The Stoniest TV Shows of 2012

1. Weeds
After eight seasons, Showtime's historic series finally came to an end. Many early fans had left the show behind years ago, but Weeds remained essential stoner TV. After surviving an assassination attempt at the end of Season 7, Nancy (Mary-Louise Parker) decided to go in a new direction: open her own cannabis cafe. 

2. Workaholics
Comedy Central's stonercentric series features a glass pipe in the opening credits. The show's three buds - Blake, Adam and Anders - smoke weed, occassionally take acid and mushrooms, and drink a lot of beer. In Season 3's best episode, "True Dromance," the dank trio switched pot dealers.

3. Wilfred
Season 2 of FX's shaggy dog stoner comedy was not nearly as good or funny as the FX show's 2011 breakthrough. Much less marijuana was smoked, but one episode, in which Ryan (Elijah Wood) and Wilfred (Jason Gann) drank ayahuasca, stood out.

4. Breaking Bad
On Season 5 of AMC's druggy drama, Walt (Bryan Cranston) consolidated control of his burgeoning meth empire. But he was hounded by his DEA brother-in-law, irrational wife and reluctant partner (Aaron Paul). The show's last and final season - actually Part 2 of Season 5 - begins this summer.

5. Sons of Anarchy
Season 5 of this extremely violent biker-gang saga on FX was at times hard to watch. Jax (Charlie Hunnam) grabbed the gavel at Samco, but his step-father Clay (Ron Pearlman) predictably got in his way. Opie was brutally killed in a prison fight, setting the stage for many acts of revenge by the increasingly isolated Jax. His "old lady" Tara (Maggie Siff) regularly toked joints.

6. American Weed
Fresh on the heels of Discovery's Weed Wars, NatGeo's American Weed explored the Colorado medical marijuana scene. The main focus was efforts in Fort Collins to ban dispensaries.

7. Mad Men
It was 1966 - the year LSD was banned - on Season 5 of AMC's retro series. Roger (John Slattery) had a breakthrough acid trip, Don (Jon Hamm) got into the Beatles and Howard Johnson's, and Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) smoked a joint with a stranger in a movie theater.

8. Eastbound & Down
Kenny Powers, as played by Danny McBride, is the most politically incorrect character on TV. The end-of-his-career baseball pitcher smokes pot, sniffs coke and rocks "the Adderalls." But Season 3 on HBO got bogged down in a surprisingly sentimental storyline.

9. TIE: Real Time with Bill Maher, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report
These three news programs regularly address the marijuana issue with humor and conviction. While Bill Maher is an unabashed advocate on HBO, Jon Stewart generally sides with legalizers and Stephen Colbert comes from the right with devastating sarcasm on Comedy Central.

10. TIE: Shameless, The Newsroom and Parenthood
From the grow-room operation on Showtime's Shameless to Jeff Daniels (as anchorman Will McAvoy) getting "completely baked" on a pot brownie on HBO's The Newsroom to medical marijuana coming to the rescue of breast-cancer sufferer Kristina (Monica Potter) on NBC's Parenthood, marijuana played a major role in many TV shows and series in 2012.

Steve Bloom

Steve Bloom

Publisher of CelebStoner.com, former editor of High Times and Freedom Leaf and co-author of Pot Culture and Reefer Movie Madness.