Sitting in the living room, taking a hit off his mini-bong, my boyfriend recently commented, “Seems a little odd that pot is all anyone’s really talking about lately.” This comment arrived on the heels of the trailer for the latest James Franco movie, Your Highness, on the chronically-muted television in our living room.

I can’t say he isn’t onto something. Your Highness, a comedy helmed by David Gordon Green of Pineapple Express fame, comes out Friday. In it, a couple of “wizard weed” smoking knights along with Natalie Portman in a thong, set out to save Zooey Deschanel from an evil wizard. Also slated for release come June is Bad Teacher, starring Cameron Diaz as a pot-smoking teacher.

Then there are the ubiquitous news stories for and against legalization - not to mention that the state of New Jersey is finally moving forward with the medical marijuana bill passed in 2009

My book, The Stoned Family Robinson, also comes out this spring, appropriately on 4/20. It takes The Swiss Family Robinson and deposits them on a marijuana-filled island of plenty. Perhaps that’s why my boyfriend is so hyper-aware of pot in the media these days. My book, I’ve been told, stands on the threshold of a new awareness when it comes to pot culture.

So what is this new awareness?

When I was in high school I sampled pot for the first time and loved it. I remember long discussions with my own peers and even with my parents about the inevitability of its legalization. Our parents smoked it, everyone we knew smoked it, even our president (Clinton) had held some pot smoke in his mouth. Who would be left a few years down the road to challenge its legitimacy as a tool for pleasure rather than for evil?

So now, 15 states and Washington, DC finally have laws on the books that allow the medicinal use of cannabis. In 13  states, marijuana is also decriminalized. Of course, the spring of 2011 is hardly the first time a slate of movies, books and news articles have presented pot as a happily growing trend. In fact, from Cheech and Chong to Harold and Kumar, the pot movie has been a popular film staple for a long time.

What does seem to be changing, however, is the demographic of, for lack of a better word, the stoner. While male celebrities have seemed in large part okay with admitting their pot habits, their female counterparts for the most part have remained fairly hush hush. In the past, women in stoner movies were largely relegated to the roles of pissed-off chicks who want their men to quit or vapid sex goddesses.

But this spring, all that seems to be changing, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s about time. Natalie, Cameron and Zooey are representing what most of us twenty and thirty something women already knew. Girls smoke too. And not just skater girls or chicks without jobs, but actual professionals: Actresses, lawyers, corporate executives, writers and teachers. To be frank, a lot of them are even mothers.

For these women, pot isn’t saved for a special occasion, nor is it something they only enjoy privately. They're not burnt out or destroying the youth of America. They're living their lives and enjoying a few hits of weed after a long day at work - not just the pretty pink cocktails some television shows would suggest.

So even if this spring isn’t all about pot, it is all about a correct depiction of women and pot. And frankly, we’ll take it.

Order The Stoned Family Robinson

Joselin Linder at Facebook

Also see:
Sexism in the Marijuana Trade
Beauty & the Budded Beast
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CelebStoner News