Original subtitles

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

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!

[dramatic music]

[glass shattering]

♪ ♪

♪ Anything to get a kick ♪

♪ Anything to get a blast ♪

♪ Anything to bomb 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 percent of the student body 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 bomb his mind ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Quit playing games with God ♪

♪ ♪

[gunshots]

♪ ♪

smoking marijuana for thousands of years,

the custom only reached the United States at the

beginning of the 20th century, when it arrived

in the southwest with a wave of Mexicans looking for work.

Papers, please. Next.

To these poor labourers, 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 rumoured, gave the Mexicans

superhuman strength, and turned them into

blood-thirsty murderers.

One evening, in El Paso, some white Texans were

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,

the 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.

The Treasury Department intends to pursue a

relentless warfare against the despicable,

dope-peddling vulture who preys on the weakness

of his fellow man.

Halt!

[dramatic music]

America's first drug Czar was Harry J. Anslinger.

A law-and-order Evangelist, Anslinger would shape

America's attitude towards marijuana

for generations to come.

♪ ♪

♪ Onward Christian soldiers... ♪

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.

[knocking]

Swordfish.

♪ ♪

He believed that if the laws were 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 to mounting the

government's war on drugs.

Special Treasury agents are part of a massive force

created solely to control the traffic of narcotics.

Any merchandise obtained in Canada or aboard?

No.

Have you any liquor?

No.

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 out pretty quickly that policing 48 States

on a depression-strapped budget was impossible.

His solution was to try and convince the States

to police local drug traffic themselves.

Campaigning tirelessly, he lobbied each State to sign a

joint agreement to commit State resources to fighting drugs.

But only 9 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 centres in the north.

♪ ♪

♪ Have you ever met that funny reefer man? ♪

♪ If he says he swam to China ♪

♪ Wants to sell you South Carolina ♪

♪ Then you know you're talking to that reefer man ♪

♪ Reefer man ♪

♪ Have you ever met that funny reefer man? ♪

♪ Oh, that funny, funny, funny reefer man ♪

♪ Reefer man ♪

♪ If he trades you dimes for nickels ♪

♪ He says watermelons are pickles ♪

♪ You know you're talking to that reefer man ♪

♪ Have you ever met that funny reefer man? ♪

♪ Reefer man ♪

♪ Oh, that funny, funny, funny reefer man ♪

♪ Reefer man ♪

♪ He smokes a reefer, he gets high ♪

♪ Then he flies to the sky ♪

♪ That funny, funny, funny reefer man ♪

♪ ♪

With marijuana showing up in the 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 to his uniform Narcotics Act.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

Faster.

♪ ♪

Faster.

♪ ♪

Play it faster.

♪ ♪

Faster.

Play it faster.

♪ ♪

Faster.

♪ ♪

I know what you want.

You want to kill me.

Ah!

[screams]

[hysterical laughter]

In this case, the State waives trial with the

It is convinced that he is hopelessly and incurably insane.

A condition caused by the drug marijuana,

to which he was addicted.

It is recommended, Your Honour, 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 chops round this stick of tea ♪

♪ Blow this gauge, 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 rural 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 drugged 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

were slaves to the narcotic, continuing addiction until

they deteriorate mentally, become insane, and turn to

violent crime and murder.

♪ ♪

Extra, extra, playground dope addicts.

Read all about it.

♪ ♪

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 the man that smokes that jive ♪

♪ That jive will take you for a dive ♪

♪ Wonders if he's still the top ♪

♪ When you smoke that killin' jive ♪

America is threatened by a new drug menace.

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 goes

to the waiting hands of deluded youngsters.

♪ When you smoke that killin' jive ♪

Police find a city backyard full of dope.

This innocent looking weed is Mexican marijuana

which, when smoked, produces more nightmares than opium.

Captain Moonie of the Narcotics Squad

will tell us something about it.

The constant use of these marijuana cigarettes

causes temporary insanity.

[screaming, window smashing]

Let's go, Jack. I'm red hot.

[thudding sound]

[laughter]

♪ ♪

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 killin' jive ♪

♪ ♪

Gentlemen, take your seats.

the American public demanded that the Federal

government pass new laws to fight marijuana.

Terrified voters wanted action, and their government responded.

[gavel pounding]

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.

♪ ♪

Overnight, 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-- will make-- Oh, the hell with it.

♪ ♪

♪ The latest craze the country raves is jive, jive, jive ♪

♪ This modern treat makes life complete ♪

♪ Jive, jive, jive ♪

♪ All the jive is gone ♪

♪ I'm sorry, Gabe, but you got here late ♪

♪ All the jive is gone ♪

♪ So come on in and drink some gin ♪

♪ All the jive is gone ♪

[explosion]

♪ ♪

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

a 58-year-old Denver man.

Sentencing him to four years hard labour at Leavenworth,

Judge J. Foster Simes, said, "I consider marijuana

the worst of all narcotics.

Under its 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."

