Pubdate: Wed, 03 Apr 2013
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/625HdBMl
Website: http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/index.htm
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/466
Author: Olivia Barker
Page: 1D

YOUNG CELEBS PIPE UP FOR POT

And the Stigma Goes Up in Smoke

The toke torch is being passed in Tinseltown.

It used to be that Hollywood potheads were grizzled and 
off-the-mainstream grid - think Cheech & Chong and Willie Nelson. 
Then edgy rappers such as Snoop Dogg and Cypress Hill became the 
famous faces of marijuana, with a couple of mischievous Texans thrown 
in: Woody Harrelson and a naked-and-bongo-playing Matthew McConaughey.

Today's stars caught with cannabis? Meet the mostly twentysomething 
toke turks: They're the antithesis of counterculture, including 
heartthrobs such as Justin Bieber, Chace Crawford, Michael Phelps and 
Armie Hammer. And then there's Rihanna, who readily flaunts her 
affection for the illegal flora, posting pictures of her Valentine's 
present (a bouquet of weed), 25th birthday cake (adorned with a 
gilded marijuana leaf ) and Christmastime tush tattoo (yep, another 
leaf of weed).

Two years ago, Lady Gaga told Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes: "I smoke 
a lot of pot when I write music." Justin Timberlake was casually 
candid to Playboy about his cannabis use: "Some people are just 
better high." Last year, Kristen Stewart told

Vanity Fair that her pot smoking was no "big deal."

The transgressions and admissions are clearly not affecting these 
young celebrities' careers: Bieber cheekily apologized in a Saturday

Night Live spoof last month; Rihanna seemed to get as many high-fives 
as head shakes for her ganja gift. On New Year's Eve, Frank Ocean got 
cited for pot possession in California. Three days later, he tweeted 
the following formality: "hi guys, i smoke pot. ok guys, bye." And 
the issue all but went up in smoke.

Ditto Crawford and Hammer, who each were arrested in Texas for 
marijuana possession, in 2010 and 2011, respectively. In 2009, a 
British tabloid infamously ran a photo of Phelps inhaling from a 
bong. The swimmer swiftly apologized in a statement and, in a 
barometer of public approval, lost only one major sponsor: Kellogg. 
The incident proved more PR puddle than tsunami.

It was a far cry from what befell Jennifer Capriati when she was 
busted for pot possession in 1994 at age 18: The tennis prodigy lost 
valuable endorsements, including contracts with Diadora clothing and 
Prince rackets, and a three-year, $2 million deal with Oil of Olay.

Nowadays, when stars and marijuana mix, "nobody cares. Society has 
moved on," says Howard Bragman, a longtime Hollywood publicist and 
vice chairman of Reputation.com, a management company. "It's not in 
the top 10 of what bad things celebrities can do. I would much rather 
have a client get caught smoking a joint than a DUI. One is potential 
harm to yourself, and one is potential harm to other people, and 
that's a huge" difference.

"Nobody smokes a joint and gets violent," Bragman continues. "They 
get violent with a bag of Doritos. That's about the worst thing that happens."

Igniting pot's shift into pop, of course, is the marijuana 
legalization movement, which gained major momentum in November, when 
measures passed in Colorado and Washington state. Last year, the 
number of states allowing medical marijuana use rose to 18, plus 
Washington, D.C.

SUPPORT FOR LEGALIZING

Attitudes have relaxed. A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll in late November 
found that nearly half (48%) of Americans think marijuana should be 
legal. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, a robust 60% said yes to 
legalization. Only about a third of the county approved of such 
initiatives as recently as 2005. And when Gallup first asked about 
the issue in 1969, a mere 12% supported legalizing pot.

"As more states embrace marijuana law reform, the cultural stigma 
surrounding cannabis will continue to wane, thus opening the door for 
more public figures to express their support and be more candid 
regarding their own private cannabis consumption," says Paul 
Armentano, deputy director for NORML, the marijuana decriminalization 
organization.

And the movement is happy to embrace these new pot poster kids. "The 
truth about mainstream artists coming out of the closet openly about 
cannabis is that the younger generation has come to form a natural 
alliance with their parents and Baby Boomers," says Norm Kent, 
chairman of the board of directors of NORML. "NORML welcomes partners 
from senior citizens to radio hosts, from pop artists to Olympic 
athletes who have shared their bongs with buddies."

Indeed, "I promise the parents of Bieber kids smoked pot," Bragman 
says, "and I think that's the big factor" in why the pop prince went 
relatively unscathed for blazing up a blunt early this year.

Even some of their grandparents smoked pot, and still do. Tommy 
Chong, who at 74 is the age of many a Bieber fan's grandfather, says 
the rash of young star smokers "validates what I've known all my 
life," that marijuana ignites his artistic spark. "I directed five 
major motion pictures and won a Grammy for writing comedy. And I owe 
it all to marijuana, because it wasn't until I found the weed that I 
became creative ... that things started to flow for me." He says he 
has cut way back these days personally, but professionally he's still 
got a buzz: The new Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie gets a limited 
theatrical release April 18.

