Reefer Madness, Part Two

My post about the racist Reefer Madness poster several months ago has some company now. This Mashable article rounds up over a dozen anti-marijuana posters from the early to mid-20th century, including this one:


It's much subtler than the one from the Hamilton museum, shown in my earlier post, but the implication is still clear, I think. (Not to mention the use of the wrong version of its.)

The rest of the posters in the Mashable piece don't use race to make their point, but whew, they sure use scantily clad and even naked white gals. Controlling female sexuality seems to have been a major obsession with these marketers. "Unleashed passions!" "Makes beasts of men & women!" "A good girl until she lights a reefer!" And this: "How bad can a good girl get / She shoulda said 'NO' but she didn't!"

And what is going on with the poster where a guy is injecting something into a woman's arm... did they think marijuana is injected?