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

Mike Jing gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com
Tue Feb 24 04:51:53 CST 2015


Ah, that makes sense.  I was over-thinking it.  Thanks, Dave and David.

On Sat, Feb 21, 2015 at 10:56 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> Killer Weed = Marijuana + propaganda.
>
> On Saturday, February 21, 2015, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> 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)
>> >
>> > Reefer Madness (1937) <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/?listpynchon-l
>>
>
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