Re:A Fistful of Tropes
by eesmith on Monday August 21, 2023 @06:55AM
(#37207766)
> when drug addiction epidemics entered the popular consciousness
That certainly isn't correct.
The fear of marijuana addiction epidemics was certainly part of the popular consciousness in the 1930s, pushed in part by Hearst's yellow journalism and Anslinger's propagandizing. We see echos of that fear in the movie "Reefer Madness."
The same for heroin.
There's even earlier moralizing against opium and opium dens, connected with "yellow peril" xenophobia as ensnaring white people into addiction.
That certainly isn't correct.
The fear of marijuana addiction epidemics was certainly part of the popular consciousness in the 1930s, pushed in part by Hearst's yellow journalism and Anslinger's propagandizing. We see echos of that fear in the movie "Reefer Madness."
The same for heroin.
There's even earlier moralizing against opium and opium dens, connected with "yellow peril" xenophobia as ensnaring white people into addiction.