http://www.mediaresearch.org/BozellColumns/entertainmentcolumn/2008/col20080707....

"Weeds" and Marijuana Chic

by L. Brent Bozell III
July 7, 2008

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy reported last
month that a teenager who has been depressed in the past year was more
than twice as likely to have used marijuana than teenagers who have
not reported being depressed (25 percent compared with 12 percent).
The study said marijuana use increased the risk of developing mental
disorders by 40 percent. So much for the "harmless" nature of pot.

There are more worrisome statistics still. The 2006 National Survey on
Drug Use and Health found that among Americans age 12 and older there
were 14.8 million current users of marijuana and 4.2 million Americans
classified with dependency or abuse of marijuana. Addiction is a real
threat. Another 2006 report found 16.1 percent of drug treatment
admissions were for marijuana as the primary drug of abuse. This
compares to six percent in 1992.

There surely are multiple reasons to explain the increasing use of
this drug. But one reason for the trend is surely its glamorization by
Hollywood, which thinks marijuana is a fun-and-games subject.

“Access Hollywood” has breathlessly promoted a new movie called “The
Wackness,” set in 1994 New York. A young man sells marijuana out of an
Italian-ice cart. He starts seeing a therapist, asking him for
guidance on dating a young woman. He pays for the therapy sessions
with pot.

If the plot seems tiresome, it’s the casting that’s truly saddening.
The young pot-dealer is played by Josh Peck, who just months ago was
delighting hundreds of thousands of small children as a rubber-faced
jokester on Nickelodeon’s teen comedy “Drake and Josh.” One of his
regular pothead customers is played by Mary-Kate Olsen, half of the
famous twins who played the baby sister on the family sitcom “Full
House.”

Child stars too often go looking for a part to “stretch their range,”
but that’s code for scraping off any odor of a goody-goody reputation.
These actors are doing it by glorifying marijuana.

Drug-dealer chic really began with “Weeds,” the Showtime pay-cable
series starring Mary-Louise Parker as widowed suburban mother/pot
dealer Nancy Botwin. The fourth season recently premiered to the
delight of TV critics, who love the show’s exposure of suburban
hypocrisy. Showtime publicists wrote, with noticeable pride: “Last
season, viewers saw Nancy venture from hesitant but determined toe-
dipper in the unpredictable waters of drug dealing to confident, full-
fledged queen-pin entrepreneur.”

They’re proud of the drug-dealing mom as she gains confidence in her
“queen-pin” criminality?

The show’s primary hypocrite is the boozy anti-drug crusader Celia
Hodes, played by Elizabeth Perkins, who told TV Guide that her
character “discovers drugs this year...and she’s like a kid in a candy
shop.” Perkins is delighted by the bad behavior on the show. “There's
just something delicious about watching people misbehave without any
sense of conscience.”

This is a classic Hollywood outburst. These people love misbehavior,
wallow in it, and suggest anyone who would dare take a stand that
appears morally upright is undoubtedly just a repressed fraud. It
carries an Orwellian echo: Honesty is found in corruption, and moral
fervor is a sickness that needs to be vanquished. Morality is
immoral.

Perkins displayed more of her debased philosophy on CBS’s “The Early
Show” on July 2 in a cozy showcase of CBS-Showtime corporate-cousin
synergy. She described her moralizing character as fun to play because
she’s “really screwed up and evil.” She’s an unstable hypocrite in a
bad marriage who’s “going to take it out on whoever happens to be
standing in her way.”

CBS anchor Julie Chen asked Perkins if she supports legalizing
marijuana in real life. “Oh yeah, absolutely." she answered. "Alcohol
is legal. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me why marijuana's not.”

Chen asked what her character would say in response. Perkins replied:
“Oh, put them all in jail.” Chen laughed and agreed. “She’s so self-
righteous.” Perkins then added, “Well, Celia’s probably the only
character on the show who's never smoked marijuana...Never cave with
marijuana, because that’s the ‘evil drug’ -- according to her.” Chen
guffawed along, in mockery of the anti-drug position.

Teenagers will go see the movie with the Nickelodeon star selling pot,
and teenagers are in the audience when Showtime is displaying its
affection for “Weeds.” Hollywood is not merely mocking people who
moralize against marijuana, they're actively encouraging young people
to explore the “edgy” life of illegal drugs they see on screen. But
Hollywood will not be around for comfort or counseling when teenagers
have to go to detox, or see psychologists for depression or other
mental problems.

They ought to look in the mirror and wonder if they’re the self-
righteous people who are really screwed up and pushing evil.