Grass

- Marijuana, the dried leaves and flowers of the Indian hemp weed,

- is used in the form of a cigarette.

- Marijuana smoking, experts point out,

- can make a helpless addict of its victim within weeks,

- causing physical and moral ruin and death.

- Should you ever be confronted,

- with the temptation of taking that first puff of a marijuana cigarette,

don't do it!

Anything to get a kick, Anything to get a blast,

Anything to palm his mind, Potheads!

They think they can go out and get high,

They think they can get turned on with pot,

They can get loaded, they can get stoned!

57% of the student party was smoking pot,

Smoking pot, pot, pot,

It fascinates, and then assassinates,

And then it kills!

A drug epidemic that's sweeping our nation,

Anything to get a kick,

Anything to get a blast, Anything to palm his mind,

Quit playing games with God!

Although people around the world have been smoking marijuana for thousands of years,

the custom only reach the United States at the beginning of the 20th century,

when it arrived in the south west,

with the wave of Mexicans looking for work.

Porque le falta Marijuana que fumar!

- Badge, please. - Next!

To these poor laborers,

smoking marijuana was a way to relax,

after a long day of working in the fields.

But white Americans along the border,

didn't much like these foreigners or their strange customs.

Marijuana, it was rumored, gave the Mexicans super-human strength,

and turned them into blood-thirsty murderers.

One evening in El Paso, some white Texans where allegedly attacked,

by a Mexican that went crazy on the killer weed.

Moving swiftly the El Paso city council passed a law banning possession of marijuana.

Supposedly designed to control marijuana,

they law quickly became a way for the city to control Mexicans.

Unlike the people of El Paso,

most Americans had never even heard of marijuana.

They were more concerned about the rising addiction,

to opium, morphine, cocaine and heroin, which were all serious public health issues.

But instead of treating drug addiction as a public health problem,

the federal government put control of these drugs in the hands of the Treasury Department,

who created the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.

Rolling!

- This is Harry J. Anslinger, commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics.

Sorry...

- The Treasury Department intends to pursuit a relentless warfare,

- against the despicable dope-peddling vulture who prays on the weakness of his fellow man,

Hold!

Americas first drug czar was Harry J. Anslinger.

A law and order evangelist, Anslinger would shape America's attitude,

toward marijuana for generations to come.

Like many Americans, Anslinger was a prohibitionist.

These morally correct citizens,

sincerely felt that progress could only be achieved,

by controlling the depraved impulses of the masses.

Swordfish.

He believed that if the laws where tough enough, America could be rid of alcohol.

Put enough people in jail,

and eventually the public will learn to behave.

And he applied this same philosophy on mounting the government's war on drugs.

Special treasury agent are part of a massive force,

created solely to control the traffic in narcotics.

- You got any merchandise obtaining in Canada or abroad?

- Have you any liquor? - No.

- Get out of the car and let's take a look at it.

Come on.

Move over, J. Edgar Hoover,

here come the agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics!

Like J. Edgar Hoover, Anslinger posed for the cameras,

creating the impression he was smashing one major dope ring after another.

But he found it pretty quickly that policing 48 states,

on a depression-strapped budget was impossible.

His solution was to try to convince the states to police local drug traffic themselves.

Campaigning tirelessly he *** each state to sign a join agreement,

to commit state resources to fighting drugs.

But only nine states signed on.

The other 39 viewed it as federal interference in their affairs.

It was a major defeat for the young drug commissioner,

but he wasn't the type to give up.

Meanwhile marijuana, carried by west Indian sailors,

arrived in port cities like New Orleans.

Known as 'muggles', 'tea', or 'reefer',

it was popular with the jazz crowd because it made music sound so good.

From here, musicians carried it up the Mississippi,

to urban centers in the North.

Have you ever met that funny reefer man?

Have you ever met that funny reefer man?

If he says he swam to China and wants to sell you South Carolina,

then you know you're talking to that reefer man!

Have you ever met that funny reefer man?

Oh that funny, funny funny reefer man?

If he trades you dimes for nickels he says watermelons are pickles,

then you know you're talking to that reefer man!

Have you ever met that funny reefer man?

Oh that funny, funny funny reefer man?

