Introduction
Marijuana consumption is becoming increasingly popular among many people. This popularity along with postmodern marijuana cultural revival, is leading to its normalization. It is becoming especially popular in American culture, specifically in TV show. Two of the shows that are normalizing and making the use of marijuana increasingly popular are ShowTime’s show Weeds and MTV’s show Mary + Jane. The TV shows changed the way many people view marijuana, from it being a negative cultural activity, to something that is universal to all races and ethnicity. Furthermore, it provided its viewers with multiple perspectives about marijuana and its consumption.
The perspectives that were intruded by the TV show include viewing marijuana as; a form of medication, a way to introduce counter-hegemony and promote people becoming more accepting of many things including marijuana, something considered “cool” and finally viewing marijuana distribution as a form of career. Counter-hegemony is a confrontation and/or opposition to existing status quo and its legitimacy in politics. What’s more, the shows openly defy ethic and cultural stereotypes; they have been apart of the postmodern cultural marijuana revival as well as counter-hegemony. Theses perspectives that the shows provide their audiences are the reasons the marijuana is becoming increasingly popular in American societies.
It’s equally important to note that sufficient research has been conduced on marijuana recently, but none of them specifically indicate it causes dangerous effects on the health of individuals. In fact, these researches have established that “Marijuana posses medicinal qualities” (Ogborne et al., 2000, p.436). Marijuana as a form of medication is becoming increasingly more popular as it should be because it possesses so many health benefits. Even though many people still don’t view marijuana as a form of medication, I claim that marijuana is rapidly becoming increasingly popular in American societies because of TV shows such as Weeds and Mary + Jane. They are providing its viewers with perspectives such as marijuana as a form of medication, a way to introduce counter-hegemony, something that is considered “cool” and viewing marijuana distribution as an excellent form of career. Because of this, if marijuana isn’t legalized in all American states a huge majority of Americans are going to be at risk of being punished by the law for using it.