Daniel Kim 1

Daniel Kim
Professor Vana DerOhanessian
English 115
3 December 2014
What the perception of marijuana in society says about socially acceptable actions.
Living in California you can find the infamous schedule 1 controlled substance being
sold 10 minutes away from wherever you may live. You hear about its use on the radio station
almost every day and famous artists are shown advocating its use through their music. Big name
artists like Lil Wayne, Justin Timberlake, Snoop Dogg, and Wiz Khalifia all openly declare their
use of marijuana while touring internationally you rarely hear about these artist getting in trouble
for having this drug on them. In the 1970s marijuana use was publicly hidden and rarely talked
about in a positive light in the media. Without correct information being spread you have people
like Robert Platshorn, a famous marijuana trafficker, who was sentenced to jail for over 30 years.
In our society today we view the sentence Mr. Platshorn got as an unfair punishment, through
pop culture the use of marijuana has changed from being a taboo to a norms, this shows that
societal norms are always changing and that popular opinion will always change.
Around the 1990s marijuana use was portrayed widely through media like radio shows,
television shows, and movies. During the late 90s, rap music was often played over the radio
and most of the hit songs would be about the use of marijuana, some artists would even create
entire albums centered around their use of marijuana. From 2pac to Jay-Z often times any artist
with a hit song would have another song referencing their involvement with the drug. The use of
marijuana was not only limited to the radio, a famous television show was created where a group
of friends would always get high, That 70s Show a very successful show that ran for eight

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seasons. The show was a sitcom about a group of friends and their struggle through high school,
trying to portray the typical high school clique the writers always had a scene where the griup is
sitting in a circle acting disoriented in a room full of smoke, implying that the group just finished
smoking a joint together. With marijuana use being shown to mainstream culture I believe that
this helped sway the general publics views of the drug from a life ending/destroying drug to a
new leisurely activity to try while socializing with friends.
During the 90s Hollywood was working closely with the use of marijuana as well,
shelling out around 10 different films centered on the use of marijuana like Half Baked (1998)
and Dazed and Confused (1993). In all of these movies the actors that portray the user is
usually calm, relaxed and overall in a good state of mind throughout the entire movie. Some
movies would even show a group of friends going on a wild adventure after smoking pot, which
reinforced a necessary but not necessarily accurate stoner stereotype. While I believe that this
stereotype helped society accept the use of the drug it is also its main downfall, now that people
associate marijuana with laziness they also believe that a majority of its users become
unproductive. This created a negative image for any marijuana user which is often false, while
some users just waste time there are many users who are still productive and useful to society
even in the most extreme cases with heavy use.
While artists and most movie stars were usually open about their use of marijuana,
marijuana use is not exclusively found in rap or the entertainment culture, well known and power
people are also known to have tried this drug. From former Governor of California Arnold
Schwarzenegger, to the former Vice President of the United States Al Gore, even former
President of the United States Bill Clinton and the current President of the United States Barack
Obama has all publicly admitted to the use of marijuana. Seeing people in government positions

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shows that the stereotypical marijuana user is not always a lazy good for nothing who sits in a
couch all day; these powerful people show that the stereotype for marijuana users are not
accurate. The current President of the United States, Barack Obama, can be quoted as a kid, I
inhaled [marijuana] frequently this shows that even though people may be heavy users they
dont always become unproductive, they can still function and become an extremely influential
being in our society (Youtube). The admittance of using an illegal drug from a presidential
candidate was unheard of at that time; it would be political suicide to let the general public know
that you experimented with drugs. The admittance from now President Barack Obama shows that
marijuana is not considered a drug in the eyes of the majority, the majority of people in the
United States believed that marijuana is not a big deal and voted for Barack Obama even after
knowing about his use with the drug (2008 Presidential Election Exit Polls).
While marijuana became widely accepted in the last 6 8 years pop culture has followed
its use in the entertainment business closely. In the last 8 years, 11 states have passed a bill or a
proposition allowing medicinal marijuana or recreational marijuana to be used in their state
(Medical Marijuana). And just recently 2 states have passed a proposition allowing recreational
use of the drug to any resident over the age of 21 (Amendment 64). With pop culture following
the use of the drug in the entertainment business and reporting any incident with actors/artists
involving marijuana its no surprise to see societys acceptance for this drug. Societys norms are
determined by the opinions of everyday people and pop culture has a tremendous amount of
influence in the opinions of normal people. New trends are formed by pop culture and with the
general public being constantly shown their favorite artists or actors smoking they will most
likely experiment with the drug as well.

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In pop culture everything is always changing, new trends come up every couple of
months and new stories are told and focused on every week. Pop culture might be considered a
waste of time to some people but a good majority of society views it as a mirror to their lives,
people like to see what their role model is up to and aspire to do what they do. Pop culture has
shown time and time again that our society is always changing; it shows that we will always
create new values, traditions, and norms. We now have social media which lets us directly follow
artist/athletes/actors/friends and keep up with their personal life; we can even broadcast out
every move on our personal social media websites and have out friends follow us. Now that its
easier to share personal moments in our lives to the general public, more people are broadcasting
their experimentation or frequent use of marijuana. I myself have found multiple post about my
friends association with drugs and alcohol.
With social media allowing everyone to broadcast their personal opinions about any
subject more and more rappers/actors have come out about their use of marijuana and the use is
now the new norm. Take artist Wiz Khalifa, who is well known for smoking marijuana
excessively, if you go to this twitter you can see multiple references to smoking weed with one
tweet saying This is how I score my weed now linking a Vine of him scooping a mason jar full
of weed out of a plastic bag (Khalifa). This would be more than enough evidence for the police
to arrest him (or at least search his house) for possession or even intent to distribute marijuana
but nothing had happened to him. Even law enforcement knows that if they were to arrest a wellknow artist for marijuana the courts would either throw the case out or the artist will be able to
hire a lawyer to get them out of legal trouble.
Ultimately, by following societys stance on the use of marijuana over the past few
decades, pop culture and social media shows that society is always changing; if society was a

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person it would have BPD, borderline personality disorder, because any slight change can alter
social norms. Society reflects the views of the majority and microsociology states that the
everyday interactions between people will affect society as a whole, and as more people accept
the use of marijuana the more society will accept/tolerate its use, like tobacco, alcohol, or even
salvia. The fact that I dont even think twice when I see a vine with a bag full of drugs shows that
society has desensitized me to the use of marijuana in society. If a majority of society thought
that marijuana was still a taboo Wiz Khalifa would have been in jail a long time ago. While
marijuana is just a small example of society it shows that norms will always change and that
nothing is set in stone.

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Works Cited
Thomaz, Cameron (wizkhalifa). This is how I score my weed now. 21 October 2014, 1:00 a.m.
Tweet
Rice, Chris. Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama talk about their Marijuana use.
Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube. 29 Jan. 2012. Web. 26 Oct. 2014
Rust, Michael. Sex & salvation: mainstream pop culture is beginning to reflect changes in the
country as baby boomers mature into reflective wonderment at what the seventies hath
wrought. Insight on the News 15 Dec. 1997: 8+. General OneFile. Web. 26 Oct. 2014.
Thomaz, Cameron (Wiz Khalifa). This is how I score my weed now. Online video clip. Vine.
Vine. 21 Oct. 2014. Web. 26 Oct. 2014
"Amendment 64." Amendment 64 (2014): n. pag. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.
"23 Legal Medical Marijuana States and DC - Medical Marijuana - ProCon.org." ProConorg
Headlines. ProConorg Headlines, 30 Oct. 2014. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.
"Exit Polls." - Election Results 2008. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.