High: Marijuana, Women, and the Law

Abstract

This article provides an analysis of the Canadian full-length feature film High, produced in 1967. It also briefly examines early drug regulation and fictive illegal drug films with a focus on representations of marijuana and women. High captures societal tensions of the 1960s, including women's liberation, counter-culture lifestyles, and marijuana use. Yet it also re-enacts discourse and symbolic frameworks about white women, marijuana, law, and crime. White women's marijuana use is represented as a threat to gender-appropriate norms, respectability, and, ultimately, the family and nation. These frameworks and understandings of marijuana appear to be quite enduring, informing the production of film, policing, law, and the continued regulation of women.