The other night I'm all hunkered down on the couch watching a Tivo'd episode of "Veronica Mars" from earlier last season when a marijuana-related plot starts to get my hackles up. But before I can get really incensed there's a plot twist. Turns out what Veronica thought was some depraved for-profit grow operation at a sorority house was really a den mother's stash of MEDICINE! That's right. Veronica eats crow as everyone gets down on her for busting the sympathetic cancer survivor who is merely using marijuana for medical purposes. This is significant, I think, because this show is aimed at the under 20 crowd (further proof that the 13 year old in me is alive and well) and strives to reflect the values of that demographic. I think we've gotten somewhere when more and more of our cultural barometers point to a sea change in the way young people in particular are thinking about marijuana.

State legislators are definitely starting to sit up and take notice of the shift in attitude regarding this plant. Just this year we've seen medical marijuana bills pass legislatures in New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont and Connecticut (where the governor is threatening to veto - this bill could use all the help it can get). And if the sponsors of the bill in New York are correct, this state might also join the list of those sympathetic to the plight of patients.