'American Ultra' Brings the Stoner Flick Into the Age of Legal Weed

The team behind this summer’s stoner flick American Ultra is now offering Comic-Con attendees, who desperately need this sort of thing, free samples of a specially-created strain of bud. Let me repeat that. Weed has gone from being the center of every cautionary parental warning to a promotional device for mainstream media.

Real Care Inc., a medicinal marijuana co-op and delivery service in San Diego, is the company behind the gag/very cool thing and the website dedicated to it, which promises that the weed is locally sourced. To grab a baggie of the sweet green, simply access the site from a smartphone with location services enabled — and a bike messenger will rush your order to the showroom floor. The giveaway comes with certain stipulations of course. Medicinal marijuana cards are required.

For what seemed like an age, progressive opinions on recreational marijuana usage moved at a glacial pace. Now several states have wised up to the lucrative benefits of letting everyone spark up - with Washington and Colorado netting $70 million and $44 million in taxes last year alone from marijuana sales.

Those changes are now impacting entertainment, with films like American Ultra and last year’s Tusk crafting their own concocted buds to entice moviegoers. And it’s not as if this type of stunt is restricted to some obscure corner of the entertainment industry. This is Comic-Con after all.

And it’s not as though the remainder of Lionsgate’s marketing campaign is devoid of drug references. It’s built around them.