Tokin Woman: 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

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