Friday, December 15, 2023

Chelsea Handler Named Tokin' Woman of the Year: Tokey Awards 2023

Winners: Write Here to claim your prize: A Tokin' Women book.

TOKIN' WOMAN OF THE YEAR - Chelsea Handler

I've wanted to make Chelsea Handler the Tokin' Woman of the Year for the past several years, but current events (Sha'Carri Richardson losing her Olympics slot for testing positive for marijuana, Britney Griner bring imprisoned in Russia for carrying it across the border, Kamala Harris being nominated for Vice President and talking about weed....) intervened. 

In Handler's 2019 book Life Will Be the Death of Me, she relates how after the Trump election she found that her rage at the political situation was exacerbated by alcohol, and so she began learning more about marijuana as a substitute, starting as an aid to meditation. 

"I think the world needs cannabis more than it's ever needed anything," she announced at an appearance that year at the Hall of Flowers trade show in Sonoma, CA. "Alcohol is not doing it.....if we want a kinder, softer and gentler place, then we have the answer."

"So many users aren't out because of shame," she lamented, adding, "But I have time to be here and be a New York Times #1 bestselling author...We need to highlight that cannabis can be used to function, to create, to contribute." 

Handler won a Tokey award in 2016 for her episode "Chelsea Does Drugs" in which she took ayahuasca on camera; in 2018 she took a Tokey for a Top Tweet. In 2021 she curated her favorite cannabis products into an "America is Back" kit for Inauguration Day, with the proceeds going to support Cage Free Repair, a cannabis reform nonprofit. This year she appeared in a 4/20 "Pardons to Progress" video urging action to free cannabis prisoners. 

She's continued to speak out across the country about her love for marijuana, so that, for example, an interview from Alabama where she appeared on her recent comedy tour begins, "Chelsea Handler is sitting on her sofa, smoking a joint and reading a book." She recently told Kind Magazine, "I just want to be a high vibe passing through this world so every time I leave an area, it's better." 


In this clip from The Tonight Show, Handler makes a case for women dominating the world, or at least late night talk shows, while wearing a necklace with an Amanita mushroom shape and an emerald green gemstone. She'll be touring Canada and the US starting in January 2024. 

BEST/WORST DRUG WAR NEWS OF 2023

Drug war critic Leila de Lima, 64, walks free after Philippine court grants bail 






GOOD NEWS / BAD NEWS - PARENTAL AND WOMEN'S RIGHTS








BEST VIDEO SEGMENT

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert - The Ganja Girls: Seniors Smoking Weed 

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver - Psychedelic Assisted Therapy

Kai Penn hosting The Daily Show - Biden Pardons Weed Offenses




MOST EARNEST REPORTING 



OUTSTANDING OPED



MOST INCISIVE INTERVIEW

Sarah Silverman interviews Margo Price on writing her latest CD on mushrooms and how, like Bill Wilson of AA, she used psychedelics to stop drinking. 



Desi Lydic Asks Yvette Nicole Brown: "What's Your Secret?"  




BEST BOOKS

Melissa Etheridge - "Talking to My Angels"

Leslie JonesLeslie F*king Jones

Seeing Through Smoke: A Cannabis Specialist Untangles the Truth about Marijuana - Peter Grinspoon MD  

The Beginner's Guide to Growing Cannabis and Making Your Own Healing Remedies - Tammi Sweet, MS

Exile & Ecstasy: Growing Up with Ram Dass & Coming of Age in the Jewish Psychedelic Underground - Madison Margolin

Intoxicating Zion: A Social History of Hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel - Haggai Ram

Pot Shots: the Journey of a HIGH TIMES Photographer - Malcolm McKinnon


Worst Book Edit

Marijuana is replaced with coffee in the children's edition of Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire 




BEST TV APPEARANCE 

Natalie Fertig on PBS NewsHour on the HHS announcement they were recommending moving marijuana to a Schedule III drug. 


BEST TV MOMENTS

"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" (Amazon Prime) - Alex Borstein shows up for her character Susie Myerson's roastamonial "smelling like Cheech and Chong." 

"Only Murders in the Building" - Meryl Streep asks Martin Short, "Do you doobie baby?

"Survival of the Thickest" (Netflix) - Featuring Michelle Buteau jogging, and having revelations during a conversation with her mom, on pot.  

"The Horror of Dolores Roach" (Amazon Prime) - Justina Machado plays former weed dealer who goes all Sweeney Todd after getting out of prison. 

"Nora from Queens" (Comedy Central) - Awkwafina helps out when her grandma gets into the weed business. 

"And Just Like That" (Max) - Goody two-shoes Charlotte (Kristin Davis) sensuously swallows a pot brownie and finds her way back to her center (after a brief hospital trip). 





Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly Urges Legalization for Her State

PA Rep. Chrissy Houlahan Visits a Hemp Farm




TOP CELEBRITY LOBBYIST




PRIMO 4:20 JOKES

Stephen Colbert opens on 4/20 with a "Yes We Cannabis" segment from the "dank, grooved-out wonder planet known as Chillaxia." 

Jimmy Kimmel Celebrates Hashashana/Bong Kippur and wishes all a Happy Chronica. 



TOP 420 TWEET 







JOKE OF THE YEAR

Roy Wood Jr. compares the Trump arrest to a too-weak marijuana brownie at the White House Correspondents Dinner 


TOP COMEDY BIT

Jordan Klepper on The Daily Show covers the NRA convention speeches and Trump's wacky weed reference about "genetically engineered cannabis." 





TOP CARTOON

Farley Katz, The New Yorker





PRIMO (AND SOMEWHAT SCHWAG) POLL RESULTS 







SUPERB (AND ALSO SCHWAG) STUDIES 










DOPEST DUET 

Steve Miller and John Mayer - "The Joker" at Madison Square Garden.


PRIMO PERFORMANCE

Tokin' Woman Rihanna Smokes the Super Bowl


MOST AWESOME ART SHOW

Artists "Make a Marc" to Bring Marc Fogel Home from Russian Prison for Pot


BEST BLOG POST

HR Conklin: A Hemp Goddess, Sleeping Beauty, and Chinatown in Humboldt County 


  
BEST PODCAST / EPISODE 

Stoner Chicks Podcast Episode #135 (Dead Toad Road) discussing the weed smoking on "Survival of the Thickest" 




STUPIDEST STATEMENTS 

Family Research Council's president says decriminalizing psychedelics would be "opening people up to demonic activity," and its family studies director says the Egyptian magicians that Moses encountered in the Bible took psychedelics to access the spiritual realm.

New York Post: How New York's Legal Weed is Turning Workers Into Stoned Zombies
 
Judge Jeanine Pirro thinks marijuana legalization means the U.S. is becoming a third world nation. 





WORST IMAGINARY ORGANIZATION BLOCKING PROGRESS

Moms, not cops, are the biggest roadblock to California's new drug reform law


RIP


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