GRAMSCIAN AGENDA AT NEW DURANTY TIMES CONTINUES: THE NORMALIZATION & LEGALIZATION OF POT

NYTIMES:

Tips for cultivating marijuana. Testimonials by patients about its medical benefits. Cannabis cooking lessons. Even citations for award-winning strains of pot. Viewers here can now watch, every week, what amounts to a pro-weed news program.

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Booted off one skittish TV station but quickly picked up by another, the low-budget “Cannabis Planet” show is televised evidence of how entrenched marijuana has become in California’s cultural firmament and a potent example of the way the pot subculture has been edging into the national mainstream.

“We’re trying to show the legitimacy of this plant,” said Brad Lane, the executive producer of the half-hour program.

Mr. Lane pays for the twice-weekly air time on the independent station KJLA — Thursday and Saturday nights at 11:30, sandwiched between “Bikini Beach” and “Jewelry Central” — and says he is now breaking even, almost two months after the show’s premiere. “Cannabis Planet” focuses on medical, agricultural and industrial uses of the hemp plant, purposely ignoring marijuana’s recreational aspects. Viewers, for instance, see very little actual smoking, even though the hosts and producers are known to inhale between takes. “We’re walking on eggshells here, to be honest,” Mr. Lane said.

Still, “Cannabis Planet” remains on the air — with not a single complaint from viewers, according to the station.

Marijuana use has been depicted in the media for decades, though its presence has waxed and waned over the decades, from Cheech & Chong’s comedy albums and films in the late 1970s and early ’80s through more recent pot-centric efforts like Dave Chappelle’s “Half-Baked” and Seth Rogen’s “Pineapple Express.” On television, though, it has rarely risen above the level of a plot device or punch line — until recently.

Medical marijuana is now legal in 14 states, and the lobbying organization Norml says efforts to legalize it are under way in 15 other states. Marijuana use remains illegal under federal law, but in a break from prior policies, the Obama administration said in February that federal officials would stop raiding dispensaries of medical marijuana authorized under state law.

Since then the number of dispensaries in California has surged in what some call a “green rush.”

BECAUSE THE ARTICLE CONTAINS NOT A SINGLE WORD ABOUT POT'S RISKS, I SEE IT AS THE PROPAGANDA IT IS.

• THEY CAN PUSH NORMALIZATION OF POT IF THEY WANT TO.

• BUT THEY CAN NEVER EVER "NORMALIZE" POTHEADS.

• HAVE YOU TALKED TO AN OL' TIME POTHEAD LATELY?

• THEY'RE FRIED.

• THIS IS THE FUTURE FOR MANY MILLIONS MORE PEOPLE IF POT IS LEGALIZED.

• BUT MAYBE THEY'LL ALL BE LEFTIES?

• HMMM...

• LIKE ABORTION, LONG-TERM POT USE IS ANOTHER REASON WHY BEING ON THE LEFT MORE AND MORE LIKE A SELF-CLEANING OVEN.