Metal Sign Reproduction of Poster for 1942 Drug Propaganda Film "Devil's Harvest." Depicts Satan and a young woman having a pleasant conversation surrounded by the fumes of marijuana. Warn your children! 

Size: 9 3/8 x11 3/4 in. 

#7433 . 

Marijuana, or marihuana, is a name for the cannabis plant, and more specifically, a drug preparation from it. Its medicinal value, addictiveness, and relative danger/benefit to society have been hotly debated for over a century. The term was first popularized during the early war on drugs waged by Henry J. Anslinger, the commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics during the Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy presidencies. “Marijuana” as a term varies in usage, definition, and legal application around the world. Some jurisdictions define marijuana as the whole cannabis plant or any part of it, while others refer to marijuana as a portion of the plant that contains high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). For legal, research, and statistical reference, “marijuana” generally refers to only the dried leaves and flowering tops (herbal cannabis), with by-products such as hashish or hash oil being uniquely defined and regulated, as well as a separate strain of the plant called hemp which provides no verifiable medical benefits but is often lumped in under the term as well. The form “marihuana” is first attested in Mexican Spanish; it then spread to other varieties of Spanish and to English, French, and other languages, mostly due to the propaganda drug films funded by Anslinger and various religious groups that began to appear in the first half of the 20th Century. Drug films depict either illicit drug distribution or drug use, whether as a major theme, such as by centering the film around drug subculture, or by depicting it in a few memorable scenes. Most drug cinema ranges from gritty social realism depictions mixed with melodrama to the utterly surreal depictions in art film and experimental film. Some filmmakers create unabashedly pro- or anti-drug works, while others are less judgmental, allowing the viewer to draw their own conclusions. Often wildly unrealistic consequences or absurd double-standards in laws and opinions about illegal substances are presented, with or without commentary. Titles like “Human Wreckage” (1923), “Assassin of Youth” (1936), “Devil’s Harvest” (1942), and “The Panic in Needle Park” (1971) indicate the early sensationalist depiction of drugs, often incongruous to their true effects, which modem filmmakers have (for the most part) pushed back again. While drugs commonly shown in such films include cocaine, heroin and other opioids, LSD, and methamphetamine, it is cannabis that dominates the field, with cautionary tales evolving throughout the 20th Century into modern “stoner films” that often parody or invert tropes established early on that demonstrate changing social acceptance and scientific knowledge. To this day there is usually an extensive overlap with crime films, which sometimes treat drugs as plot devices to keep the action moving. The most famous drug film of all time, “Reefer Madness” (1937) has become a cult classic, ironically watched for enjoyment rather than as punishment regularly along with a musical adaptation (stage, 1998; film, 2005) in a phenomenon that encapsulates the cultural shift on the subject of drug use.