MAGAZINES OF DECEPTION
THE REEFER MADNESS ERA
MAGAZINE GENRES

MAGAZINES AS TOOLS OF DISINFORMATION

Given today's technology it is hard (especially for those who grew up with the internet) to understand the importance of magazines in a world in which even television had yet to be invented. Obviously magazines would have played a much greater role in forming (as well as misinforming) public opinion back then, and thus of great interest to those involved in planning the anti-Medical Marihuana hysteria campaign.

However most historians are somewhat disappointed to learn that the campaign itself created nothing new in the field of propaganda or dis-information. Instead, it simply followed the very same well-established patterns first developed by the (alcohol) prohibition forces between 1880's and 1910's. And in turned used so successfully against them by the anti-prohibition forces (led by the Dupont family) in the 1920's.

With 20/20 hindsight, one can now see the obvious pattern:
  • Starting in the early 1930;s even mainstream magazines began using derogatory slogans such as, Marihuana, "The Assassin of Youth," "The Killer Drug", "The Weed of Sin" etc. Little if any mention of its medical uses was made.


  • Full use of already existing (and controllable) like-minded civic groups (Kiwanis, Elks, the J. C.'s etc.) and their house magazines was made.


  • Whenever possible control of the badge of authority (either by election, appointment or citizens committee) was taken over. One should recall that people back then had trust in their government, which they felt would never lie to them.


  • These organs in turn were instructed to give technical assistance (personal interviews etc.) "ONLY" to those who already supported their point of view.


  • Knowing that magazine reporters are as lazy as anyone else: Numerous template articles, were created which could be used (with a few minor changes) by magazine editors/writers over and over again. Which explains why so many of the articles all sound alike.
Even themes more suited for public speeches were followed religiously within the written form:
  • When talking giving public speeches or talks, always make it sound as if, "EVERYONE" everywhere (with the exception of a few evil doers) ALL support the war against marihuana. Those few that don't are the kind you don't want you daughter to get involved with.


  • Never give debate. Only talk on those forums where NO debate was to take place.
All of these methods were already well established long before the D.E.A. began its hysteria campaign against the use of Medical Marihuana. However, as expected, the exact methods did very from magazine genre to genre.

POLICE/LAW ENFORCEMENT JOURNALS


OFFICIAL POLICE JOURNALS

Not to be confused with the (more notorious) True/Crime True/Detective genre of magazines: Official police journals were those that were actually published by and primarily for Law enforcement organizations and personnel. Varying in size and quality, from small mimeograph newsletters to large glossy covered magazines, their role in the creation of the anti-Medical Marihuana laws was instrumental.

Starting in the early 1930's they began a slow but steady stream of propaganda. Mostly these seem to be general anti-dope articles, with Medical Marihuana being just one of the drugs*. But always, Medical Marihuana was mentioned in the negative, as the "killer drug" or as the "weed of madness and death" etc., with little or not mention of its uses in medicines.

Remembering that police officers, even back than were subject to the perils of what is now being termed "Group think." A condition which springs up in any work environment where individuals work and congregate almost exclusively among themselves. Thus the importance of what was being written about in those journals.

Of interest to students of the Reefer Madness campaign is that official D.E.A. magazines were still talking in terms of Medical Marihuana as a causer of violent crime well into the 1980's. To our knowledge none of them have ever apologize for their actions.

*For obvious reasons the museum records and indexes only those articles that deal almost exclusively with Marihuana.

MEN'S INTEREST (a.k.a. PORNO) MAGAZINES

GIRLIE MAGAZINES
Museum volunteers have spent numerous hours scanning through Reefer Era Girlie magazines (strictly for scholarly research of course) and all have come to the same conclusion. Whatever else one can say about this particular type of genre; it simply was NOT a part of the organized hysteria campaign. If fact there is even same evidence to show that the conspirators were trying to avoid them like the plague. But like it or not, there seemed to be nothing that anyone could do to keep them from coming along for the ride.

