The idea of the pot brownie first made its way into popular culture in the 1968 film I Love You, Alice B. Toklas, starring Peter Sellers as a restless attorney, who is set to marry his secretary-turned-fiancee, Nancy. Leigh Taylor-Young portrays Nancy. The movie became an instant hit and helped popularize marijuana use among hippies.
OZ magazine
The first appearance of weed in mass culture comes with the Jazz Age. The jazz musicians of the era smoked Mexican strains imported from New Orleans and El Paso. Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom became the center of marijuana culture. Louis Armstrong declared that “the weed brings warmth to the soul.”
Although the drug was still illegal, it became a popular form of entertainment. Today, one-third of American adults have tried marijuana at least once. It was a popular drug in the hippie counterculture, which made it an icon. Willie Nelson and other celebrities often sang about the drug. Hippie stoners were also referred to as “grass” and “wacky tobacky.” Today, marijuana is legal in most states and medical marijuana is increasingly popular.
Stoner culture
While stoners have long been considered countercultural, their social interactions have grown more mainstream in recent years. The rise of marijuana legalization and the increased availability of pot-infused products have made stoners buy cannabis seeds and more accessible to a broader consumer base. In addition to pot, stoners often engage in activities that strengthen their group identity and social bonds. They can also participate in submerged networks and discuss issues such as heteropatriarchy, marijuana legalization, and methods of capitalist resistance.
Despite its enduring appeal, marijuana has an unpleasant history. Before the plant was given a legal name, it was known as dope, reefer, tea, or marijuana. Despite these challenges, marijuana remained the drug of choice for the hippie counterculture. Some hippies even sang about it! Now, the plant is legal in eleven states, and legalization for medical purposes has made marijuana even more acceptable to the counterculture.
Bob Marley
Bob Marley was an influential musician who paved the way for reggae music. His music dealt with issues that were often ignored or suppressed, and his songs often contained profound, meaningful lyrics. His music has become a part of popular culture and spawned an entire cult of followers.
Marijuana use has also permeated Bob Marley’s music. The Jamaican singer converted to Rastafarianism in the mid-1930s and had a very liberal attitude towards the use of drugs. It is likely that Bob Marley smoked marijuana daily during his lifetime.
Pop culture references to marijuana use often take the form of stoner films
These films are characterized by the use of marijuana, often in goofy and ridiculous ways. The first popular stoner movie came in the late 1950s with High School Confidential! Other popular stoner movies include Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Dazed and Confused, and Up in Smoke, a comedy starring Cheech and Chong. The movies often feature stoners who experience a state of euphoria and lose motor coordination.
Cannabis, also known as weed, has long been used as a medicinal plant. Its use was normalized in the 1960s by the counterculture movement and became associated with the hippie generation. In the 1970s, famous people started to use marijuana in explicit ways, such as in Bob Dylan’s hit song “High by the Beach.” The weed-centric music genre also spawned “stoner” movies. However, despite these cultural references to marijuana, the “War on Drugs” made it illegal for recreational use.
420
Cannabis has a complicated history, and it has a surprisingly prominent place in pop culture. Even though it was once illegal, it is now legal in 11 states, and its popularity has reached new heights. Today, marijuana is regarded as a harmless recreational drug, and talk show hosts joke about it on cable TV.
Hippies and pot have long been associated with hippie culture, but there is also a dark side. The 60s were the era when marijuana was illegalized, and many sitcoms and movies portrayed it as a social blight. Despite the negative image of cannabis, the drug was still seen as a gateway to higher consciousness by pop culture icons.
Hearst’s portrayal of marijuana
The association between marijuana and crime and violence in Hearst’s newspapers was not borne of evidence, but of journalists’ imaginations. Hearst’s readers were familiar with drugs such as cocaine and opiates, from their medicinal uses, but their acquaintance with marijuana was minimal. Thus, marijuana became the vessel for the fears of middle-class readers.
In the Nineties, grunge and rap reshaped the mythology about marijuana. Hippies were no longer the shambling, slobbery counterculture types, but upper-class Jewish girls from Main Line Philly or a hipster courier from High Maintenance.
Stoner icons
If you were a stoner in the early 1980s, you might remember the iconic music and movies of that era. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and The Stoners were iconic and influential. The fear and loathing movie inspired many writers, and the music of Willie Nelson and Bob Marley were a cultural harbinger of the time. While these films and songs may have seemed far removed from hippie life at the time, they would later turn into icons of the hippie subculture.
Many people associate hippie music and movies with stoner culture. However, the counterculture of the 1960s was awash with counterculture icons, including Bob Dylan, Alan Ginsburg, and the Doors. Many stoners were unapologetic about their habit and openly shared their experiences.