Weeds Goes Legit

The eighth and final season of Weeds, the Showtime dramedy about a suburban housewife turned pot dealer, anticipates the legalization of marijuana in the near future. When her green-thumbed son Silas hooks up with a tobacco executive who is secretly preparing for the day when his company can sell another dried weed, Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) is repelled by the idea, preferring her vision of cannabis cafés selling MILF, Silas' signature strain.

How realistic is this scenario? Weeds gives short shrift to resistance from Washington, D.C., ignoring the federal government's crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries and its monopoly on legal cultivation of the plant. But some recent polls have found that most Americans now favor legalizing marijuana, an issue that was on the ballot in three states this year. Growing tolerance of cannabis, a trend that shows like Weeds both reflect and reinforce, suggests Silas could well live to realize his dream of sending his product out into the world. —Jacob Sullum