#PotToBlame

About

#PotToBlame is a Twitter hashtag started by television personality Nancy Grace in a series of tweets vilifying the use of marijuana as a recreational drug. Upon its introduction in April 2014, days before the annual celebration of cannabis culture on April 20th, the hashtag was promptly hijacked by marijuana enthusiasts on Reddit and turned into a catchall term for sharing positive stories and inspirational messages.

Origin

On April 16th, 2014, Grace posted several tweets about reports that Denver, Colorado resident Richard Kirk shot and killed his wife after ingesting marijuana, using the hashtag #PotToBlame (shown below).

Spread

Seth Rogen's Rebuttal

On the same day, Canadian comedian actor and cannabis enthusiast Seth Rogen responded to one of Grace's #PotToBlame tweets, calling the TV journalist a "fucking dumbass." In the first 48 hours, Rogen's tweet gained over 22,700 favorites and 19,300 retweets.

On April 17th, the @NancyGraceHLN Twitter feed sent a reply to Rogen which thanked him for watching Grace's tweets.

That same day, Redditor sillywill posted a screenshot of Rogen's tweet to the marijuana enthusiast subreddit /r/trees,^[1] where it accumulated upwards of 8,000 up votes and 400 comments in the following 24 hours. On April 18th, Redditor SoNerdy submitted a post to the /r/trees^[2] subreddit urging subscribers to takeover the #PotToBlame hashtag with stories about harmless side effects associated with marijuana consumption. Within 18 hours, the post received more than 5,300 up votes and 580 comments. On the same day, the /r/pottoblame^[3] subreddit was launched for discussions regarding the hashtag takeover. Also on April 18th, Redditor wishful_synic posted a screenshot of several notable tweets parodying the #PotToBlame hashtag to /r/trees,^[5] where it gained over 11,800 up votes and 270 comments in six hours (shown below).

2 Chainz's Response

On January 13th, 2015, rapper 2 Chainz made a guest appearance on Nancy Grace's program to present a rebuttal to the TV host's well-known stance against legalization of cannabis (shown below). That same day, two excerpted clips from the segment was uploaded to YouTube, where they gained more than five million views in aggregate in less than 48 hours.

During the 20-minute on-air debate, Grace reiterated her opposition against the legalization movement by citing several YouTube videos that apparently depict parents letting their toddlers inhale marijuana smoke, including the notoriously viral instance by Viner Chief Smokes which prompted online outrage upon its circulation in April 2014, while questioning the rapper's competency as a parent and celebrity role-model for the youth as he continues to vocally support the use and legalization of the drug in his songs and media apperances.

In response, the rapper countered the host's argument by denouncing the parents who allegedly uploaded videos of their children smoking weed and asserting that the actions of a few irresponsible parents shouldn't be portrayed as the archetype of cannabis-smoking parents at large.

Search Interest

External References