Free pot, free yourself: Sign petition here. Weed week January 21–27, ’74. Support the California Marijuana Initiative Sign a petition, circulate a petition. 1973. Print. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2015648256/.
This 1974 poster was created to encourage voters to sign a petition legalizing marijuana. Students will analyze the tools the designer used to make the argument, including color, slogan, character, line, tone, and font. They will also reflect on how this controversial issue is over 50 years old.
The poster was part of a 1974 California ballot initiative, Proposition 19, to legalize marijuana (that was ultimately defeated). In 1975, the California legislature passed the Moscone Act (SB95), reducing the penalty for possessing up to one ounce of marijuana to a misdemeanor with a $100 fine. California has been at the forefront of efforts to liberalize marijuana laws for decades with medical use of cannabis being legal since 1996 and recreational use since 2016.
Source: The Evolution of Marijuana as a Controlled Substance and the Federal-State Policy Gap https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R44782
- To whom does this poster attempt to appeal?
- What does the character depicted (gender, clothes, hair, posture) suggest about the intended audience for this petition to legalize marijuana?
- What does the slogan “Free pot, free yourself” suggest about why a voter might choose to sign this petition?
- How does the issue of legalizing marijuana continue to play out across the country?
ELA Standard
Reading standards 6–12, 2. Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
Social Studies Standard
HSS Standard 11.11. Students analyze the major social problems and domestic policy issues in contemporary American society.
Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features
- Invite students to look closely at the poster, making a list of the design elements the artist employed to persuade voters to sign a petition to legalize marijuana.
- Discuss why the style of the poster might appeal to many young California voters in 1974. What was going on in the United States during that time (the Vietnam War, Watergate, ’70s music, college campus unrest)? What response might this poster receive from older, more conservative voters?
- Analyze the slogan, “Free pot, free yourself.” What inferences can you draw from the artist’s use of the word “free”? Paraphrase the slogan.
- Have students research the history of cannabis legislation. Create a timeline from 1974 to the present.
- Invite students to write a persuasive essay defending their point of view regarding the legalization of marijuana.
Roberts, Joe. Vote Yes on 19. 1972. Print. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2015648094/.