| aaaaaIn the 1930's the American public did not know about marijuana and associated it with minority groups. "Much of the basis for prohibiting marijuana in the 1930's was motivated by racist attitudes towards Mexican immigrants. {...} Racist media mogul William Randolph Hearst and bureacrat Henry Anslinger were at the forefront of the anti marijuana movement, spreading sensationalized, exaggerated, untrue claims about the effects of marijuana and the expanding abuse of the substance by the nation's youth" (DiSanto). The public was simply not aware of marijuana and the first time learning about the drug was from propaganda which portrayed it as dangerous: |
| Whereas the ideology of charisma regards taste in legitimate as a gift of nature, scientific observation shows that cultural needs are the product of upbringing and education: surveys establish that all cultural practices (museum visits, concert-going, reading etc.), and preferences in literature, painting or music, are closely linked to educational level (measured by qualification or length of schooling) and secondarily to social origin. (Bourdieu 1) |
| aaaaaBourdieu states that cultural needs are influenced by education and upbringing; the only education regarding marijuana was negative propaganda. In the opening scene of the 1936 propaganda film Reefer Madness the narrator starts by showing how drugs such as cocaine and heroin are being smuggled into this country. This description demonstrates that marijuana is more dangerous than these other drugs because it grows wild in every state. The film essentially makes marijuana the most dangerous drug because it is widely available and then the actual affects of the drug are exaggerated to scare the public. The Partnership for a Drug-Free America has had a similar effect of exploiting the public's lack of knowledge through their public service announcements. In the 1990’s an anti-marijuana ad included the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; linking marijuana and Ninja Turtles has engrained a negative image of the drug very early in life. Although there is no problem trying to deter children from marijuana, there are rarely advertisements directed to deter children from tobacco and alcohol. |
