Medical marijuana use in movies

August 20, 2009 1:00 PM

I'm an academic librarian. A faculty member asked me if I knew of any movies in which a character uses medical marijuana, either legally or illegally. I couldn't think of any so I'm asking this buzzing hivemind. Criteria: -fictional (i.e., not documentaries) -take place in the US Of course some might argue that any use of it can be justified as medical, but this faculty member is really looking for movies that show people using it for more obvious medical conditions like glaucoma, MS, etc.
posted by anonymous to Health & Fitness (20 answers total)

Stepmom
posted by jeb at 1:02 PM on August 20, 2009

In the Julia Robets/Susan Sarandon tearjerker Stepmom, Susan Sarandon's character uses medical marijuana while slowly dying from cancer.
posted by oinopaponton at 1:02 PM on August 20, 2009

Pieces of April.
posted by dreadpiratesully at 1:07 PM on August 20, 2009

Does it have to be a movie? The character of Samantha in Sex and the City smokes a few joints during her chemotherapy for breast cancer in Season Six.
posted by fancyoats at 1:12 PM on August 20, 2009

I vaguely recall Meryl Streep's terminally ill character smoking pot in _One True Thing_, but I'm not 100% certain.
posted by dhn at 1:20 PM on August 20, 2009

There is an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where the dad uses medical marijuana. If you are ok with tv shows, let us know, and I'll look up the episode for you.
posted by davidstandaford at 1:31 PM on August 20, 2009

Half Baked
posted by prunes at 1:32 PM on August 20, 2009

Have you tried an imdb plot search?
posted by ManInSuit at 1:49 PM on August 20, 2009 [1 favorite]

I can only think of Children of Men, which is unfortunately not US-based.

I think IMDB keywords might be helpful:

- medicinal marijuana
- medical marijuana
- marijuana

The last one you'd definitely have to weed through (No puns intended. Well, maybe.) to find any that used the drug medicinally, but there are likely quite a few.
posted by metalheart at 1:52 PM on August 20, 2009

There's an episode of ER where Julianna Margulies' character helps a terminal patient with his medical marijuana.
posted by jokeefe at 1:52 PM on August 20, 2009

There's an episode of the Simpson where Homer is prescribed medical marijuana.
posted by Copronymus at 1:58 PM on August 20, 2009

davidstandaford is referring to The Car Pool Lane.
posted by avocet at 2:11 PM on August 20, 2009

In How to Deal (a Mandy Moore movie) the grandma smokes medical marijuana.
posted by jschu at 2:13 PM on August 20, 2009

I'm not Rappaport has Ossie Davis's character using it for glaucoma.
posted by fiercekitten at 3:16 PM on August 20, 2009

There were a couple of episodes of Entourage where Johnny Drama got medicinal to be down with the rest of the cast of the show he was working on.
posted by lumpenprole at 3:28 PM on August 20, 2009

In Personal Best, when one of the characters is ill, a medic gives her what appears to be hash to smoke.
posted by bink at 9:54 PM on August 20, 2009

As long as we're referencing TV, let's not forget that ep of Mr Show that began with a visit to the pharmacist.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 10:00 PM on August 20, 2009

Volver has a scene with that...but obviously not american
posted by Neonshock at 1:45 AM on August 21, 2009

As mentioned earlier there are a few episodes of Entourage that use medical marijuana. There are also a few episodes in the first season of Weeds that delve into that as well.
posted by caflores22 at 2:33 AM on August 21, 2009

Oscar from Arrested Development.
posted by Afroblanco at 11:34 PM on August 21, 2009