Hollywood gets political with its stoner movies
Pot, stalk and smoking pipe barrels. Devil weed. Mary Jane. Playing twister. Reefer. No matter what you call it, cannabis continues to spark debate in popular culture. More than 70 years into the drug’s prohibition at the hands of U.S. lawmakers, it seems Hollywood is ready to blow smoke in the face of current policy.

The proof can be seen in a new crop of films that don’t just depict glassy-eyed potheads giggling at moronic gags in the tradition of Cheech and Chong, but go much further, suggesting pot as the symbolic cure for personal and cultural oppression.

Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke (1978) was the first film to show rampant pot use without exacting a moral price for all that fun, offering an emotional and cultural antidote to overt anti-drug films such as Reefer Madness.

Around the same time Cheech and Chong started their big screen puffing, the American government banned the word “hemp” from all school text books, insisting any mention of the once powerful hemp industry (predicted to be the No. 1 crop in the U.S. by Popular Mechanics in 1938) would only confuse youngsters who didn’t understand the difference between useful hemp fibre and the combustible of choice among teens.

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Download the NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2008-04-22

Call your Congress at 202-224-3121 – they’ll ask your zip code and put you in touch with your elected officials. Tell them to support HR5842 and HR5843 to end DEA raids in medical marijuana states and legalize personal possession of pot. It still is a government of We the People, but you have to step up and do your part.

Tuesday is Government at Work day on the podcast, and coming up after the news, we’re going to speak with Minnesota State Senator Steve Murphy, the chief author of the medical marijuana legislation currently working through the Minnesota Legislature.

After that I’ve got an instrumental musical break for you. Cannabis Karri found us some jazz from Scott Neuman and Osage County. Blow some muggles and enjoy “Mayor of Smoke”, ya dig, hep cat?

And of course today is the DVD release of the new potumentary “Totally Baked”. I have some exclusive audio from the movie that combines stand-up and sketch comedy along with real interviews and marijuana prohibition facts. You need to get this video online at totallybakedmovie.com. And as a special treat for NORML supporters, you can enter the word HIGH as a promo code and get 25% off the cost of the DVD! Salient Media will be donating 10% of the proceeds to NORML, so you can laugh and learn and support marijuana law reform all at once.

Along with the bonus audio I’m replaying my interview with writer/producer/actor Craig Shoemaker, who never mentions it in the interview, but he does a wicked Don Knotts / Barney Fife impersonation. Craig plays a character you can only see if you’re high, and my friends and I all saw him immediately when we watched it at our 4/20 party.

So sit back and relax with your favorite strain – this is the Daily Audio Stash.

Who do you think is the Greatest Movie Stoner? Vote for your favorite out at MSNBC! (I think the answer is obviously Cheech & Chong - they were the first, after all.)

5Top: Duuuude … great movie stoners - 5Top- msnbc.com

• The Dude (Jeff Bridges in “The Big Lebowski”)
• Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”)
• Ron Slater (Rory Cochrane in “Dazed and Confused”)
• Floyd (Brad Pitt in “True Romance”)
• Harold and Kumar (John Cho and Kal Penn in “Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle”)
• Cheech and Chong (Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong in “Up In Smoke”)
• Thurgood Jenkins (Dave Chappelle in “Half Baked”)
• Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo (Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Torro in “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”)
• Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith in “Clerks”)
• Smokey (Chris Tucker in “Friday”)
• Silas P. Silas and Jamal (Method Man and Redman in “How High”)
• Wyatt and Billy (Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in “Easy Rider”)

Agree or disagree? Let me know in the Comments below.