Which is kind of logical when one thinks of the subject matter involved. I mean what kind of porno (lite or otherwise) publisher worth their salt wouldn't take advantage of "Naked Girls jumping out of Windows," not to mention the wild sex parties etc. No doubt, these publishers must have been in heaven and needed no pushing from anyone.

SERVICE CLUBS - SERVICE ORGANIZATIONS

SERVICE CLUBS & ORGANIZATIONS
For Historians and students of the reefer madness campaign, perhaps the saddest of all stories is that of the role played by the so-called service organizations such as the JayC's, the Kiwanis, American Legion etc. At the national level, their internal magazines began carrying some of the most vicious of articles. While at the local level, throughout the country, they passed local resolution after resolution against the use of Medical Marihuana and invited speaker after speaker to come and talk about evils of its use.

Overall they allowed themselves to be turned into total tools of propaganda for the hysteria campaign. And while defenders of these groups can (with some justification) state that for the most part these groups were only acting on the information given to them by the DEA (then known as the bureau of narcotics), and thus were in fact only the dupes of a federal conspiracy. The facts as this museum sees them are as follows:
  • [a] Cannabis at the time was still very legal and in fact readily available in almost any drug story.


  • [b] Surely these service organizations, by definition, would have had one or two medically trained members within there ranks.


  • [c] And thus it could be assumed that someone, somewhere alone the line, must have said something to the effect that the whole campaign was a pack of lies, etc. In addition, --- Many of these groups have been contacted and asked to retract their articles (none has).
All in all, for the historian, the saddest chapter in the whole of the reefer madness campaign.

MUSIC MAGAZINES
MUSIC MAGAZINES
Some of these Reefer Madness articles border on sheer Horror. In fact, they would do the scriptwriters of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' proud. Take a look at the following golden tidbit:

"Marijuana causes far more than mere moral degeneration-it breaks down the mentality of its slaves. Some of the so-call 'jazz hounds' who think that their talents show off the best when 'high' should take a trip to Eloise Hospital and see the wrecked human beings there…" [The Keynote Jan/Feb 1941]

What possible excuse could an editor (presumable) exposed to medical marihuana users, possible have for such statements? Perhaps the following warning (taken from our sister web site for Old Time Radio programs) best explains what many of us now feel is the only plausible explanation we've been able to come up with so far. Let us hope we are wrong.

DOWN BEAT -- CONSPIRACY WATCH

Isn't it odd that the management of Down Beat Magazine obtained a nice juicy government contract to produce a set of WW2 victory programs just at about the same time that the magazine started printing up some juicy reefer madness articles? Isn't it even odder that these articles should have appeared at all? I mean the editors had access to the likes of Cab (do you know the reefer man) Calloway et al, and most assuredly must have known the truth. -- Coincidence or conspiracy?

HEALTH --- DETECTIVE MAGAZINES



Detective Magazines





Health Journals


WOMEN'S INTEREST MAGAZINES
TRUE ROMANCE / CONFESSIONS

While technically classifiable as distinct genres, almost all women's/girls magazines seem to follow the same literary patterns. As it was assumed that women, in general, had more free reading time on their hands, the stories seem to be longer. And in general, while reefer madness is reefer madness, there was a lot less emphasis on 'Naked girls jumping out of windows' and more on, 'He done done me wrong,' kind of stories. Oh, if only he hadn't had been a Medical Marihuana addict - Oh the shame, the disgraces of it all etc.


MAINSTREAM - NEWS MEDIA


MAINSTREAM/NEWS MEDIA


There is a rumor (present without evidence here) that in the 1930's a major Editor/Publisher was approached by the federal agents and told to either. 'Print what we tell you to print, or we will make your sexual preference know to the public." If true, it would at least explain some of the inconsistencies associated with the reefer madness hysteria campaign. Especially as many of these same magazines had, just a decade earlier, carried glowing articles about Americans Hemp Crop and its wonderful future.

