This 1971 color anti-drug use and abuse film was produced by Concept Films and directed by Brian Kellman for Encyclopedia Britannica. “Weed: The Story of Marijuana” combines time-lapse, montage, illustrations, animation (by Paul Fierlinger and emigre Pavel Vošický) and dramatized, documentary-style interviews to survey the evolving role of cannabis in U.S. society, with emphasis on the legal risks faced by young people. A unique score of experimental synthesizer music is provided by Tony Luisi on an EMS VCS 3 “Putney” (TRT: 23:42).

Opening titles. The Encyclopedia Britannica Films logo (0:08). A shirtless young man speaks into a rotary-dial payphone. Pull back to reveal a jail cell in a police station. “Charles” is led down a corridor of open cells and locked away behind bars (0:21). Time-lapse photography shows the stop-motion growth of a cannabis sativa seedling over narration and EMS VCS 3 synthesizer music. Narration mentions other street names: “Pot, grass, weed” (1:20). Closeup on fully developed marijuana leaves (2:05). A lawyer speaks in an office (2:14). A hand holds a small “joint” or “roach.” Pull back to reveal a police officer. Two young men, one shirtless, the other in a fringed leather jacket is being arrested or “busted.” They are loaded into a red Philadelphia Police vehicle (2:32). A poster with an illustration of a hand holding a revolver pistol: “Law and Order” behind the lawyer, Bernard L. Segal, who questions Charles’ mother, depicted anonymously, via a closeup of her hands (3:05). Charles, barefoot, is weighed on a scale at the police station, then a mugshot is taken (4:06). Marijuana plants and analog synth music. Clouds of smoke. A Chinese style pipe and illustration of smokers. An illustration of Indian men smoking from pipes. An African pipe for smoking hashish or “hash.” An illustration of Arabs with water pipes or hookahs (5:07). “Paris 1886” Baudelaire carries a banner with Alexandre Dumas, Théophile Gautier: “Hachichins,” representing the Club des Hashischins. Legal, commercially available “Powdered Indian Cannabis” and “Bliss Native Balsam” syrup. An ad for “Swan’s Cannabis Compound, A Nerve Tonic” pre-prohibition (6:10). Photos of early 20th century importers and growers. A poster: “Marihuana, the Assassin of Youth” and newspaper headlines. A scene from “Reefer Madness” (1936) (6:36). A poster for the film “The Burning Question” (1919). Late 60s magazines: “Pot, The Marijuana Consumer’s and Dealer’s Guide, Marijuana Review, The Complete Cannabis Cultivator, Psychedelic Review.” A 1970 “Dizzy’s Farm” blacklight poster w/ Goofy, Donald, Mickey and a hookah (8:54). Buttons: “Let’s Legalize Pot, Please Hemp Me” and anonymous longhaired loiterers. A 1970 East Totem West “Sunshine Man” blacklight poster (9:22). Montage of anonymous people in public: A young woman with a film camera. Urban high-rise office buildings. Young men in suits. Young women and babies. Elders knitting (10:02). More “Reefer Madness” (11:15). Police trucks and arrested youths under lock and key. A security video monitor (12:02). An illustration of male and female marijuana plants. The chemical structure of THC. A six-volume 1894 study: “Indian Hemp Drugs Commission” (13:53). An animated cartoon of a smoker exhibits side-effects, including dry mouth, tremors, and hunger (14:55). Another animation of a brain and an eye attempt to illustrate shifts in perception (15:40). A young man tests his reaction time in a laboratory test (16:30). A driving simulator using a steering wheel and a 16mm film projector (17:09). A large white rabbit is pulled from a cage and is injected with a syringe of “radioactively treated THC.” Chemist and glassware (18:06). A jail cell (19:08). A heroin user’s “works” are produced from a metal cylinder (19:45). The animated cartoon man grows in size as words fall from above: “Draft, parents, love, sex, school, work.” He smokes, floats, then crashes (20:51). Fingerprinting. A photomontage of want ads, passports, maps (21:26). Review of previous scenes. Narration predicts a lengthy road to legalization (22:03). End credits (22:46).

At the time of this film’s creation, marijuana possession was a felony in 28 states.

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