Medical marijuana has been legal in some states for close to fourteen years and as a result it’s now a lot more main-stream. Many of our favourite television shows have, at some point, showcased characters using medical marijuana for conditions that range from post-natal depression to breast-cancer. Here are some of our favourite medical marijuana moments on the small screen:

Desperate Housewives

In series seven of Desperate Housewives, Tom Scavo struggles with post-natal depression after the birth of his and Lynette’s fifth child. After confiding in Lynette’s friend, Renee, Tom decides to visit his doctor who prescribes him a series of anti-depressants. Lynette admits to being a little scared of anti-depressants and encourages Tom to see an ‘alternative’ doctor for another diagnosis. However, this doctor encourages Tom to take medical marijuana for his condition. Lynette’s slightly concerned about the impression that Tom taking medical marijuana will have on their children, so she decides to pour the prescription down the sink and replace it with oregano instead. As Tom has never smoked marijuana before he can’t tell the difference and while he thinks that he’s high on medical marijuana he realises how much he loves his new daughter and how happy he is. In fact, Tom probably wouldn’t have realized that he was smoking oregano instead of medical marijuana if he hadn’t offered the drug to Carlos, who instantly recognizes it as ‘pizza topping’. Lynette is forced to own up, but it isn’t all bad as Tom realizes that he doesn’t need to take medical marijuana or even anti-depressants after all.

Curb Your Enthusiasm

In series four of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry has to purchase some medical marijuana for his dad’s glaucoma symptoms. His dad’s unable to watch a game as his eyes are all blurry, so Larry manages to return with a bag full of medical marijuana, which he then proceeds to show his father how to smoke. Explaining the difference between a joint and a cigarette, he tells his father to make sure that he inhales the smoke for a very long time. Suddenly there’s a knock at the door, it’s the prostitute that Larry picked up earlier so that he could use the car pool lane and get into the Dodger’s game faster, and she’s come round to smoke medical marijuana with Larry’s father. His father insists Larry joins in, but Larry is reluctant. However, he soon finds that he has been affected by passive smoking and goes into the bathroom where he has a stand-off with himself in the mirror. Meanwhile his father and the prostitute are laughing together on the sofa and teaching each other funny catchphrases. As the side-effects of the medical marijuana wear off, Larry’s father soon finds that he can see perfectly well and at that point discovers that the girl he’d been laughing on the sofa with is in fact a ‘hooker’.

While both these television programs show medical marijuana in an interesting and hilarious light, there are still very few programs that successfully portray real people using medical marijuana for serious and debilitating conditions.