Reefer Madness (also known as Tell Your Children, Doped Youth, or The Burning Question) is a 1936 education-exploitation film used as propaganda to warn parents about the “moral dangers” marijuana presents to their children.
Reefer Madness was initially financed by a small church group, but was later purchased by notorious education-exploitation film producer Dwain Esper. Before distributing the film nationwide, Esper cut in additional scandalous scenes that were not in the initial cut.
Reefer Madness fell out of the public eye after its initial distribution but had a resurgence in popularity in the early 1970s when copies of the film were sold as a fundraiser for the California Marijuana Initiative, a group that advocated for the legalization of cannabis in the state of California. The film quickly became a cult classic on college campuses and was a regular in “midnight movie” programming.