When was the last time you got potted up on weed? (Photo by Seth McConnell/The Denver Post)

‘Getting all potted up on weed’? Media coverage riles Jon Stewart

Imagine the look on Jon Stewart’s face when a Fox News pundit said tartly, “What’s to keep somebody from getting all potted up on weed and then getting behind the wheel?”

Stewart’s face contorted and soured. And yet he needed more. “Hit me again,” Stewart said on Jan. 7’s “The Daily Show,” asking to hear the clip one more time. And yeah, it was just as funny the second time.

In his “Toker & Hooch” segment, Stewart calls out the media for playing up the dangers of marijuana while also glorifying the similarly psychoactive effects of alcohol. Stewart plays to a recent University of California at San Diego study that says, in Stewart’s own words, “Alcohol appears to harm the teenage brain even more than — and I’m using clinical terminology here — getting potted up on weed.”

Watch the clip above. But it reminds me of a question posed by my colleague John Ingold: “If people can more easily toke, does that mean they will drink less?” It’s a question without an answer right now. But it’s good to consider all of this as marijuana legalization efforts continue.