♪ All the jive is gone ♪

♪ ♪

Prohibition cannot be enforced for the simple reason

that the majority of the American people do not want

it enforced and are resisting its 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,

was somewhat skeptical of the government's claims

that marijuana was causing murder, rape, and the

destruction of America's youth.

Wanting to get the facts, he commissioned a study

by a group of 31 impartial scientists.

♪ ♪

After six years of medical and sociological research,

the La Guardia Commission found smoking marijuana did

not lead to violent or anti-social behaviour.

Smoking marijuana did not cause uncontrollable sexual urges.

Smoking marijuana did not alter a person's basic

personality structure.

Item by item, the Commission's report disproved

every negative effect claimed by Harry Anslinger.

Furious, Anslinger used his influence with the press

to have the report discredited, and destroyed every copy

he could get his hands on.

And by restricting the supply of marijuana,

he put a stop to any further research.

♪ ♪

Not taking any chances, Anslinger ordered his men

to dig up dirt on anyone who disagreed with him.

And going on the offensive, he targeted the

entertainment industry, which he saw

as a degenerate, immoral influence.

♪ ♪

I told you I'd wait until he's grown.

Well now he's growed, and he gets his legacy,

only it's made out of hemp.

[dramatic music]

♪ Dreamed about a reefer five feet long ♪

Not wanting any trouble with the government,

the Hollywood studios agreed to give Anslinger

personal control over all movie scripts

that mentioned drugs.

And movies he felt sent the wrong message were just banned.

♪ I'm the queen of everything ♪

[footsteps marching]

[whistle blowing]

[sirens wailing]

[footsteps marching]

♪ ♪

Youth is a time for fun, pranks and jokes.

Of ice cream cones and chocolate sodas.

Youth is a time for getting a job, for finding one's

place in the world.

But sometimes, in these trouble days, the very

thoughtlessness of youth has led to a living nightmare:

addiction to drugs.

♪ ♪

What's that?

H.

H?

What's H?

Shh, not so loud.

It's heroin.

Will it make me sick like the reefers did?

Marty's story is like many of the others.

It started with marijuana cigarettes.

Come on, it's my turn next.

Gee, Duke, where'd you get 'em?

I know a guy.

Three for a buck.

He was determined to be one of the gang if it killed him.

And it almost did.

Several weeks later, after smoking reefers,

Marty's befogged brain hit on a clever way

to open pop bottles.

Later, Stan went to the hospital for

swallowing broken glass.

Marty badly cut the inside of his mouth,

though he didn't even know it at the time.

Before long, Marty was hooked, physically

dependent on heroin.

Nothing mattered by the ever present craving for the drugs.

He had given up interest in everything else.

♪ ♪

♪ I get no kick from champagne ♪

♪ ♪

By the early 1950s, concern about marijuana was

overshadowed by a new media scare, rising heroin addiction

among teenagers who were drifting into crime

to support their habit.

♪ ♪

♪ That I should get a kick-- ♪

I want some money, Sam.

You're, you're crazy.

The money!

I know you.

They put you in jail.

Just get the money!

♪ ♪

Oh!

No, no, please, no!

[glass smashing]

This heroin scare gave an aging Anslinger a new way

to attack marijuana, and respond to anyone

who might doubt its terrible danger.

♪ ♪

Smoking marijuana, he declared, was a direct

steppingstone to heroin addiction.

♪ ♪

♪ Satan is real ♪

♪ Working in spirit ♪

♪ You can see him and hear him ♪

♪ In this world every day ♪

♪ Satan is real ♪

♪ Working with power ♪

♪ He can temp you ♪

♪ And lead you astray ♪

An individual lad who tries the drug just for fun,

or experiments with it, acts exactly like a person who

loads the gun, puts a bullet in,

puts it up to his head...

very carefully, hopes for the best,

and pulls the trigger.

[gunshot]

[tone]

Please stand by.

♪ ♪

Teenage narcotic addiction.

Is there an answer?

♪ ♪

Robert M. Conlan, Commander of the Detective Bureau,

Culver City Police Department, Culver City, California.

Is there any general personality traits

that would apply to addicts?

Most of these addicts are very sick, and they are a

menace, and have to be arrested.

I get a lot of self-satisfaction of

arresting those people.

And what about teenage addiction?

How does that come about, usually?

They start out by using marijuana.

And do most marijuana users finally go on the hard stuff?

Yes.

What kind of changes could be made to improve the

narcotics situation, based on present knowledge, Bob?

Well, Paul, the addict is a sick guy.

And anything that can be done through legislation

to make the penalty far greater, I'm sure would be

appreciated by every cop on every beat,

throughout the country.

Your name, please?

Harry J. Anslinger.

And your position and occupation?

Federal Commissioner of Narcotics.

Appearing at the Kefauver Crime Hearings,

Anslinger backs senator Hale Boggs' proposal

to increase penalties for all drug offences.

Tougher penalties were needed, he said because

behind every narcotics peddler, there was a

communist preparing to overthrow our government.

♪ ♪

According to all the documents that

we have been examining today,

the major source is Red China.

