I7S
May, 1939
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
from the "ped” for about ten cents, and passed from hand to hand for a few puffs each. When these cigarettes are smoked in a “party,” the reactions are appalling —almost unbelievable. What One "Reefer" Can Do But the individual smoker, or one of a small “gang,” may prove to be a menace to others as well as himself. Let us follow one such lad. With a couple of pals, this boy has taken a few puffs at a “stick." They visit a beer “stye,” sometimes called a tavern. A few drinks taken while the boys are "high" on reefers complete the most deadly combination known to youth. This lad gets into his high-powered auto. He has already lost all sense of time and distance. A minute seems like an hour; a city block seems like three. If he is trav eling at fifty miles an hour, he seems to be going about fifteen. The car ahead of him appears to be crawling along; he must pass it. Sure, there’s a car coming toward him, but that seems to be two or three blocks away. Here goes! There is a grind ing and squealing of brakes as the on-com ing car careens into the ditch to avoid a head-on collision. The lad, loaded with "loco weed,” goes on, laughing and boasting that he showed that fellow who had the right of way. He weaves in and out through traffic at a ter rific rate of speed. Finally a squad car pulls up beside him and orders him to the side of the road. The officers would gladly charge him with drunken driving, but he is not drunk. By the time he arrives at police headquarters, every trace of marihuana has disappeared. He is normal again and can prove by witnesses that he drank nothing stronger than beer, and only a few beers, at that. He can be charged with nothing more serious than reckless driving. The charge of driving while intoxicated must be dropped. Yet this lad is. a far greater menace on the road than is the drunken man. His whole being has lost the power of coordination; will power and the ability to connect his thoughts with his actions have disappeared in the first phases of reac tion to the reefer smoke. And all of this within a few minutes of smoking the reefer! "The Killer Drug" constantly corrodes body and mind. The entire physical sys
tem weakens, mind and memory fail, and the brilliant young man becomes a raving maniac; the sweet, chaste, charming young woman becomes a jibbering idiot. Marihuana Madness Many of the most vicious, brutal, and cruel crimes disgracing the files of the Fed eral Bureau of Investigation are found to be the work of confessed marihuana ad dicts. Perpetrators of the foulest criminal acts have sought to excuse themselves on the ground that they were "high" on mari huana at the time their crimes were com mitted. “Legal insanity” is the technical term used in these cases. “Legal insanity" and "marihuana madness" are synonymous terms. Legal insanity was the defense of a young Baltimore, Md., lad, sentenced to be hanged for criminal assault upon a ten- year-old girl. In his plea of "not guilty” he testified that he had been smoking mari huana cigarettes and was temporarily in sane at the time the act was committed. On December 21, 1937, twenty-year-old Ethel (Bunny) Sohl, daughter of a New ark, N. J., policeman, held up, robbed and killed a bus driver, William Barhorst. The hold-up netted her $2.10. She and her sev enteen-year-old companion, G en ev iev e (Chippy) Owens, testified on the witness stand when being tried for the murder be fore a Newark jury, February 10, 1938, that they were "high” on marihuana when they committed the terrible deed. Their counsel, offering “legal insanity" as the basis of his defense arguments, stated that his clients were not normal, but were crazed addicts of the Mexican weed when. they killed Bar
horst. Watch for this “legal insanity” plea. It will be used often, since it succeeded in saving these two young girl criminals from the death sentence. In Midland, Mich., a man named Cheba- toris confessed to bank robbery and mur der. A "reefer” addict, he testified to smoking two marihuana cigarettes before "pulling the job.” A gang of seven young lads, all under twenty years of age, had terrorized central Ohio for more than two months. During that time they carried out thirty-eight "stickups.” Finally arrested in Columbus, Ohio, they confessed that they operated while "high" on marihuana. In New Jersey, a murder characterized by exceptional brutality occurred, in which one young man killed another, literally smashing his face and head to a pulp. His attorney's defense was that the young man’s intellect was so prostrated from smoking marihuana cigarettes that he did not know what he was doing. Literally dozens of cases equally hor rible—some of them unfit to describe or mention in these pages—could be listed here. Robbery, rape, insanity, and murder are only a few of the terrible after-effects of the use of this dread drug. It is diffi cult to anticipate its reaction upon any given individual. The addict himself has no assurance as to its action upon him. Its use may lead one to philosophize one moment and to commit some inhuman crime within the space of a few hours. Ruining Youth It is with this menace—particularly as it affects our school children—that I am at [Continued on page 196]
Courtesy of Salvation Army
LOADED W ITH CERTAIN DEATH A single “reefer,” a marihuana cigarette, known to youth by the name “Mary Warner” or various descriptive terms, may be used to debauch ten or twelve adolescents in a marihuana “party.” Without warning its victims, this deadly drug leads many boys and girls and young people into suicide, gross immorality, or murder.
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