'The Daily Show' Takes A Look At How Marijuana Culture Has Changed Since The 70s
Marijuana users around the world celebrated Weed Day, aka 420, on Monday. But in the U.S., many of them also had other things crossing their minds, specifically the fact that 2014 saw the convergence of two types of people — those who use weed recreationally and those who use it to treat serious medical conditions.
There’s no way around it now. A year after recreational marijuana dispensaries opened up in Colorado, marijuana is no longer part of the counterculture, or a drug that’s solely used for fun. It’s being taken seriously now, a point Jon Stewart decided to make on Monday night’s Daily Show. Stewart, playing the excited stoner — while wearing a rainbow wig and marijuana leaf necklace — was overjoyed to watch CNN’s report on 420, just to discover that most of it was about marijuana’s effectiveness in treating people with post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, and depression.
“I’m ready for weedstock, the whole thing, and you’re giving me this. This is an actual news report. What are you, going to bore me with an economics lesson now?” Stewart says, while eating ice cream he’d readied for his munchies. “This pot story isn’t fun at all.”
Jessica Williams then steps in to educate Stewart about the maturation of marijuana. Today, many people administer their weed with high-tech vaporizers rather than smoking it in joints or blunts; it’s a healthier alternative. Different strains of marijuana are also being bred to target specific parts of the body, as well as treat certain conditions — strains high in cannabidiol and low in THC, for example, provide pain relief, and may even treat epilepsy in children, without inducing a high. Today, over 1.1 million medical marijuana patients in the U.S. benefit from these and other advancements.