Do you see a marked increase in the amount of drugs

circulating in this country, which you believe come from

Red China, since China went communist in 1949?

Oh, very much so.

Under the Nationalists, they had the situation pretty

There were about a thousand executions a year under

the Nationalist Chinese government.

I haven't heard of anyone being wounded under this regime.

Even though there was absolutely no proof

of a communist plot to dope up America,

the country was in the grip of cold war hysteria, and

no politician could afford to look soft on communism.

Taking Anslinger's advice, President Truman signed

the Boggs' Act, which dramatically increased

penalties for position, and ordered mandatory

minimum sentences.

[dart thuds]

[bell dinging]

[darts thudding]

There's a considerable amount of heroin coming out of China.

You mean Red China?

Red China, yes, sir.

On a roll now, Anslinger agitated for even tougher laws,

and got President Eisenhower to push them through Congress.

[explosions]

[siren blaring]

The Narcotic Control Act put marijuana in

the same category as heroin, and made it subject

to the same penalties.

A first conviction for possession was punished

with the mandatory prison term of two to ten years.

In addition, a number of States added their own penalties.

In Missouri, a second conviction for possession

could get you life.

[door slamming]

This is Lieutenant McGee, Atlanta Police.

This is Lieutenant McGee of the Atlanta Police Department.

We got the stuff right away before

the man had a chance to distribute it.

Do you think this stopped the entire operation?

Yes, sir, I'm sure of it.

Have you ever seen anything like it before?

Not in my career, I haven't seen that much marijuana.

[chuckling]

Okay, I'm going to get a different lens on you here.

Is the sound pretty good?

♪ ♪

Setting his sights higher, Anslinger went to the U.N.

and used America's influence to persuade

over a hundred countries to consolidate their various

drug agreements into a single, inflexible

convention outlawing marijuana around the world.

This was the ultimate achievement in Anslinger's

relentless crusade to criminalize marijuana use.

♪ ♪

[roar of flames]

[applause]

To Harry Jacob Anslinger, distinguished citizen.

In your dedicated efforts to combat the illegal traffic

in narcotic drugs, your fashioned and effective

organization to pursue this objective.

Your noteworthy achievements in this field have earned

for you the respect of the world community.

Signed John F. Kennedy.

In leaving the Bureau he'd built up under five

different Presidents, Anslinger warned his successors of

an impending drug revolution, which he felt would be

nothing less than an assault on the foundations

of Western civilization.

♪ ♪

[eerie music]

[sirens wail]

[cartoon music]

♪ ♪

[laughter]

♪ ♪

Responsibility only to oneself.

Life, liberty and the pursuit of pleasure.

The new Declaration of Independence for the

teenager around the world.

♪ ♪

Smoke a joint, burn a little grass.

Pot party, roach party, mainliner, skin pop.

Shoot some crystal.

The language of the narcotic and marijuana user.

The language of a large and ever-increasing

number of teens.

pills, it is not long before you soon graduate to marijuana.

For some, it quickens sexual desire.

For some, it is the release of sexual inhibitions.

But whatever it is, teenagers are going for it.

And may be the forerunner of a new drug society out of

some sign fiction writer's imagination.

Will drugs pave the road to destruction

for the now generation?

♪ ♪

♪ Come on now, hi ♪

♪ ♪

♪ You know you really turn me on ♪

On campuses across the country,

a whole new generation discovered drugs.

Rebellious, and willing to experiment, they found

they liked altering their consciousness.

♪ ♪

Do you smoke pot?

Yes, I do.

Do you smoke marijuana?

Yes.

I've been smoking pot for about a year.

Have you found it addictive?

Oh, no.

I go for months and months without smoking it

and then I'll smoke a lot, maybe, in a week.

Well, the argument is made that pot leads to

the addiction to heroin or other narcotics.

Have you found this to be so among

the people that you know?

No, not at all.

The people who use the stronger drugs, the opiates,

etc., are not the people who smoke marijuana.

And the people who smoke marijuana,

do not use the other drugs.

Gradually, the perception that marijuana was dangerous

began to change.

Many students saw smoking grass as a rejection

of establishment values, a way of declaring

their independence.

[honking]

♪ ♪

♪ Over Bridge of Sighs ♪

♪ To rest my eyes in shades of green ♪

♪ Under dreaming spires ♪

♪ To Itchycoo Park, that's where I've been ♪

♪ ♪

♪ What did you do there? ♪

♪ I got high ♪

♪ What did you feel there? ♪

♪ Well, I cried ♪

♪ But why the tears there? ♪

♪ Tell you why ♪

♪ It's all too beautiful ♪

♪ ♪

♪ I feel inclined to blow my mind ♪

♪ Get hung up, feed the ducks with a bun ♪

♪ They all come out to groove about ♪

♪ Be nice and have fun in the sun ♪

At this point, we are going to leave Golden Gate Park,

to go into the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco.

The last 18 months has seen a tremendous increase of

the so-called hippies.

This is a protection against the middle and upper class

people of San Francisco, in fact, of the area.

