Monster Culture Analysis

Marijuana, the Unclassifiable Monster
Monsters always lie beyond the border of human comprehension. Humans fear what they don’t understand or have little knowledge of. In Jeffrey Cohen’s essay Monster Culture, he talks about how monsters are creatures that are difficult to categorize and comprehend beyond human logic. In our society today, even though marijuana has become legalized in more and more states, the nature of such a plant is still being demonized as the catalyst for sinful pleasure. Marijuana is not only listed as a class A drug, but also has been the cause of massive criminalization. In 2016, one anti-marijuana legalization advertisement, paid by Safe and Healthy MA organization, caught the public’s attention. The advertisement depicts the legalization of such a plant to be
the end for society and the future generation. Through the lens of “Monster Culture”, people may discover why marijuana has been labeled as monstrous and dangerous for the society.
In the advertisement Neighborhoods, posted by Safe and Healthy MA organization, the mom drives through the town with her daughter, and witnesses at least five marijuana stores that have completely dominated the local neighborhood.
When the mom pulls off at a toy store for her daughter, she finds right next to the toy store is an edible marijuana dispensary. The daughter is curiously allured towards these colorful edibles without any knowledge, while her mom desperately tries to pull her away. Young teenagers on the sidewalks smoke pot casually, and police cars rush through the streets with loud sirens. Just as the mom retreats with her daughter while holding her back, her son comes out from that drug stores with a joint in his hand and a bong in a paper bag. The narrator in this advertisement patiently explains the massive effect for a post-marijuana-legalization world where high-potency drug will be extremely accessible in your neighborhood and the death rate for driving under influence will increase. Not only does this advertisement dramatize the effects of marijuana-legalization without data to back it out, but it also exaggerates the effects of drugs on people and their
families.
The advertisement has certainly labeled marijuana and its legalization monstrous, and it absolutely represents the common fear which people have for the potentiality of this plant/drug. The mom in the advertisement resembles the public, who see marijuana as a monster that can penetrate family, and bring down the world around them. This fear echoes with Cohen’s explanation of monster, a creature that is difficult to categorize, “a form suspended between forms that threatens to smash distinctions” (Cohen). People find marijuana difficult to classify due to its nature. The powerful hallucinogenic agents in the marijuana dismantles our modern understanding of medicine. The soothing effect can be either benefit to some patients or extremely dangerous for mere pleasure. The existence of such plant and the use of it has defied the common distinctions between drugs and medicine.
Another infamous anti-marijuana campaign was the one created by the NSW government in 2015. The campaign features the hashtag “#stonersloth” with videos that depict people who smoke week as slow-moving sloths. The sloths in the videos are not only slow but also captured as abnormal and brainless. They react to the outside world at an extremely low speed and make unintelligent noises(Wahlquist). The campaign was mocked by the public after its release for the lack of a scientific basis and the wrong choice of animal. However, like the advertisement posted by Safe and Healthy MA, this campaign is even closer to the idea of monster because of human-animal metaphor. Smoking weed transforms humans into idiotic animals. Weed makes humans monsters. Because of the sufficient knowledge people have on the effects of weed done to human brain, the anti-weed organizations willingly portray marijuana as a hallucinogen instead of a medicine. The lack of knowledge on this plant consequently creates this monster. Like Cohen explains, “in the face of monster, scientific inquiry and its ordered rationality crumble” (Cohen). Humans yet cannot comprehend such a plant so that people label it monstrous, and the people who use it as monsters.
Ignorance and insufficient knowledge only generate enormous fear over people. Therefore, compared to the knowledge of marijuana people had in the 20th century, the image of marijuana today is far more moderate than ever. In the old days, people were more scared of marijuana compared to now. Posters from the 20th century that are anti-weed often associate the drug with pictures of real monsters, sin, death, and devils. Drug uses are like the gateway to hell. These vintage posters have slogans like “Devil’s Harvest”, “the Devil’s Weed”, “Assassin of Youth”, and “the Weed with Roots in Hell” (Ramon). The use of Marijuana was so unknown in the 1950s that people were comparing this plant to the devil or monsters. People refused to believe the possibility of medical marijuana because marijuana, like monsters, “demand a radical rethinking of boundary and normality” (Cohen). The idea of drugs being medication was outrageous and beyond comprehensive. Therefore, monsters were created. These advertisements, campaigns and posters demonstrate Jeffery Cohen’s understanding of the existence of monsters. Cohen argues that monster are undefinable creatures, and the public has the natural tendency to label the unclassifiable monstrous. In this case, marijuana is the victim. Because of its self-conflicting natural, weed undermines people’s traditional understanding of both drugs and medication. The very existence of such plant is a categorical crisis for the society. Nevertheless, people today are making significant progress of trying to humanize such monster culture. However, before they can fully understand this potential of such powerful existence, marijuana perhaps will remain in the shadow of human history.