# Surprising mention of cannabis in a 1962 Philip K. Dick novel **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [December 31, 2023, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402 "2023-12-31T10:12:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/21 "2024-01-01T00:39:32Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > For those who don’t know, the novel in question is _The Man In The High Tower_ The name of the novel is _The Man in the High Castle_. Just in case someone who hasn’t might want to read it. At that time, Phil smoked pot, people around him smoked pot. I can see that he could easily imagine it being normal in another world. He might have been surprised how normal it became in this world, though. For all the drugs he did, he was actually anti-drug in the end. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/22 "2024-01-01T00:52:56Z")
I would say that 1962 was about the beginning of the popular period for THC. I bought my first joint in 1961 for 50 cents. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/23 "2024-01-01T01:08:10Z")
Regarding the latter, they were about [four years too late](https://allpoetry.com/Annus-Mirabilis). ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/24 "2024-01-01T01:08:19Z")
I think sometimes authors just had marijuana being legal in the future as a way to show that things were different. I think marijuana is also legal in _The Forever War._ ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/25 "2024-01-01T01:14:39Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > I would say that 1962 was about the beginning of the popular period for THC. I bought my first joint in 1961 for 50 cents. Corrected for inflation, that would be $5.13 today (as a website tells me). No way I would pay that for a single joint today, without even taking into account the crappy quality of the stuff way back then. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/26 "2024-01-01T01:51:20Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Corrected for inflation, that would be $5.13 today (as a website tells me). No way I would pay that for a single joint today, without even taking into account the crappy quality of the stuff way back then. If I remember right, it was about $125.00 for a kilo. 10 per bag (about 1/2 oz +. If a kid got 50 joints out of his 10.00 bag he would sell them at .50 each and make about 15.00. I bag a day would easily support someone. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/27 "2024-01-01T03:41:19Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I think sometimes authors just had marijuana being legal in the future as a way to show that things were different. I think marijuana is also legal in _The Forever War._ It was also legal in _When HARLIE Was One_, by David Gerald. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/28 "2024-01-01T09:02:24Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > without even taking into account the crappy quality of the stuff way back then. But interestingly even then the police departments (and presumably the users too) were aware of different levels of quality. In one 1950s episode of Dragnet they talk about a major shipment of “medium grade marijuana” due to arrive in town. I’m obviously aware that MJ was mentioned in multiple early Dragnet episodes, but I assumed the user base was still so limited that 99.99% of the audience wouldn’t have come in contact with it any, much less have thought of trying it. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/29 "2024-01-01T09:08:34Z")
and you have to remember pot and other drugs weren’t illegal until '07 and pot didn’t become a big deal until the 30s when the brown people brought it over the border … ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/30 "2024-01-01T11:08:38Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > Makes sense. The Nazis were, well, _Nazis_ about smoking. > > [The Nazis' Forgotten Anti-Smoking Campaign - The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/07/the-nazis-forgotten-anti-smoking-campaign/373766/) The loved meth, though. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/31 "2024-01-01T14:44:41Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > I remember an old-time radio show where the villain (Played by William “Cannon” Conrad) was pushing marijuana to kids and saying “In ten years it’ll all be legal.” He got the timeline wrong, but the concept was there. [The Whisperer!](https://www.otrcat.com/p/whisperer) Had some friends who did an old time radio show on KPCC for many years. When the station went to an all-news/talk format, this was one of the segments of their final show. (The announcer mentions Paul Frees, but not William Conrad as being in the cast.) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/32 "2024-01-01T15:36:51Z")
Here’s the Wikipedia entry on _The Whisperer_, where it mentions that William Conrad used the pseudonym of Julius Krelboyne when he appeared (in various parts): > **[The Whisperer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Whisperer)** > > The Whisperer was an American old-time radio program which broadcast 13 episodes on late Sunday afternoons \[5:00 p.m. Eastern\] as a summer replacement from July 8 to September 30, 1951 on NBC. > It was based on stories by Dr. Stetson Humphrey (in collaboration with his wife, Irene). > The tone of the show was often tongue-in-cheek, and satirized the radio crime dramas of the day. > Lawyer Philip Gault (Carleton G. Young), due to a college football injury, lost his voice and can only speak in an eeri... I presume that [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjWIZQ1aaIw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjWIZQ1aaIw) (which is called “Tea Time for Teenagers”) is the episode that contains him pushing marijuana to teenagers, but I haven’t listened to it. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/33 "2024-01-01T15:40:30Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > I presume that [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjWIZQ1aaIw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjWIZQ1aaIw) (which is called “Tea Time for Teenagers”) is the episode that contains him pushing marijuana to teenagers, but I haven’t listened to it. Yup. At the time, I was struck by how similar the plot was to _Reefer Madness_ (well, the part about the bad guys setting up the kid for a molder rap). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/34 "2024-01-01T15:45:10Z")
Can you find where in the episode the quote you gives appears? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/35 "2024-01-01T15:48:49Z")
Sure. 10:00 to 10:10. Or if you meant the blackmail setup, 11:40 to 12:45. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/36 "2024-01-01T16:16:55Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > 99.99% of the audience wouldn’t have come in contact with it any, much less have thought of trying it You’re saying that only .01% of Americans ever even saw marijuana? Not even close. I can’t find the statistics at the moment, but it was at least 200 times that. In other words, at least 2% used it and presumably several times that amount saw it. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/37 "2024-01-01T16:23:10Z")
If memory serves, there were references to it in early issues of MAD Magazine. So, fairly common in the 50s. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2024, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/38 "2024-01-01T21:00:55Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > You’re saying that only .01% of Americans ever even saw marijuana? Maybe 0.01% of middle-class white Americans, but even that’s doubtful. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/39 "2024-01-07T04:53:24Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > and you have to remember pot and other drugs weren’t illegal until '07 and pot didn’t become a big deal until the 30s when the brown people brought it over the border … Not true. The history of cannabis prohibition is a lot more complicated than that. The federal Marihuana Tax Act, enacted in 1937, actually didn’t absolutely ban it, but instead imposed a prohibitive tax upon it. However, most of the states had already banned it outright many years prior to that. California passed its cannabis prohibition law in 1914 and was one of the first states to do so. The laws concerning harder drugs followed a different timeline. The federal Harrison Narcotic Act, passed in 1914, imposed heavy taxes on narcotic transactions by unauthorized persons, again having the practical effect of an outright ban on possession or sale other than by prescription. This law was formulated as a revenue statute, because at the time it wasn’t entirely clear that the government could prohibit drugs. The drugs specified were basically opium and cocaine, in all their various forms and preparations, from the raw leaves, stems, and seed capsules to any end products that might be made from them. Some states had taken action earlier, as was the case with cannabis, in some cases banning only certain ways of consuming the drugs. For example, some states banned the smoking of opium as a way of shutting down the opium dens, but AFAIK still allowed narcotic medicines to be sold over the counter. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2024, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402/40 "2024-01-07T04:55:07Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > It has been a while since I have read the book. However, IIRC, the cannabis was only legal in the Japanese controlled areas and not the Nazi controlled areas. As far as we know. IIRC the legality of cannabis in the German-occupied region wasn’t ever mentioned one way or the other. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-mention-of-cannabis-in-a-1962-philip-k-dick-novel/995402.md?page=3)