Reefer Madness

Let me just preferace this to say that I'm not supporting or advocating drug use in anyway!

This is probably everything a movie shouldn't be. Something that was intended to be taken seriously, but eventually turned into a bit of a joke. Considered a joke by those who smoke the very substance this film sought to discourage its use.

Originally it was called Tell Your Children but what happens in Hollywood or the film industry (especially outside of the studio system) is that the film had difficulty getting distributed. Financed by a church group who wanted this film distributed to parents to teach them about the dangers of the use of "marihuana" (to us it would be marijuana). Eventually the rights to the film was bought by an infamous exploitation filmmaker who recut the film and renamed it Reefer Madness and distributed the film on the exploitation circuit.

The overacting, poor, and campy production gave it a cult following years after the film was made. It has a cult following among "marihuana" smokers and on college campuses starting in the 1970s.

Duration of this video is about an hour and ten mintues.

There was a colorized version released in 2004 by Legend Films. You can see a trailer for that here.

ADDITION: A reconstructed screenplay with commentary on some of the things this film originally hoped to accomplish.