But for whatever reason the mainstream media seemed to follow a standard pattern that was also used by most local newspapers. A constant borage of very short (some only a sentence of two) articles--- always mentioning Medical Marihuana in the negative, followed up by a major reefer madness (with a little bit of gore thrown in on the side) every now and then. Perhaps the following listing for Time magazine [1931-1950] gives a good example. Note that only three or four of them would qualify as reefer madness, the rest being only short mentions.

TIME:
[WANTED ]- Mar 2, 1931 Dope - Health & Medicine --Narcotic Education Week.
[ ] - Sept. 7, 1931 pp.18 - "Muggles" [Crime Section]
[ ] - June 13, 1932 "Black Rascal" [Arts * Entertainment section] Footnote read "Muggles smoking was the offense for which Louis Armstrong served a jail term last winter, Muggles : (also called reefers or Mary Warners, are shorter thinner than ordinary cigarets, cause a temporary, happy jag, cost 25 cents. The drug in Muggles comes from a variety of hemp called Marijuana."
[WANTED]- Sep. 26, 1932 New Plays in Manhattan - Arts & Entertainment
[ ]- Aug 28, 1933 pp 22] - Milestones - Died Frederick Starrr [NWR]
[ ]- July 23,m 1934 pp 9] - "The Cabinet" [National Affairs section] [NWR] Marihuana is only mentioned as part of something else.
[ ] - Aug 12, 1935 pp 42 - "Court Troubles" (about the Panama Cannel)
[ ]- Sep. 30, 1935 pp 51 - "N. R." - [Press section] - Panama Cannel area
[ ]- July 12, 1937 pp - Box-Car Bertha - (a kind of book review) about a women hobo [NWR]
[ ]- April 11, 1938 pp 32-[Medicine section] Description [picture of Dr. J.C. Munch]
[ ]- July 11, 1938 pp. 2 - LETTERS - New Deal Defined by Mary E. Hall, San Bernadino, Ca. [NWR]
[ ]- Sept 19, 1938 pp 65 "[Theatre section] Sent to the Cleaners" (circus sideshows that reportedly show the effects of Marihuana smoke) [NWR]
[ ]- Jan 23, 1939 pp23 - [Crime section] Five Mothers
[ ]- Feb 6, 1939 pp 2 - LETTERS - "Maudin Sympathy" [Obtain page 3]
[e]- "Jute, hemp and bedlam" - Mar 30 1942 -[N.W.R.]
[ ]- Dec 21, 1942 pp4 - [Letters] Lively black Dragon" [NWR]
[ ]- Jan 4, 1943 pp48 - [Miscellany section] "Hopped Hogs"
[ ]- Jan 11, 1943 pp21 - "The New Ursula Parrott Story"
[ ]- May 24, 1943 pp88 - "Airbaloney" [NWR] really not worth reading
[ ]- July 12, 1943 pp75 - "Down Beat"
[e]- "Weed" - July 19, 1943 - One of the more nervous heroes of hot jazz, Gene Krupa, went to California's San Quentin Prison this week to serve a sentence of one to six years. Drummer Krupa had been sentenced on two counts.4 Star Rating
[WANTED]- Aug. 02, 1943 Letters to the editor
[ ]- "Aug 16, 1943 pp4 - [Letters] "More About Marijuana" + "other letters + Ed.
[ ]- Aug 30, 1943 pp94 - [Miscellany section] "Canned Canaries"
[ ]- Nov 15, 1943 pp94 - [Cinema] "The New Pictures (Youth in Crisis)
[ ]- May 15, 1944 pp50 - [Miscellany] "Prize Crop" [N.W.R.]
[ ]- July 3, 1944 pp10 - [Miscellany] "Rough Reefer" [NWR]
[ ]- Oct 14, 1946 pp40 - [Latin America/Ecuador] "Reefer Ring"
[ ]- Mar 15, 1948 pp70 [Press section] Bane of the Bassinet (radio debate - Town hall) Comic books
[WANTED]- Jun 7, 1948 - Book review The Big Bonanza - Nation/NEW YORK
[ ]- June 28, 1948 pp2 - [Letters] "by Edward G. Bernard
[ ]- July 12, 1948 pp62 - [Press section] "Code for the Comics"
[S]- Sept 13, 1948 pp100 - [Cinema] "Crisis in Hollywood" - Article about the Robert Mitchum bust.
[ ]- Mar 13, 1950 pp108 --- [Miscellany] "Prescription"
[ ]- May 8, 1950 pp104 - [Miscellany] "The Straight Dope"
[ ]- Dec 4, 1950 pp40 - [Education] "Experiment in Infiltration" (very short mention)

