Marijuana Portrayal in Film

2009.04.27

It is late night and nothing else is on the old television so you find yourself watching a Chech and Chong movie from the 1970’s called “Up in Smoke.” You begin thinking to yourself, how long ago did pot find itself in the movies? It only takes a quick search on the internet to find a copy of the 1938 film “Reefer Madness” that you can watch online. This propaganda film exaggerated the dangers of smoking pot to the point that it is found by many today to be very humorous. You might also find a film that was little known until 1989 prepared by USDA called “Hemp for Victory!” Yes, in 1942, the US government was encouraging farmers to grow what we now know as marijuana to help with the war effort in this movie trailer.

Those of course are short films, but what about the full length films. Surly, they the purity of the generations from the forties and fifties did not produce films that included drug usage did they? Katherine Hepburn asks Cary Grant if he has switched to dope in the film from 1940 we know as the Philadelphia Story.

Marijuana first came to the U.S. around 1900. Migrant workers from Mexico brought the drug with them. Marijuana was legal in the U.S. until 1937 as a cure for nausea, headaches, and insomnia as well as many other ailments. Then the Marijuana Tax act made it a federal offence to sell or use the plant. Too bad the feds forgot about that tax act when they produced “Hemp for Victory” about five years later.

In the 1958 film “High School Confidential” shows a more realistic look at marijuana, however it is strongly portrayed as an entry level drug that would eventually lead to more addictive drugs. During the 1960’s, reflecting the culture of the time, more movies were made. Probably the most notable was the 1969 film “Easy Rider” but not to be overlooked is its predecessor from 1968, “I Love You, Alice B. Toklas” with Peter Sellers.

During the 1980’s there were many drug abstinence programs, and although drug use was still portrayed, the actual use of the drug was not shown as much as the results. It was okay to show someone who was obviously stoned, but not to show how he got that way. The First Lady’s “Just Say No!” program may have had a lot to do with this.

In the 1990’s marijuana took on a more social role. It was as a recreational drug. The characters were not addicts and did not progress to other more harmful drugs. No longer were the characters condemned simply because they smoked pot.

Since the year 2000, we have seen marijuana usage in many different films. We all knew that in the movie “Scooby Doo” that it was not the smoke from the barbeque that made Shaggy and Scooby high. After all, from all those characters, who would we expect to be the pothead? The scene just would not have worked if the script writer had tried to use Velma.

As you can see, we have made a full circle. In 1938 marijuana would lead to your untimely death (unless it was needed for the war effort). In 2009 it is just the new social hour.