> 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.