It is the belief of the people who live within the area

that we in the middle class, have done a very,

very poor job in running our government,

and our way of life.

♪ ♪

This weekend, Jefferson Airplane on Friday,

Grateful Dead on Saturday, Carousel Ballroom,

high above market and band mix.

♪ ♪

Anybody hungry?

-Hey, how about we order some Chinese?

-Order some Chinese to do what?

[telephone ringing]

Federal Bureau of Narcotics, please hold.

The new head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics,

Henry Giordano, began to realize he had a problem.

To address it, he developed a campaign he hoped would

be believable to the younger generation.

If you smoke marijuana, you will become an unmotivated,

dysfunctional, loser.

♪ ♪

♪ Pammy's on a bummer now ♪

♪ ♪

♪ And nobody knows where she's at ♪

♪ ♪

♪ She could be almost anywhere ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Maybe some day, she'll be back ♪

♪ She's started smoking pot ♪

If you become a pothead, you risk blowing the most

important time of your life, your teenage.

That unrepeatable time for you to grow up and prepare

for being an adult that can handle problems and make

something meaningful out of life, or you have the

choice to have the courage to see and deal with the

world for what it really is.

Far, far from perfect, but for you and for me,

the only one there is...

[tape slowing, faltering]

Because so many were trying marijuana without

any ill effects, the public demanded to know more.

And for the first time, the Federal government

approved scientific testing.

The plain fact is none of us know very much about this

drug in my verifiable way.

Well, Bill, it's been about two hours since

you got the drug.

How do you feel?

Fantastic.

Defiant?

Not at all.

Business-like?

Not at all.

Sheesh.

Friendly?

Extremely.

This is so ridiculous.

Would you be interested in taking part in a study like

this again, and having the same type of drug?

Oh, sure.

It's been a very pleasant experience for you.

I'll do it any time you want.

Do you think it would be--

Any time at all.

Just call me any time of the day or night.

We found out that the drug makes people happy.

It makes them intoxicated, and finally, makes them sleepy.

Which is about what marijuana users were

telling us happened all the time.

Last call, folks.

Drink it up.

Nice to see you, Bob.

How's the wife?

Kids okay?

Good.

Let's drink to tomorrow.

Hell, let's drink to tonight.

Hell, let's drink.

I says right here that alcohol does more harm

to your nervous system.

Stop reading that underground trash and pay

more attention to your homework.

All that drivel they talk.

♪ ♪

♪ We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee ♪

♪ ♪

♪ We don't take our trips on LSD ♪

♪ ♪

Whether the younger generation was presented as

drugged out hippies, or anti-war protestors,

conservative America reacted with a fear and hatred

that threatened to pull the country apart.

♪ ♪

♪ I'm proud to be an Okie from Muskogee ♪

[gunfire]

♪ Place where even squares can have a ball ♪

♪ ♪

♪ We still wave Old Glory... ♪

This is fire support base Aries, 50 miles

northeast of Saigon.

Vito is a 20-year-old draftee from Philadelphia.

A photographer before he entered the army,

Vito is now a squad leader, responsible for

the lives of a dozen men.

It's a 12-gauge shotgun.

What we basically use it for on the LZ,

and I guess even out in the field.

If you want to know,

we use it to shotgun from a ball.

You know, you just put the ball in the chamber and all.

Paul, let me borrow that ball for a minute.

[laughter]

This is probably all Sids, and we're getting busted,

but I don't care.

Shotgun.

[laughter]

What's happening here is also happening,

to some extent, at virtually every other

American installation in Vietnam.

Recent surveys estimate that well over 50 percent of the

soldiers in Vietnam use marijuana.

Then, you know, you're like, who cares about the war.

This war.

♪ ♪

Nixon: It is time for an honest look at the problem

of order in the United States.

I pledge to you, we shall have order in the United States.

♪ ♪

Manipulating the fears of what he termed the silent majority,

Richard Nixon built his campaign for the

presidency around an emotionally-charged central

issue, restoring law and order.

And it worked.

As President, Nixon was determined to be seen as the

toughest crime fighter ever.

But most crimes fell under state jurisdiction,

so Nixon wasn't allowed to get involved.

However, there was one area where the Federal

government did have power: drug crime.

Early in his first term, Nixon launched Operation Intercept.

A military-style exercise, officially described as the

country's largest peace-time search and seizure operation.

In it, 2,000 customs' agents were deployed

along the Mexican border.

Their orders: stop the marijuana.

♪ ♪

This is the biggest mistake the government of the

United States has made, and the biggest offence they

could have done to the Mexican people.

♪ ♪

I think if it stops the marijuana flow in Los Angeles,

and the southern cities, I think it's excellent.

If it doesn't, then I think our time is wasted.

Although more than 5 million American and Mexican

citizens passed through this dragnet,

practically no marijuana was intercepted.

After three weeks, Operation Intercept was abandoned.

['Hail to the Chief' plays]

Now, even more determined to appear tough on crime,

Nixon poured Federal money into equipping, training,

and educating local police forces across America.

