2017 Tokey Awards

Tokin' Woman of the Year: Kathy Bates


The venerable actress Kathy Bates not only played a medical marijuana dispensary owner on the Netflix series Disjointed this year, she also made the rounds of the interview circuit, talking up the medicinal uses of marijuana and candidly speaking about her own use.

Asked by the New York Times if she smokes pot, Bates replied, "Yeah, I do. I’ve had a prescription for some time for chronic pain. I’ve really become a believer. I find it just as, if not more, effective than other pain relief." She also said she supports legalization "even more so now that I’ve become more educated about what its properties are" and mentioned meeting NFL players in the Gridiron Cannabis Coalition.

AARP Magazine's headline was Kathy Bates: She's Smokin', and Stephen Colbert introduced her as "an Academy Award–winning actress who terrified us in Misery, inspired us in Titanic, and now she sells us weed on the Netflix show Disjointed." She demonstrated her technique for using a vape pen for Stephen, and gifted Chelsea Handler with a cannabis wrist corsage for her interview on Chelsea.

Bates also played a marijuana-smoking lawyer in the 2011-12 TV series "Harry's Law," and portrayed Alice B. Toklas's lover Gertrude Stein on film in Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris." In 2014 she said she'd shared "some good sh##" with Susan Sarandon and Melissa McCarthy.

Gotta say, though, having just seen Bates in "The Great Gilly Hopkins" (2015), it made me wish the writing for cannabis-themed movies and TV could approach a great film like that one.

Outie of the Year


Olivia Newton-John

Gwynneth Paltrow

Anne Hathaway

Admission of the Year 


Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan on parties where marijuana "may have been present"

“It’s never fun to work in drug prevention,” said Drug Free America’s Deputy Director Amy Ronshausen.


Top Activist

Peachtree NORML founder Sharon Ravert (pictured at right with members of the NC Women and others) lobbied to bring the Drug Policy Alliance conference to Atlanta this year. Just before the event, Atlanta, which had the worst-in-the-nation record for arresting blacks over whites for marijuana, passed a decriminalization measure. NORML is working to pass more reform measures throughout Georgia and Sharon produces a segment on 420radio.com highlighting the stories and work of other women in the fight to end marijuana prohibition.

Honorable mentions

Alexis Bortell - 12-year-old suing Sessions over marijuana policy

In Peru, mothers rouse support for legalizing medical marijuana

Women could push marijuana legalization across the finish line in Texas



Political She-Ro Award 


Elizabeth Warren Wants Marijuana Answers From Trump Health Nominee and Seeks to Pull Pot Shops Out of Banking Limbo

New York Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal introduces bill to allow cannabis for menstrual cramps

Harwell Open to Medical Marijuana Law in Tennessee

Kamala Harris to Trump: Leave Grandma's Marijuana Alone

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard on the future of marijuana legalization

Minister of Women and Child Development in India Wants Medical Cannabis



Best Commentary (Written) 


Dr. Jocelyn Elders: Health Care is a Human-Rights Issue

NORML Women of Washington: Profit vs. access on Facebook, our digital town square


Best Commentary (TV)


Samantha Bee Rips Jeff Sessions

John Oliver on MJ Legalization

Bill Maher: Opiate of the Masses Now Officially Opiates (and Booze)

Dr. Oz Shocks "Fox & Friends"


Funniest TV Moment 


The Daily Show: Roy on Drugs

Saturday Night Live: Leslie Jones's Jamaican Vacation

Russell Brand on His Favorite (and non-favorite) Drugs

Kathryn Hahn's Wake and Bake on "I Love Dick"

Family Feud Contestant Wins with Weed



Phattest Film 

Mary Janes: The Women of Weed

Girls Trip

The Only Living Boy in New York 


Best Video or Series

Kelsey Darragh: I Tried Medical Marijuana For 30 Days 
To See If It Could Cure My Chronic Pain

Damian Marley: Meet Medical Cannabis Patient Michelle Aldrich

Now This: This Grandma Wants You to Smoke Weed

Nohttps://twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/947211465949188096
Merry Jane: Queens of the Stoned Age


