David Kopel at the Britannica Blog, America did suffer from reefer madness in the 1930s. The first victimswere the legislators who let themselves be panicked into enacting repressive laws based on mean-spirited hostility to Mexicans, blacks, and young people. For example research from Harvard Medical School, in a comparison between families with a history of schizophrenia and those without, finds little support for marijuana use as a cause of schizophrenia. (Grohol). So the Victor Licata case hardly seems relevant to this film, or marijuana use in general. Marijuana does not make you crazy or lose your mind. The Harvard study indicates that marijuana may increase the speed in which schizophrenia symptoms may start to appear, but that only pertains to people who are genetically predisposed to the illness. When Jimmy runs over the pedestrian and kills him with his car, he laughs and frantically drives off because he is high on marijuana. But who would realistically do that? Even if you were under the influence of marijuana, you would not do that. One could realistically say that three things were responsible for the criminal standing of our marijuana laws today. Harry Anslinger as the Commissioner of Narcotics, was a blatant racist and used marijuana laws to propel his disdain for people from the south of the border. (WDD). William Randolph Hearst, the largest newspaper owner in the country, published ridiculous claims and stories of racism aimed at marijuana. Helping propel Reefer Madness to the masses, claiming the Mexicans are praying on our youth with this deadly weed! Another

huge contributor to marijuana legislation was the very powerful DuPont family. They held many patents to paints, oils, plastics and paper that could have become worthless if products from hemp were available. So together all three combined to help force marijuana prohibition to the end of the line. The continuing victims of reefer madness are the millions of decent Americans who have been punished as criminals because of the laws enacted by the legislative dupes of Henry Anslinger and his fellow bigots. (Kopel).

Works Cited

Grohol, Dr. John. Harvard: Marijuana Doesnt Cause Schizophrenia. Psych Central. 19 Apr. 2014. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.

How Did Reefer Madness Get Started? Washington Drug Defense. WDD. n.d. 19 Apr. 2014.

Kopel, David. Reefer Madness and the Prohibition of Marijuana in the United States. Encyclopedia Britannica Blog. Britannica.com/blogs. 26 Oct. 2010. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.