PROHIBITION
In 1936 a propaganda movie was created titled, “Refer Maddness.” A high-school principal Dr. Alfred Carroll (Josef Forte) relates to an audience of parents that marijuana can have devastating effects on teens. In his story, a drug supplier entices several restless teens, including sister and brother Mary (Dorothy Short) and Jimmy Lane (Warren McCollum) and Mary's boyfriend, Bill (Kenneth Craig), into frequenting a "reefer" house. Gradually, Bill and Jimmy are drawn into smoking dope, which affects their family lives and leads to a terrible crime. SOURCE
This type of rhetoric assisted in creating fear amongst politicians and Christian whites in
America and provided
fuel for passing of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937.
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