GR translation: the great Killer Weed advertising campaign of the thirties

[Dave Monroe]

Just as the federal government had used fear, prejudice, racism, and
false stories of violence to 'tax' cocaine and opium products like
heroin and morphine, in 1914, the newly formed Bureau of Narcotics
used similar themes of uncontrollable violence and falsities to
demonize marijuana. Movies and advertisements ran in theaters and
newspapers around the country warning of the evils and dangers of its
use: “Beware! Young and Old – People in All Walks of Life! It contains
the Killer Drug “Marihuana” – a powerful narcotic in which lurks
Murder! Insanity! Death!” Stories were told of people who became
insane and uncontrollable criminals as a result of smoking marijuana.
Marihuana was repeatedly referred to as "The Devil’s Harvest" or
"Devil's Weed."

http://brucealanblock.com/why-marijuana-became-legal/

On Sat, Feb 21, 2015 at 9:21 PM, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
> Reefer Madness (1936)
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azf320JDdqU
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reefer_Madness
>
> On Sat, Feb 21, 2015 at 9:13 PM, Mike Jing
> <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com> wrote:
>> V580.35-581.17   Imagine the fellow’s plight—got so much money he don’t know
>> what to do with it all. Don’t go screaming, “Give it to me!” either. He’s
>> given it to you, though in roundabout ways you might need a good system of
>> search to unsnarl. Oh, has he given it to you. By way of the Bland Institute
>> and the Bland Foundation, the man has had his meathooks well into the
>> American day-to-day since 1919. Who do you think sat on top of the patent
>> for that 100-miles-per-gallon carburetor, eh? sure you’ve heard that
>> story—maybe even snickered along with paid anthropologists who called it
>> Automotive Age Myth or some shit—well, turns out the item was real, all
>> right, and it was Lyle Bland who sprang for those academic hookers doing the
>> snickering and the credentialed lying. Or how about the great Killer Weed
>> advertising campaign of the thirties, who do you think worked hand-in-glove
>> (or, as grosser individuals have put it, penis-in-mouth) with the FBI on
>> that one? And remember all those guy-goes-to-the-doctor-can’t-get-a-hardon
>> jokes? Planted by Bland, yup—half a dozen basic variations, after having
>> done depth studies for the National Research Council that indicated an
>> unacceptable 36% of the male work force weren’t paying enough attention to
>> their cocks—not enough genital obsession there, and it was undermining the
>> efficiency of the organs doing the real work.
>>
>> What does "Killer Weed" refer to here?  Googling points to PCP, but PCP
>> seems to be introduced in the 50's.  And what would be the purpose of the
>> advertising campaign anyway?
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l