Happy 4/20 all!
It seems the world has once again become a “hot-box” of
marijuana smoke. Thousands of smokers and activists will gather today to
celebrate the green weed. The largest outdoor festival / protest in Canada has
happened for the last 17 years in Vancouver.
According to Cannabis Culture Magazine, This
year in Toronto “as
an act of doobie defiance” activists will be smoking to protest “the Conservative
government’s mandatory prison sentences for cannabis.”
Where did 4/20 come from?
The most prevalent internet origin story of 4/20 is that of
the Waldo’s.
The Waldo’s were a group of high school students in San Rafael, Calif., who
reportedly used the term “420” in the early 1970s as a reference to the time
they would meet at a statue of Louis Pasteur on the campus to smoke pot. They
named themselves The Waldo’s because they used to hang out at a particular wall
on campus.
Horror films and Marijuana:
Within horror film, weed is often
portrayed as a sin that, once committed, turns into a (usually horrible) death
sentence. The most famous example of this would be from the original Last House on the Left, in which
two teenage girls try to score some pot before a concert and fall into the
clutches of a twisted trio who rape, torture, and kill them.
Horror and exploitation film have a pretty consistent
history of portraying marijuana (and other drugs such as LSD) as monstrous. In the
famous 1936 film Reefer Madness (also
called: Don’t Tell the Children) drug
dealers corrupt innocent teenagers with reefer cigarettes. The message about drugs
in horror film is pretty clear: don’t do them unless you want a serial killer
to find you, rape you, torture you, or trap you in a basement and drain you of
all your blood.
Below are some examples of marijuana in horror….. Happy
4/20! Enjoy!
A Ronald Reagan-obsessed serial killer targets a bunch of
hippies who are heading to a weekend-long concert.
(See the trailer here)
A “straight-laced nerd” moves into a college dorm with three
hardcore marijuana users. One of the roommates orders an old giant bong that
proves to have strange magical powers. When smoked said bong sends a person to
a bizarre drugged-out alternate realm from which there is no easy escape.
(Trailer)
Four
young adult siblings try to fend for themselves after the mysterious death of
their parents. But they harbor some dark secrets which include abducting and
killing strangers, and feeding them to a mysterious 'thing' living in their
cellar. (the older brother lures victims to the house with the promise of “quality
weed”)
(Trailer)
(Trailer)
The pupils at a high school next to a nuclear power plant
start acting and looking strange after buying contaminated drugs from a plant
worker.
(Trailer)
A
pair of teenage girls are headed to a rock concert for one's birthday. While
trying to score marijuana in the city, the girls are kidnapped by a gang of
psychotic convicts.
(Trailer)
(Trailer)
Although this film is about LSD and not marijuana, I felt it
was a good addition to this list. The film follows the story of a television
commercial director who embarks on a drug-filled personality crisis.
INTERESTING FACT:
Jack Nicholson wrote this
screenplay based on his own experience of taking LSD under controlled
laboratory conditions and also on his marriage break-up with first wife, Sandra Knight.
A trio of drug dealers lead innocent teenagers to become addicted to "reefer" cigarettes by holding wild parties with jazz music.
(Full Movie)
Fun Historical Facts about Weed:
·
2737 B.C., the
mystical Emperor Shen Neng of China was prescribing marijuana tea for the
treatment of gout, rheumatism, malaria and, poor memory.
·
Marijuana’s popularity
as a medicine spread throughout Asia, the Middle East, down the eastern coast
of Africa, and within certain Hindu sects in India who all used the drug for
religious purposes and stress relief.
·
Ancient physicians
prescribed marijuana for everything from pain relief to earache to childbirth.
Doctors also warned against overuse of marijuana, believing that too much
consumption caused impotence, blindness, and "seeing devils."
·
By the late 18th
century, early editions of American medical journals recommend hemp seeds and
roots for the treatment of inflamed skin, incontinence, and venereal disease.
·
Irish doctor William
O'Shaughnessy first popularized marijuana's medical use in England and America.
As a physician with the British East India Company, he found marijuana eased
the pain of rheumatism and was helpful against discomfort and nausea in cases
of rabies, cholera, and tetanus.
** To
read more about the history of the drug and it’s representation in the 19th
Century, go here,
or here,
or here.
Just thought I'd link to the guest post you wrote last year for my blog on this very topic - http://chasemarch.blogspot.ca/2011/05/my-take-on-toronto-freedom-festival.html
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