Stars Dave O'Brien and Dorothy Short got married the same year the film was initially released.

Because production resources for a film of this type were extremely limited, filmmakers employed a variety of ways to add visual impact to their work. The most common ploy was the use (and overuse) of stock footage and newsreel footage. In Reefer Madness, one can find second-hand footage of: newspaper presses, police examining a marijuana field, methods of drug smuggling, the establishing shot of a government building, policemen using radios, and police cars racing to the scene of a crime.

Similarly, the music was rarely recorded specifically for an exploitation film. The scores were generally pieced together from pre-recorded tracks available from stock music libraries. Thus Abe Meyer is credited on the film as "Musical Director" and most likely did not compose a single note for the film.

The film was shot in approximately three weeks.

Producer George A. Hirliman ground out adventure programmers for RKO in the 1930s, under the aegis of George A. Hirliman Productions. When he produced Reefer Madness, he was moonlighting under the company name of G and H Productions (it was the only film ever released under the slightly pseudonymous banner).

Thelma White was under contract to RKO Studios and was "horrified" when she was loaned out to the independent production. "I'm ashamed to say that it's the only one of my films that's become a classic," she said in a 1987 Los Angeles Times interview. "I hide my head when I think about it." White, who was paid an estimated $2,500 per week to appear in the film, died on January 11, 2005, at the age of 94.

by Bret Wood