Does The Marijuana Movement Still Need To Use Sex As A Marketing Tool

Sex and marijuana have been used together since the very beginning of the movement. Reefer madness supporters used the combination of sex and marijuana in a negative way to scare society into thinking that marijuana was evil. Some marijuana supporters, especially the baby boom generation, considered marijuana use and sexual freedom to go hand in hand. It’s no secret that the use of sex in marketing is a very effective way to get people’s attention. It is also no secret that many male marijuana supporters like to see attractive women in pictures and videos with marijuana. But I ask the question, is it still needed?

Let me clear the air a bit – I like attractive women. I’m like any other stereotypical male that is hardwired to pay more attention to something when I see an attractive woman attached to it. Whether I’m watching TV, at an event, walking down the road, etc, I just can’t help but take a glance. When you combine the fact that I also like marijuana, I will be the first to admit that I am guilty of the head turn from time to time.

As the marijuana movement becomes more mainstream, and especially as the medical marijuana community continues to grow, the clash between the crowd calling for political correctness and those that want to see attractive women has been gaining steam. Anyone who has been to a marijuana event (recreational or medical), especially in Southern California, has no doubt noticed that many of the booths use women who may – or may not – work in the adult entertainment industry. I have heard from many activists that this is bad for the movement, because no one will take us seriously if we have women in G-strings promoting marijuana reform. On the other side of the coin, I have heard many activists say that they don’t know what the big deal is, and that we should be using anything that helps. Those same activists point out that regardless if people think it’s OK or not, almost everyone looks at the girl, who then can highlight the message.

While I have talked to many people in private about this subject, I can’t find too many articles about it on the web to spark discussion. Since I’m a guy who likes to highlight the elephant in the room, I figured I would post this article to get the conversation going. I’m going to forward the link to Mom’s for Marijuana, as well as the NORML Women’s Alliance to see if they would like to have members comment. I would imagine finding people on the pro side won’t be quite as hard, considering the response I get from articles with pictures of attractive women in them!

What do readers think? Does a ‘hot chick’ contest have any place at medical marijuana events? Do you think that this is all ridiculous and we should be focusing on something else? If you have strong views either way, please comment below so that we can rip the band-aid off and get the conversation going.