Hemp for Victory, produced by the US government in 1942, made a case for increasing the domestic cultivation of Cannabis sativa.
As WWII ratcheted up and the Japanese controlled the hemp powerhouse of Southeast Asia, a vital resource for the war effort, the filmmakers advocate US farmers focus on the “devil’s weed” as a cash crop.
In the post-war years, the US government would again opportunistically turn on Cannabis as the first front in its disastrous War on Drugs.
It would take nearly 60 years for this wonder plant to become acceptable again to the mainstream for therapeutic, medical, and recreational purposes.