♪ ♪

In the day-to-day conduct of your police duties,

no matter how or for what reason you're called

to investigate a situation in a residence,

use your eyes to detect evidence of marijuana,

hashish, or narcotic violations.

The evidence you're looking for is here, all right.

But it has to be located before you can read it.

Use your eyes.

Ashtrays are logical places to use your eyes

for evidence of marijuana violations.

There are some noticeable differences between a

marijuana, or grass joint, and the butt of an ordinary

cigarette, clearly visible, even at a distance, to

those who use their eyes.

This, of course, is marijuana itself.

The best evidence of all.

It has distinctive characteristics.

Learn them.

Use your eyes.

It also has a distinctive aroma, so use your nose,

as well as your eyes.

♪ ♪

Police officer, open the door.

Come on, come on.

Look right here.

[flash pops]

As arrests skyrocketed, the convictions were no longer

limited to minorities.

Now, most of the people serving time were white,

middle class, American kids.

Why do you smoke marijuana?

It's really very simple.

I smoke it because I enjoy it.

It doesn't worry that you're breaking the law?

Sure, it worries me.

I mean, it worries me because I don't want to get caught.

I do not want to go to jail for something I consider

a pleasure and harmless to both society and myself.

I'm not hurting anybody.

I'm not hurting myself.

Why should I be punished for it?

♪ ♪

♪ And you may see me tonight with an illegal smile ♪

♪ It don't cost very much ♪

♪ But it lasts a long while ♪

♪ Won't you please tell the man ♪

♪ I didn't kill anyone ♪

♪ No, I'm just trying to have me some fun ♪

♪ ♪

When Don Crowe was convicted of selling marijuana to

an undercover agent, there seemed reason for hope.

It was his first offence, after all, and the amount

had been small, less than one ounce.

But the jury saw its duty. Sentence: 50 years in prison.

For Crowe, 25 years old, newly returned from

Vietnam, it was a bitter pill.

I had the feeling that I was fighting for my country

and for my fellow man.

And it is kind of depressing to know that I should come back

and be given 50 years for allegedly selling

a lid of marijuana.

This is the Purple Heart that he received

the first time he was wounded.

There is a mother's pride as Mrs. Crowe

recounts Don's military record.

But it is hard for her, too.

He loved his country, she says.

He was a good boy.

Well, we were naturally so proud of him when he was

over there, and when he came back, and all this

happened, well, of course, I've just been heartbroken.

And I think it is a severe penalty.

I don't think that a kid should have their entire

future career blighted by having an arrest record for

being caught in a room where marijuana was kept,

or from smoking a joint of marijuana when they're

a kid in college, or a young kid.

And that's exactly what happens.

Everyone here seems to emphasize the kids.

How can you communicate with them when they've got

flowers in their ears so they can't hear, and hair

down to their hip pockets.

The young person, other minority group members,

have a much greater chance of being arrested,

and are arrested, and if this continues,

we're going to decimate the youthful population of America.

That's exactly what's going to happen.

If any one of us has a kid who's arrested,

there's going to be an arrest for narcotic

violation on his record for the rest of his life.

He can't go in the Peace Corp.,

he can't teach school, he can't be a cop.

committed murder, he'd have an arrest record?

If he committed murder, he's harmed someone.

Can any law be effective, especially a law dealing

with marijuana, when there is so much controversy from

so many eminent people?

No law can be effective that actually tries to

regulate or legislate private morality.

You can't make homosexual laws effective.

You can't make-- could you pass a law that says

it's a crime to masturbate?

You couldn't enforce it.

There are laws on the book that say

thou shalt not fornicate, either.

And you wouldn't go around arresting

kids for fornicating.

If it was against the law, I would.

You don't even know it's against the law.

You're a hell of a cop.

Sex is illegal in most of America.

Everything's illegal in America.

It's either illegal, immoral or fattening.

It's that simple.

I think we've come to somewhat of a conclusion

here, in that the law is not very effective.

How could it be effective when you have 10,000 kids

in one city are being arrested in one year.

The law is not effective.

♪ ♪

As middle class parents began asking

why is my kid in jail, more and more Americans

began to feel the problem was not marijuana,

but marijuana laws.

♪ ♪

♪ Beat is gettin' stronger ♪

♪ Music getting longer, too ♪

♪ Music is flashin' me ♪

♪ I want to, I want to ♪

♪ I want to take you higher ♪

Support for reform of marijuana laws

seemed to come from everywhere.

Even Federal officials agreed

that harsh penalties were not working.

A conservative estimate of persons in the United

States, both juvenile and adult, who have used

marijuana at least once, is about 8 million,

and may go as high as 12 million.

Can you imagine what would happen to the law

enforcement and correction system of this country,

if each of these 12 million people had been caught by a

policeman when smoking his first marijuana cigarette?

The first place in which legal reforms can be made,

is in the removal of mandatory minimum penalties

in all cases of drug abuse.

Sensing the public's mood, Congress passed the

Controlled Substances Act, which eliminated

mandatory minimum sentences, and reduced

penalties for possession.

