In the amusing satire Idiocracy (2006), pot-smoking slackers are medical doctors and the dim rule the earth in a future society where intelligent people had long ago abandoned procreation. In Weed-O-Pe-Dia: A Totally Dank A-Z Reefer Reference (published by Adams Media), the author who calls himself Will B. High writes that marijuana foes cite the movie as evidence of the deleterious effect of legalizing the weed. “The truth of the matter is that society is already showing signs that this future is a foregone conclusion, and pot is still quite illegal,” he adds.
The snarky Weed-O-Pe-Dia is not an encyclopedia of pot on film, but B. High is obviously a movie buff and scatters cinematic highs among his definitions of “Puff, Puff, Pass” and entries on smokers’ delights such as Pink Floyd and the Grateful Dead. Of course, the notoriously ridiculous Reefer Madness (1936) is cited, but so is Pulp Fiction (2004) for its pothead-like conversations between the protagonists. B. High takes a critical view of High Times favorite How High (2001), about a pair of idiots guided by a spirit conjured through smoking pot mixed with the ashes of the deceased. “The film’s baffling success can be explained by one simple fact: Pot makes everything funny.”
A funny and often sharp read that will scan even through a haze of smoke, Weed-O-Pe-Dia satirizes potophiles and potophobes alike. And yes, he's probably correct: the trippy final sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey “can be appreciated only stoned.”
