Scottsdale Community Players Perform Comedy 'Reefer Madness'

By Lauren Gilger
Published: Friday, July 23, 2021 - 2:30pm
Updated: Monday, July 26, 2021 - 12:06pm

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reefer madness actors
Laura Durant
"Reefer Madness" actors Cate Carlino, Trevon Powell and Jack Walton.

The 1936 film “Reefer Madness" is a black and white flick that paints marijuana as a drug that’s as dangerous as heroin and cocaine, and that promises a “hysterical downward spiral filled with evil jazz music, sex and violence” as a result of smoking marijuana.

Now the cult classic has been adapted for the stage as a musical.

The Scottsdale Community Players will be taking a satirical jab at the movie that portrays clean-cut kids being lured into the “evils” of marijuana.

Of course, the propaganda surrounding cannabis use has proven specious over the years, as evidenced by the fact that recreational marijuana is now legal in Arizona. Also, that no one has called it “reefer” since the Eisenhower administration.

“Reefer Madness” opens July 23 at the Stagebrush Theatre.

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