♪ ♪

Yippee!

Ha ha!

♪ ♪

♪ Gonna take you high, high, high, high ♪

♪ ♪

[gunshots, explosions, sirens]

♪ ♪

[police sirens wailing]

♪ ♪

Is she dead?

Not yet.

This picture was taken at 10 p.m.

The girl lived until midnight.

But I maintain the evidence against marijuana isn't in yet.

Well, sir, will you concede it might be as harmful as alcohol?

Well, all right.

But it's no worse.

Because according to U.S. government figures,

between 5 and 6 million people in this country

are physically and mentally sick as a result

of their use of alcohol.

If marijuana possesses only half the potential of

alcohol for violence, criminality, accidents and

social degradation, do we need pot?

♪ ♪

Unwilling to let a bunch of effete liberals ruin his

crime-fighting agenda, Nixon enlisted TV producers and

show business stars to send a strong moral message to

every home, every school, and every church in America.

♪ ♪

I've done a study of drug abuse, and I'm right in the

middle of the whole thing, where I can do the most good.

Some people say that in a matter of months,

Acapulco Gold will be available over the

counter, menthol and king size, which is an

indication of how little people know about marijuana.

Today, research scientists are studying its effects

on the brain, the nervous system, chromosomes,

various organs in the body.

Maybe it'll turn out there's no reason for it to be illegal.

But nobody can be sure until all the facts are in.

And until they are, it's a pretty bum risk.

Repelled by the idea of softening any laws,

Nixon maintained that until more was known

about marijuana's dangers, the law should not change.

To this end, he made millions of dollars

available to find those dangers.

♪ ♪

[train horn blowing]

♪ ♪

Many of us are concerned that a large percentage of our

young people are breaking the law by smoking marijuana.

As you know, your own White House conference on youth

voted to legalize marijuana.

I know you've thought about this problem, and I wonder

if you'll give us some of your thoughts on it.

As you know, there is a commission that is supposed

to make recommendations to me about this subject.

The recommendation of the commission in its first

report is that we do not feel that private use, or

private possession in one's own home, should have the

stigma of criminalization.

That people who experiment should not be criminalized

for that particular behaviour.

The Presidential Commission's report on marijuana found

marijuana use, in and of itself, did not cause crime.

Current laws against grass led to selective

prosecution and the police were suspected of using

these laws to arrest people with objectionable

hairstyles, skin colour or politics.

The enormous costs of trying to enforce laws against

marijuana overwhelmingly outweighed any deterrent

The commission had conducted the most comprehensive and

highly publicized study of marijuana ever done.

Furious, Nixon tossed it in a wastebasket

without ever reading it.

Uh, Mr. President?

Okay.

Whenever you're ready.

I shall continue to oppose efforts to legalize marijuana.

Doing the exact opposite of what was recommended,

Nixon declared an all-out war on drugs.

His primary weapon, the DEA, a new government agency

that combined all of the government's existing

anti-drug agencies into a single,

all-powerful super agency.

Just keep going forward.

To your right there.

Looks like you're right on top of it.

That all there is?

Yeah.

Last week, we pulled 13 pounds of it up in about

five different patches, and we've got another four or

five now that are really small patches.

But we're going to go ahead and pull them up today.

Do you just come in and destroy the patch?

We destroy the patch, and then we'll take it and burn it.

Apparently, there is somebody coming back

here and cultivating it.

Definitely.

These are all in nice little neat rows.

It's kind of a rotating crop they've got.

Some are smaller than others.

How good is Georgia pot?

I've never smoked it, so I don't know.

[laughter]

♪ One toke over the line, sweet Jesus ♪

♪ One toke over the line ♪

♪ Sitting downtown in a railway station ♪

♪ One toke over the line ♪

Employing more than 4,000 analysts and agents,

the DEA had the authority to request wiretaps,

enter private homes without knocking,

and gather intelligence on ordinary citizens.

♪ One toke over the line ♪

♪ ♪

Brewer and Shipley is still One Toke Over the Line, and

now Wadsworth Mansion is smoking a little Sweet Mary.

♪ ♪

♪ Sweet Mary sent a letter to me ♪

♪ She said to hurry home, I need you right away ♪

the in thing for middle class adults.

Sort of like having a martini at happy hour.

♪ ♪

♪ Sweet Mary, I'm coming home ♪

♪ Coming home to you ♪

♪ Sweet Mary, I'm coming home now ♪

♪ That's the least I can do ♪

Fry over a low-to-medium fire for about five minutes,

Let it cool a few minutes, then, grind it into a powder.

Now, you can do anything you want with it.

Put it in ice cream, butter, milkshakes, Jello, or put

it in honey and freeze it into squares for later.

[laughing]

Ideal recently, the use of marijuana was considered

A thing of campus protests, the counter culture, long hair.

Well, not so in the '70s.

Meet some of the criminals at large.

I've spent a lot of time with my daughter and her friends.

And they all smoke marijuana, and so I had to try it.

I first used pot back in the latter part of 1968,

and have used it since then with some degree of regularity.