He smokes a reefer, he gets high then he flies to the sky,

that funny, funny funny reefer man!

"Reefer" Parties on South Side

"Muggles" Replaces Liquor in Harlem

With marijuana showing up in big cities,

Anslinger realized it might be the answer to his problem.

If he could persuade white America,

that marijuana was a deadly menace,

frightened voters might push their state legislators,

to sign on his Uniform Narcotics Act.

Faster!

Faster!

Play faster!

Faster...

Play faster...

Faster.

I know what you want.

You wanna kill me!

- In this case the state weighs trial with defendant Ralph Wiley,

- it is convinced that he is hopelessly and incurably insane,

- a condition cause by the drug marijuana to which he was addicted.

It is recommended your honor,

- that the defendant be placed in an institution for the criminally insane for the rest of his natural life.

- I see no reason why the request should not be granted.

Wrap your *** *** distinct of tea

Blow this hay and get high with me

Determined to get the act passed,

Anslinger unleashed a media campaign to make the public believe,

that this little known plant growing at the side of little roads,

was the biggest threat America had ever faced.

Parents beware: your children homeward bound from school,

are being introduced to a new danger,

in the form of a drug cigarette: Marijuana!

A Chicago mother watching her daughter die as an indirect result of marijuana addiction

told officers that at least 50 of the girls young friends where slaves to the narcotic,

continuing addiction until they deteriorate mentally,

become insane, and turn to violent crime and murder.

Anslinger's campaign was tailor made for the lurid tabloid press,

and supported by an army of moralist groups it captured the public's imagination.

Movietone News covering the world to bring you the news!

He's a man that smokes that jive,

that jive will take you for a dive,

One slip you will arrive, When you smoke that killing jive!

Street corner vendors whose stock-in-trade is the deadly local weed marijuana,

pass it out in cigarette form.

From ingeniously concealed containers,

the reefers go to the waiting hands of deluded youngsters.

That feeling will arrive When you smoke that killing jive!

A police find a city backyard full of dope.

This innocent looking weed is Mexican marijuana,

which when smoked produces more nightmares than opium.

Captain Mooney of the narcotics squad will tell us something about it:

- The constant use of these marijuana cigarettes causes temporary insanity.

Yet you smoke that killing jive!

Let's go, Jack, I'm red-hot!

Our state voted for the Uniform Narcotic Act,

and so should yours!

The propaganda campaign was successful beyond Anslinger's wildest dreams.

One by one, state after state signed on.

When you smoke that killing jive!

Gentlemen, take your seats.

But now, frightened out of their minds, the American public,

demanded that the federal government assed new laws to fight marijuana.

Terrified voters wanted action, and their government responded.

Without any public debate, scientific inquiry or political objection,

the Marijuana Tax Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt.

The act prohibited possession of marijuana anywhere in the United States,

without a special tax stamp from the Treasury Department,

and the Treasury Department didn't give out any stamps,

effectively making marijuana illegal.

Over night a new class of criminals was created.

- To the treasury agents of the Bureau of Narcotics comes the job,

of wiping out this traffic.

- And in 1937, we smashed ten major narcotic rings.

- Only the cooperation of an awakened public,

- Can make-would make... - Ah, to hell with it!

The latest crave, the country's rave is jive, jive, jive!

This modern treat makes life complete,

Jive, jive, jive!

All the jive is gone All the jive is gone,

I'm sorry, gate but you got here late,

All the jive is gone!

All the jive is gone All the jive is gone!

So come on in and drink some gin,

All the jive is gone!

The first person to be convicted was Samuel R. Caldwell,

a 58 year old Denver man,

sentencing him to four years hard labor at Leavenworth,

judge J. Foster Syme said:

"I consider marijuana the worst of all narcotics."

"Under it's influence, men become beasts."

"In the future, I will impose the heaviest penalties."

"The government is going to enforce this new law to the letter."

- Prohibition cannot be enforced,

- for the simple reason that the majority of American people do not want it enforced,

- and are resisting it's enforcement.

- That being so, the orderly thing to do,

- under our form of government,

- is to abolish a law which cannot be enforced,

- a law which the people of the country do not want enforced!

New York's prohibition fighting mayor, Fiorello La Guardia,