In 1968, Dragnet, the Tv series featuring the adventures of fictional cop Sgt. Joe Friday, in the episode titled "The Big High", one of the characters predicted that someday marijuana would become legal.
The 1957 move "The Sweet Smell of Success", used a frame-up marijuana arrest as a way for a character to ruin a young musician's life.
In the sixties how many hippies got stoned before seeing the re-released movie "Fantasia"?
Since pot was vilified in the thirties and forties, marijuana became a quick, easy way for film script writers to establish that a character was a criminal and deserved a long prison term.
Government lies about the war in South Viet Nam made young people suspicious about the assertion that pot was a very dangerous, illegal drug.
"Reefer Madness" was such heavy handed propaganda that it became a cult favorite.
The film "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" contains one segment that is an exaggeration of inept government anti-pot policy.
Folks who believe that a life sentence for possession of one joint was excessive punishment should hold a film festival featuring pot in the plot.
Obviously the movie "Reefer Madness" would deserve a place of honor in any book that would try to have a definitive list of Hollywood's attempts to propagandize the public's perception about hemp, grass or weed.
This columnist is suggesting that awards expressing disdain and disapproval of the squares perception of reality should be established and they should be called "Clydes" (named after Clint Eastwood's pet orangutang in the film "Any Which Way but Loose).
The first one should be given this week to Jeff Sessions for his philosophy regarding both the medical and recreational use of marijuana.
Could Sessions have inadvertently played into the hands of the people who never wanted the sixties to end?
We will try to hand out a Clyde each week. Your suggestions have been helpful so keep them coming!
What's next? Pot pills for freaked out pups?
To be continued"
