A POPULAR PLANT IS QUIETLY SPREADING ACROSS TV SCREENS

LOS ANGELES -- Tips for cultivating marijuana. Testimonials by patients
about its medical benefits. Cannabis cooking lessons. Even citations
for award-winning strains of pot. Viewers here can now watch, every
week, what amounts to a pro-weed news program.

Booted off one skittish TV station but quickly picked up by another,
the low-budget "Cannabis Planet" show is televised evidence of how
entrenched marijuana has become in California's cultural firmament and
a potent example of the way the pot subculture has been edging into
the national mainstream.

"We're trying to show the legitimacy of this plant," said Brad Lane,
the executive producer of the half-hour program.

Mr. Lane pays for the twice-weekly air time on the independent station
KJLA -- Thursday and Saturday nights at 11:30, sandwiched between
"Bikini Beach" and "Jewelry Central" -- and says he is now breaking
even, almost two months after the show's premiere. "Cannabis Planet"
focuses on medical, agricultural and industrial uses of the hemp
plant, purposely ignoring marijuana's recreational aspects. Viewers,
for instance, see very little actual smoking, even though the hosts
and producers are known to inhale between takes. "We're walking on
eggshells here, to be honest," Mr. Lane said.

Still, "Cannabis Planet" remains on the air -- with not a single
complaint from viewers, according to the station.

Marijuana use has been depicted in the media for decades, though its
presence has waxed and waned over the decades, from Cheech & Chong's
comedy albums and films in the late 1970s and early '80s through more
recent pot-centric efforts like Dave Chappelle's "Half-Baked" and Seth
Rogen's "Pineapple Express." On television, though, it has rarely
risen above the level of a plot device or punch line -- until recently.

Medical marijuana is now legal in 14 states, and the lobbying
organization Norml says efforts to legalize it are under way in 15
other states. Marijuana use remains illegal under federal law, but in
a break from prior policies, the Obama administration said in February
that federal officials would stop raiding dispensaries of medical
marijuana authorized under state law.

Since then the number of dispensaries in California has surged in what
some call a "green rush."

"It's really blown up," said Jay Peterson, a production executive at
Original Productions, which is working with Blue Dream Media to create
a reality show set at a pot collective, or distribution center, in
Hollywood. The show, "Top Bud," is envisioned as a cross between "LA
Ink," the TLC show produced by Original about a lively tattoo parlor,
and "Weeds," the Showtime hit drama about a dope-dealing mother of
two.

"While the drug is illegal in most states, the idea is to show that
there's a world somewhere where it's legal, and where people are doing
this," Mr. Peterson said.

The producers are now trying to sell "Top Bud" to networks. Mr.
Peterson acknowledged there was some hesitancy at first but said his
company already had "solid interest."

There are similar stirrings in the scripted TV world. On "Glee," Fox's
new high school musical, one of the characters is a medical marijuana
dealer. At the New York Television Festival next week one of the
competing pilot projects seeking a TV network home will be "Rx," a
drama set in the medical marijuana world.

A rash of recent news reports have documented the mainstreaming of
pot, citing among other examples frequent drug references in the media
and endorsements by a growing list of celebrities. This month Fortune
magazine's cover asks: "Is Pot Already Legal?" CNBC repeats its
eight-month-old documentary about the pot business, "Marijuana Inc.,"
at least once a week; it continues to be rated one of the channel's
most popular documentaries.

Mr. Lane's inspiration for "Cannabis Planet" came from a more
practical place: he noticed an increasing number of ads in local
newspapers for medical cannabis. "It was the only market segment that
I saw growing," he said during dinner at a faded Chinese restaurant on
Pico Boulevard.

Mr. Lane has produced on-demand TV shows about snowboarding and
surfing for several years. Tired of what he called "the demonization
of the cannabis plant," he wanted to highlight pot's uses as "fuel,
fiber, food and medicine," as he and his co-hosts often say. He first
bought air time on KDOC, an independent station in Orange County,
Calif., but in late July station officials apparently grew antsy about
the subject matter. He recalled one employee telling him, "We're a
little concerned that the topic is too controversial," and he was
instructed to pull the advertising he had bought for the show. KDOC
declined to comment.

Mr. Lane promptly moved "Cannabis Planet" to KJLA, another independent
station that reaches an estimated five million households in Southern
California, which said it was happy to run the show, with a disclaimer
about the content.

A native Californian prone to statements like, "Did you know the War
of 1812 was over hemp?," Mr. Lane said he had smoked pot since his
sophomore year of college. He is now a medical marijuana user, he
said, relying on the drug to curb attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

"Cannabis Planet" is beginning to turn a profit, Mr. Lane said,
because of a growing list of advertisers, including companies that
sell nutritional supplements for growers and recommend doctors. Now he
wants to syndicate the series, he said, and is in talks with stations
in San Diego and Denver.

Mr. Lane's show joins "Cannabis Common Sense," a weekly cable program
in Oregon that started in the late 1990s and is produced by a hemp
advocacy group.

Calvina Fay, the executive director of Drug Free America Foundation,
said a weekly TV show extolling marijuana as harmless contributes to
inappropriate public perceptions of the drug. "They are putting
people's lives in danger as they promote a toxic, harmful weed to sick
people and intentionally ignore the harms of it," she said, adding
that the drug had been "linked to a plethora of health problems."

Mr. Lane, strenuously disagreeing with the antidrug groups, says his
show exists to spread facts about cannabis. That is why he will not
present information about recreational uses of marijuana for now.

"Unfortunately, it is still perceived as offensive by too many
people," he said.