PULP FICTION MAGAZINES

PULP FICTION MAGAZINES

Unlike their closest cousins, the true Detective Magazines, Pulp Fiction mags were all fictional right from the start. This kind of magazine, being a cross somewhere between a pulp fiction book and a regular magazine (with some comic book thrown if for good measure) seemed to form a genre all to themselves. Most of them (at least back in the 1930's) specialize in Western, Fantasy or Detective stories, which made them an ideal media for Reefer Madness tales. Just think of it, a naked girl jumps out a window during a reefer party, or how about, "while under the influence of Medical Marihuana that individual grabbed an axe and chopped that poor women's head off." Or better yet, the story of the evil High School Janitor, leading young students into a life of debauchery.

One doesn't have to think long about how a mag with a title like, Spicy Detective Stories, could do with such material. And in addition, it made for great sales. Welcome to the world of Pulp Fiction Magazines.

OTHER GENRE'S

There are so many different magazine genres' that it will be all but impossible to catalog them all. As can be seen from the sample covers, (with the exception of porno), hysteria articles seem to have appearing in almost any kind of magazine genre/format imaginable. Anywhere a willing publisher could be found.

Obviously not all of the articles were orchestrated, a lot of them, especially after the passage of the anti-Medical Marihuana laws, were simply, me too. Or from people who had caught on to a good thing and didn't want to give up the 'Naked Girl Jumps out of Window' theme that sold magazines.

Still it would be of interest to track down exactly how Scientific America* of all magazines carried an article written by Harry Anslinger himself. Or how a bird magazine somehow decided to get in on the act. Etc.


* It is believed an apology was offered by the magazine in the 1970's, which to our knowledge is the only magazine that offered such an apology.

PRE-REEFER MADNESS ERA MAGAZINES

Question: Who wrote the first Reefer Madness Story and when was it published?
Answer: No one really knows.

According to at least one interpretation, a Sumerian clay tablet (part of a medical archive), describes the use of medical Cannabis as follows: "The Drug that eases the physical pain, but takes away or robs the users soul." Which sounds very much like it could have been written during the height of the Reefer Madness hysteria campaign instead of around 3,000 before the birth of Christ.

But least anyone think ill of the ancient Sumerians, it should be noted that as over 50% of their medical writings consisted of magical spell and incantations; all meant to exercise or drive away the evil spirits, thought to be the cause of all illnesses. It is thus felt by most modern day scholars that the actual translations should read: "The Drug that eases the physical pain, AND takes away the evil spirit or soul." Or it can even be interpreted as: "The medicine that eases the physical pain, and drives out the demonic spirits."

Moving on to more recent times, in 1858 the Methodist Quarterly Review, carried an article that (at least in part) also sounded just like it could come right out of the 1930's hysteria campaign. So as one can see, it's near impossible to tell who wrote the first Reefer Madness article. The big difference that separates pre and post Reefer Madness is the lack of an organized hysteria campaign and the numerous other articles that served to balance the whole thing out. Yes, we had numerous (pre-1933) magazine/newspaper articles that spoke about Medical Marihuana in the negative, but there were also many, many other articles praising the drug.

And there in laid the big difference, before the organized campaign, there were numerous other articles to brought balance into perspective. Sure everyone had a right to an opinion, just like in today's world there are those speaking out against the evils of public vaccinations, distilled water and even oxygen. But notice how our free and balanced press prevents those few from creating a public hysteria. With reference toward Medical Marihuana, this would not be the case after the campaign began.

Contact Information: antique_andy@catholic.org

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