I had some pot earlier today before I went down to Court.

I smoke at home.

I smoke at parties, many places.

To me, it's a question of the rights to life,

liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

You know, who owns me?

Sign up here!

As smoking marijuana became increasingly mainstream,

pro-pot activists began organizing support

for decriminalization.

Last year in this country, there were 226,000

marijuana related arrests.

And although the police sometimes tell us that

they're only interested in the pusher, or the seller,

as they say, the fact is that only 7 percent of

those arrests were against the seller.

93 percent of those arrested for possession and use.

Now, what that means is, that there were about

200,000 young people in this country last year who

were given an unnecessary criminal record, and all

that involved for the rest of their life,

simply because they smoked grass.

Something which is a relatively harmless thing to do.

So we're not trying to encourage the use of the drug.

But we're trying to get the country to understand that

there are other means to discourage the use of drugs

And in this case, the use of the criminal law

causes more harm than the drug itself.

♪ ♪

became a symbol for the movement.

He'd received a jail sentence of ten for two.

Ten years in prison for possession of two joints.

This song I wrote for John Sinclair.

♪ ♪

♪ It ain't fair, John Sinclair ♪

♪ In the stiff for breathing air ♪

♪ Won't you care for John Sinclair? ♪

♪ In the stiff for breathing air ♪

♪ Let him be, set him free ♪

♪ Let him be like you and me ♪

♪ ♪

♪ They gave him ten for two ♪

♪ What else can judge Colombo do? ♪

♪ We gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta gotta ♪

♪ Gotta set him free ♪

[cheering]

♪ ♪

Consistent with the changing times, the city of Ann Arbor,

Michigan, passed an ordinance taking marijuana possession

out of the criminal code and making it a minor offence.

The equivalent of a parking ticket.

♪ ♪

♪ Taking it to the street ♪

♪ Taking it to... ♪

♪ ♪

A year later, after a ground-breaking vote

in its legislation, Oregon became the first State

to completely decriminalize marijuana.

Here is a State that is not afraid to plough new ground

in an area where there is a lot of hysteria.

It's not going to be very widely understood, but I

think, as you look back over the handling of drugs,

if you can keep it in for a few years, you'll see

it was landmark legislation.

♪ Taking it to the street ♪

♪ ♪

In 1974, with legal problems of his own,

Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency.

♪ ♪

We smoke pot! We smoke pot!

♪ ♪

We don't want any penalty for the private possession

and use and cultivation of marijuana.

[cheering]

A study in Oregon, four years after decriminalization,

showed no increase in marijuana use and

a substantial savings of tax dollars formerly

spent on law enforcement.

By that time, ten other States had decriminalized marijuana.

♪ ♪

Continuing Nixon's war on drugs, fill-in President

Gerald Ford, ordered U.S. forces to spray Mexican

marijuana fields with the military defoliant paraquat.

But in the upcoming Presidential election,

he found himself running against an unexpected opponent.

Appreciate your vote.

I do favour the decriminalization of marijuana.

[applause]

♪ Can our government be competent? ♪

♪ Jimmy Carter says, yes ♪

Tonight on Headline News.

President Carter proposes major changes

to Federal drug laws.

I support a change in law to end Federal,

criminal penalties for possession of up to one ounce

of marijuana, leaving the States free

to adopt whatever laws they wish concerning marijuana.

♪ ♪

Due in part to advocacy by the decriminalization movement,

the government was finally

preparing to abandon its war on marijuana smokers.

♪ ♪

[beeping]

♪ ♪

[evil laughter]

♪ ♪

Is that a joint, man?

Look like a quarter pounder, man.

Led Zeppelin.

Be careful with that shit, man.

Toke, toke it out, man.

Kind of grabs you by the boo boo, don't it?

What's in this, man?

Mostly Maui Wowi, man.

Yeah?

But it's got some Labrador in it.

What's Labrador?

It's dog shit.

What?

Yeah, my dog ate my stash, man.

So I had to follow him around with a little baggie

for three days before I got it back.

That's some heavy shit, man.

Hey, man.

Am I driving okay?

I think we're parked, man.

♪ Well, all right you squares ♪

♪ It's time you smoked ♪

♪ Everybody get high ♪

♪ ♪

marijuana seemed to be everywhere.

Through movies and television, it had entered

the popular culture.

The FBI claims that a huge shipment of grass,

which they are calling killer dope,

has been smuggled into New York City.

The bureau urges users not to smoke the weed,

which is greenish brown in colour, not particularly seedy,

and contains mostly cannabis buds.

Warning symptoms are a mild euphoria, a slight rise in

the pulse rate, some hallucination,

and death by laughter within 15 minutes of ingestion.

[laughter]

In an effort to aid the FBI in its investigation,

Weekend Update is undertaking its own

analysis of marijuana sent to us anonymously by any

viewers who may be worried.

Simply place a small sample of the suspected cannabis

in an envelope, and send it immediately to:

[laughter]

But not everyone was laughing.

Worried about teenage marijuana use,

a number of concerned parents organized pressure groups

to fight the new drug culture.

