Cults and Classics: Reefer Madness

Directed by: Louis J. Gasnier, 1936, 1 hour 6 minutes, PG.
High-school principal Dr. Alfred Carroll (Josef Forte) relates to an audience of parents that marijuana can have devastating effects on teens. In his story, a drug supplier entices several restless teens, including sister and brother Mary (Dorothy Short) and Jimmy Lane (Warren McCollum) and Mary’s boyfriend, Bill (Kenneth Craig), into frequenting a “reefer” house. Gradually, Bill and Jimmy are drawn into smoking dope, which affects their family lives and leads to a terrible crime.