Chong says he's "proud" of the new generation of reefer respect. 
"These talented kids are realizing the benefits of pot, and they're indulging."

And they're helping fuel society's tolerance for pot.

"One way pot can become normalized and more accepted is if people who 
are admired by the general public are seen admitting to enjoying it 
and it's not some horrible demon drug," says Mike Hughes, a reporter 
for High Times, the pro-cannabis-legalization magazine.

SUPPORT FOR NON-LEGALIZING

All of which, not surprisingly, unsettles members of the 
anti-cannabis community. "It's extremely unfortunate and very 
irresponsible of (young stars) to promote this kind of a lifestyle to 
young people. Whether we like it or not, they are role models," says 
Calvina Fay, executive director of the Drug Free American Foundation, 
who has noticed Hollywood's trend toward mainstream marijuana use. 
"It's just really the wrong message to be sending.

"We really need to protect our children from this, not give them 
permission to smoke pot," Fay says. Until 2012, marijuana use among 
teens increased for four straight years, according to the annual 
Monitoring the Future survey, sponsored by the National Institute on 
Drug Abuse. Last year, the rates flattened, to 36%, 28% and 11% for 
12th-, 10th- and eighthgraders, respectively. Since 1991, the 
percentage of teens who see "great risk" in using pot regularly has 
steeply declined.

When Emerson College marketing communications professor Kristin Lieb 
asked a class of juniors and seniors about celebrities and pot, they 
shrugged off the issue. "To them, it's a drug used recreationally 
that isn't very threatening to anyone," says Lieb, author of the 
just-released book Gender, Branding and the Modern Music Industry: 
The Social Construction of Female Popular Music Stars.

"For the generation of fans that make up these celebrities' primary 
fan base - ages 12 to 34, let's say - marijuana just isn't 'bad' 
anymore. And if its use is normalized, then the 'revelation' of use 
by a celebrity isn't a revelation at all," says Anne Helen Petersen, 
a film and media studies professor at Whitman College in Walla Walla, 
Wash., who's at work on a book about scandal and Hollywood.

What would be problematic when it comes to stars and drugs? "They 
wouldn't want to see one of their favorite artists take meth because 
it might mean they are hurting themselves," Lieb says about her students.

No wonder Gaga and Rihanna aren't concerned about going public with 
their cannabis consumption: "It's just not that big of a deal within 
their target markets," Lieb says. (And no wonder Bieber did 
apologize: His market skews far younger.) "For Lady Gaga, this might 
be the least controversial thing she's done in her career."

For Rihanna, celebrating pot "will not even register as a blip on 
anyone's radar screen," Lieb says. "Her lyrics are going to get way 
more attention than her smoking a joint." (Remember her 2011 song 
S&M?) "Rihanna's brand is aggressively unwholesome," and indeed, "her 
marijuana consumption is an integral part of her brand identity."

Nor will she, or any of these smoking stars, register as a chirp on 
any police scanner. "Marijuana is probably at the bottom of the list 
of things that prosecutors want to prosecute, especially when you're 
talking about small amounts" for personal use, such as a joint or 
dime bag, says New York criminal defense and trial attorney Stuart Slotnick.

DEALING VS. SMOKING

The authorities get interested when large quantities are involved. 
"Law enforcement is concerned with people who deal marijuana and not 
so much with people who smoke marijuana," Slotnick says. "This is a 
personal choice and a personal lifestyle that's more and more 
accepted by society today. While it may be offensive to some people, 
it's not likely to get great attention by law enforcement."

A celebrity's image takes a PR hit, however, when taking a hit is 
seen as off-brand. "Culturally, we can't stand a hypocrite," Lieb 
says. And sure, Bieber's foray into illegal fumes was 
brand-detouring, but it was also humanizing.

"Here is this 19-year-old boy growing up in the public making the 
sort of mistakes that other 19-year-olds make," Lieb says. "It 
reminds us that he is becoming a grown-up and probably is going to 
want to make different kinds of music." And "anything that sort of 
ages his brand is something that could be useful in building a 
long-term brand strategy."

Which points to the upside of a celebrity's brush with weed: It can 
burnish an image. Lady Gaga's acknowledgment "only makes her cooler," 
Hughes says.

But as pot becomes more mainstream, does pot undergo an existential 
crisis: Does it lose its, well, cool?

Hughes remembers when, eight years ago, Urban Outfitters started 
selling a pot cookbook kit. "At the time, it occurred to me that the 
reason pot is - and has been - so cool is because of its history of 
being antiestablishment. So the idea of the establishment endorsing 
it and turning it into mainstream pop culture struck me as the 
antithesis of what pot stands for."

But "the marijuana movement needs to be embraced by the establishment 
in order to progress. And pot hasn't lost any of its 'cool' factor as 
it has received increasing mainstream support."

Still, Hughes foresees a potentially flipped future for the formerly 
derided drug. "It is possible that, years down the line - assuming 
pot is consistently embraced by the blandest of mainstream 
celebrities - there could be a backlash against pot in which 
teenagers choose to rebel by not smoking."
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