This is a dashboard pipe that fits onto the dashboard

of your car so you can put pot in here and then

the driver and his date can get stoned as

they're tooling down the freeway.

This is designed to put some pot in and then

you smoke the pot out of here.

Now, you can toss a smoke to a friend if you want to.

There are things like bongs.

You put the pot in here, light it, smoke travels

down here, collects, and then you get a concentrated

volume of smoke by sucking in like this.

I think the label is instructive.

Bong, the only thing wasted is you.

This, too, is a bong.

It's called a power hitter.

And it works by sticking a joint here and then

blasting it into your lungs, like this.

Now, it comes as a Star Wars space gun, also.

Can you please leave.

You're all going to have to leave, I'm sorry.

And you are?

Officially closed, as of now.

Most of the afternoon was spent trying to decide what

actually were head shops and drug-related paraphernalia.

Managers and owners from head shops around the area

testified that the law is now so ambiguous that

possibly as much as 80 percent of their inventory

could now be considered illegal.

One owner admitted he may be out of work within the week.

But Judge--

Okay.

Most of the afternoon was spent trying to decide what

actually were head shops and drug-related paraphernalia.

Okay.

Most of the afternoon was spent trying--

were head shops and drug-related paraphernalia.

Owners and managers of head shops--

Toke, toke.

♪ ♪

In the midst of this backlash,

Dr. Peter Bourne, Carter's chief drug policy advisor,

was caught up in a scandal involving alleged cocaine use.

As the press had a field day, the President could

no longer afford to appear soft on drugs.

His proposal to decriminalize marijuana

would die in Congress.

♪ She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie ♪

♪ Cocaine ♪

♪ ♪

[applause]

I'm sick and tired of hearing about all of the radicals,

and the perverts, and the liberals, and the leftists,

and the communists coming out of the closet.

It's time for God's people to come out of the closet,

out of the churches, and change America.

We must do it.

the religious right mobilized into a potent,

political force.

After a brief period of tolerance, America was poised

for a major swing the other way.

Leading medical researchers are coming to the conclusion

that marijuana, pot, grass, whatever you want to call it,

is probably the most dangerous drug in the United States,

and we haven't begun to find out all of the ill effects,

but they're permanent ill effects.

The loss of memory, for example.

♪ ♪

This is your brain on drugs?

Any questions?

Just say no.

In her crusade for a drug-free America,

Mrs. Reagan led school children --

-Ordered mandatory drug testing for all Federal employees.

-The Supreme Court has given school principals the right

to strip search any student suspected of drug possession.

-Citing a threat to national security, the President

today signed legislation

allowing law enforcement agencies to seize property--

-Under President George Bush's new zero tolerance policy,

marijuana smokers--

Using illegal drugs is against the law.

Go, go!

And when you're caught, you will be punished.

Some think there won't be room for them in jail.

[knocking]

We'll make room.

The rules have changed.

-In a speech to the Coast Guard today,

George Bush said that drug trafficking should be

grounds for the death penalty.

I'm proposing a quarter of a billion dollars.

$2.2 billion.

$8 billion dollars.

The largest increase in history.

♪ ♪

♪ Everybody must get stoned ♪

[manic music playing]

[static signal]

[toilet flushing]

We smoke pot.

♪ ♪

Since President Clinton took office,

over 3 million people have been arrested

for possession of marijuana, more than under

any previous administration.

The United States government continues to wage a war

on grass that time and time again has proven itself

misguided and completely ineffective.

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.

♪ ♪

♪ Soothe me with your courage ♪

♪ Sweet marijuana ♪

♪ Marijuana ♪

♪ Help me in my distress ♪

♪ Sweet marijuana ♪

♪ Please do ♪

♪ ♪

♪ You alone can bring my lover back to me ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Even though I know it's all a fantasy ♪

♪ ♪

♪ And then, put me to sleep ♪

♪ Sweet, marijuana ♪

♪ Marijuana ♪

♪ ♪

Potheads.

♪ Anything to get a kick ♪

♪ Anything to get a blast ♪

♪ Anything to get a kick ♪

♪ Anything to get a blast ♪

♪ Anything to get a kick ♪

♪ Anything to get a blast ♪

♪ Anything to bomb his mind ♪

♪ ♪

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 percent of the student body was smoking pot.

Smoking pot, pot, pot.

It fascinates and then assassinates.

And then it kills.

A drug epidemic that's sweeping our nation.

We need to legalize pot.

Pot.

♪ ♪

Man, I didn't dig that.

♪ ♪

Smoking pot.

♪ ♪

Cold turkey withdrawal.

♪ ♪

Smoking pot.

♪ ♪

Anything to bomb his mind.

♪ ♪

Smoking pot.

♪ ♪

Anything to get a blast.

♪ ♪

Smoking pot.

♪ ♪

Quit playing games with God.

Potheads.

If what you see and hear in this picture will keep one

of you, only one person from taking that first step,

our purpose has been accomplished,

and we are humbly thankful.

♪ ♪