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Although the film is most frequently listed as a 1936 production, I've never seen any evidence to support that date. The movie first appears in cinema listings columns under the title TELL YOUR CHILDREN in late 1938, and was submitted to (and rejected by) the New York State Censor at that time also. So 1938 seems a far more reliable date to me.

The film was re-released in late 1939 as THE BURNING QUESTION, and then during the Fall of 1940 as REEFER MADNESS, under which title it kept playing well into the 1950s. (The AFI Catalog [link] inaccurately claims that the REEFER MADNESS retitling was first used in 1947).

TELL YOUR CHILDREN wasn't the first of the 'dope pictures' to gain a 'madness' retitling, though: THE PACE THAT KILLS (1935) had already been reissued as MARIJUANA MADNESS as early as 1938.

Ad artwork from 1938 and 1940 releases:
 

oldposterho wrote:

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Now here's where I think all the confusion begins.  Hirliman sold the film as a true states right production, first selling it as "Tell Your Children" (also note the use of this as a part of the "Burning Question" tag line in the lobby above) for distribution west of Denver to Empire Pictures in March of '39.  It plays as "TYC" as far east as Kentucky until November of '39, when it shows up as "Doped Youth" in Oregon in '40.  "Reefer Madness" as a title shows up principally in northeast venues such as Maine and Conn., starting in '40 as well.  The "Burning Question" title shows up initially in Pennsylvania and West Virgina in '40 too. 

So that's 4 different titles for what is essentially the first release of the film across the country.  

I certainly can't think of any other movie which started out in its 'home nation' under four different titles... and it seems to me that there may yet have been a fifth (!!) original release title, used in Oklahoma and Texas during 1940 --- SEX SLAVES!

SEX SLAVES shared not only a regular supporting featurette, but also tag-lines and some ad artwork with TELL YOUR CHILDREN/THE BURNING QUESTION/ DOPED YOUTH/REEFER MADNESS, and I find it hard to imagine that this could have been anything other than the same film yet again...

1940 ads for SEX SLAVES/DOPED YOUTH/REEFER MADNESS with co-featurette HOW TO TAKE A BATH:


1940 ads with shared elements for SEX SLAVES/TELL YOUR CHILDREN:
 

I've turned up a piece of somewhat more conclusive evidence that SEX SLAVES was indeed 'the-picture-also-known-as-REEFER MADNESS', in the form of a paste-job 'write-up' for the showing at the Mystic Theatre in Picher, OK, on May 27th and 28th, 1940. Although promoted exclusively under the title SEX SLAVES in ads, the title in the write-up has not been changed from TELL YOUR CHILDREN:



SEX SLAVES seems to have been a retitling used by whoever was roadshowing TELL YOUR CHILDREN in Oklahoma and Texas at that time. The movie shows up as SEX SLAVES exclusively in those towns and cities where it never turned up as TELL YOUR CHILDREN. The earliest date I have for it is in San Antonio (TX) from May 7th to 11th, 1940. TELL YOUR CHILDREN was clearly the title used most frequently in OK and TX, but perhaps some local authorities objected to the reference to 'children' in the title of such an adult-themed picture; or perhaps the distributor could only get away with a 'stronger' title like SEX SLAVES in a few locations.

As for the co-feature, HOW TO TAKE A BATH, this still exists, and is included as an extra on Something Weird's DVD-R of SECRETS OF A MODEL [link], as well as on the compilation ROADSHOW SHORTS VOL. 7 [link]. Clearly inspired by HOW TO UNDRESS IN FRONT OF YOUR HUSBAND, the film starts off with an Esper-esque text crawl, and shares the earlier film's 'how to'/'how not to' structure, but beyond that shows little evidence of being an Esper production. It certainly doesn't also star Elaine Barrie, as claimed in numerous sources including the IMDb. FWIW, the New York Times in 1940 identified Gilbert Josephson (manager of the World Theatre at 153 W. 49th St., NYC) as the 'distributor' of HOW TO TAKE A BATH. Beyond that, a June 1944 showing of the film at the Teleview Theatre at 534 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, led to a raid by the vice squad and the jailing of the cinema's owner and manager. The pair were ultimately issued with a fine after the film was screened in court to an all-woman jury on August 10th, 1944.

SEX SLAVES was presented exclusively at the Prince Theatre on 113 W. Houston St., a venue which showed a lot of roadshow and exploitation fare over the years. It closed down during the late 1960s, and the building was demolished in 1969.