Best Commercial


Martha Stewart and Snoop Dog: T-Mobile Super Bowl Ad




Top Tweets (Politicos)


Tulsi Gabbard
Dina Titus
Kirsten Gillibrand
Julia Brownley
Kamala Harris



Top Tweets (Entertainers)


Paula Poundstone
Elayne Boosler
Susan Sarandon



Best Album


Jhené Aiko: Trip


Best Musical Moment
Sheryl Crow wailing on the harmonica to Willie Nelson's "Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die" at Farm Aid

Best Dance Moment
Stella Abrera performing "Soul Bossa Nova/Dear Quincy" (with pipe) in tribute to Carmen de Lavallade at the Kennedy Center Honors. See Carmen dancing it. 





Best Book

Ashley Picillo & Lauren Devine: Breaking The Grass Ceiling: Women, Weed and Business

Debby Goldsberry: Starting and Running a Marijuana Business

Ayelet Waldman: A Really 
Good Day

Paula Poundstone: The Totally Unscientific Study of the Search for Human Happiness


Excellence in Reporting


Amanda Chicago Lewis: Medical Pot Is Our Best Hope to Fight the Opioid Epidemic

Paul Armentano, NORML: Blowing the Lid Off the "Marijuana Treatment" Racket

Sofia Miselem, AFP: 'Grandma's magic remedy:' Mexico's medical marijuana secret

Tom Angell, The Marijuana Moment: Teen Marijuana Use Down In Most Legalized States, Federal Data Says 

Brooke Edwards Staggs: The Cannifornian


Best Interview

Arnie Cooper, The Sun - Hooked: Maia Szalavitz Debunks Myths About Addiction 



Best Public Art


Hollyweed Sign

"I Thought the KKK was OK" (pictured)


Best Speech

Diane Goldstein accepting the H.B. Spear Award for Achievement in the Field of Law Enforcement at the Drug Policy Alliance Conference. 

Kathleen Harrison: Cannabis and Spirituality


Best Event


Women's Visionary Congress: Women and Cannabis Salon 

Best Billboard

The "moving hand" billboard on Sunset Strip for Disjointed. (See it moving at night.)


Top Studies


Cannabis and pregnancy: Maternal child health implications during a period of drug policy liberalization

People Who Smoke Weed Have 20 Percent More Sex

Women Who Smoke Marijuana Are Smarter Than Women Who Don't

Delaying marijuana smoking to age 17 cuts risks to teens' brains, new study suggests

Medical Marijuana for Children with Cancer? What Providers Think

Middle-aged women prescribed the most opioids, report finds

Children More Likely to Overdose If Mothers Are Prescribed Opioids

Energy Drinks Are a Gateway to Cocaine and Alcohol


States of Shame


Kansas Jails Cancer-Stricken Grandmother for Driving After Taking Anti-Nausea Drug

Proposed Wyoming Bill Equates Giving Substances Like Cannabis to Pregnant Women as Homicide

Alabama's crackdown on pregnant marijuana users

One North Texas Mother Convicted of Five Felonies for Breastfeeding One Child on Pot

Texas Cops Spent 11 Minutes Searching a Woman's Vagina, Found No Drugs


"What Were They Smoking?" Award


Ann Coulter: Marijuana use is “destroying the country”

Sen. McCaskill: If Pot is Legal "Kids Will Get Handed Joints Like They Get Handed Beers"

Rob Portman Claims MJ Laced with Fentanyl

Himachal Pradesh local women destroy cannabis plantations

Feds block a product aimed at keeping drugs out of kids’ hands

Feds Authorized Montana Woman's Hemp Farm, but Now They're Killing It


Marijuana legalization and gay activist
Gilbert Baker,
who designed the Rainbow Flag

A Fond Farewell To:

Gilbert Baker
Chuck Berry
David Cassidy
Hugh Hefner
Joanne Kyler
Joanna McKee
Roger Moore
Mary Tyler Moore
Jeanne Moreau
Tom Petty
Anita Pallenberg
Jacki Rickert

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