SCENES FROM THE DRUG WAR

Robert Mitchum does 50 days in jail for marijuama possession in 1948.

“In 1948 most Americans knew practically nothing about marijuana, and newspapers across the nation pounced on the surly he-man. ''Now we have a young swoon actor, the idol of teen-agers, caught in a marijuana party,'' sniffed the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Some called for Mitchum's movies to be banned. Fearing more raids and scandals, the Motion Picture Industrial Council released a solemn statement in Hollywood's defense, and it looked like a career was going up in smoke. Amazingly, it didn't, although it did go up the river briefly. After a short trial in February 1949, Mitchum was found guilty of criminal conspiracy to possess marijuana and was sentenced to 60 days (reduced to 50 for good behavior). He did his time in an L.A. county jail and the Wayside Honor Farm in Castaic, Calif., where, as a brickmaker, he was voted ''Mr. Cement Block of 1949'' by his fellow inmates. Released in March, he called his stay at the farm an ''experience every taxpayer should go through.''

And the time he remarked…

"The only effect that I ever noticed from smoking marijuana was a sort of mild sedative, a release of tension when I was overworking. It never made me boisterous or quarrelsome. If anything, it calmed me and reduced my activity."

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