From sly background gags and hippie stereotypes to full episodes centered on dispensaries and legalization, The Simpsons has long used cannabis as comedic material.
As attitudes toward marijuana shifted over the decades, so did Springfield’s relationship with the plant. Here’s a season-by-season guide to every clear reference to cannabis across the show’s long history—including episodes, specials, and The Simpsons Movie.
Season 2, Episode 7 – “Bart vs. Thanksgiving”
The Simpsons’ family quilt includes a patch depicting a hemp plant, referencing an ancestor who farmed hemp for rope.
It’s a quick background gag rather than a full marijuana joke, but it is one of the show’s earliest cannabis-related references.
Season 2, Episode 12 – “The Way We Was”
During a flashback to Homer and Marge’s high school years, Principal Dondelinger spots a student with what appears to be a bong.
The student tries to pass it off as an asthma inhaler, and Dondelinger lets him go. The joke is brief, but it directly references marijuana paraphernalia.
Season 4, Episode 17 – “Last Exit to Springfield”
During a McBain movie, a fictional drug called Swank is described as being “ten times more addictive than marijuana.”
The reference is brief, but it’s a direct marijuana mention and fits the episode’s exaggerated action-movie parody.
Season 5, Episode 1 – “Homer’s Barbershop Quartet”
At a swap meet, Bart buys what he thinks is a “cool pencil holder.” Homer immediately recognizes it as a bong, saying he hasn’t seen one in years.
The joke is built around Bart’s innocence and Homer’s surprising familiarity with marijuana paraphernalia.
Season 5, Episode 18 – “Burns’ Heir”
In a flashback, Mr. Burns recalls disguising himself as Wavy Gravy while infiltrating a Greenpeace boat.
He pulls out a bong and reveals that, despite the hippie imagery, he had been smoking “harmless tobacco.” The scene works as a quick marijuana-adjacent joke while parodying 1960s counterculture.
Season 6, Episode 5 – “Sideshow Bob Roberts”
Mayor Quimby is shown watering a marijuana plant in his office while denying unrelated allegations.
It’s a quick visual gag, but one of the show’s clearest early references to marijuana cultivation.
Season 6, Episode 7 – “Bart’s Girlfriend”
Principal Skinner says he smelled marijuana smoke in Vietnam.
The line is a quick throwaway joke, but it directly references marijuana and plays off Skinner’s stiff, military-minded personality.
Season 6, Episode 24 – “Lemon of Troy”
In a flashback to Springfield’s founding, Jebediah Springfield says the town will grow vast fields of hemp for rope and blankets.
The line references the historical use of hemp, while also serving as a sly cannabis joke for modern viewers.
Season 7, Episode 24 – “Homerpalooza”
The music-festival episode includes several marijuana-adjacent jokes. Bart and Lisa notice a smell at the concert, and Lisa says it smells like Otto’s jacket, a clear nod to Otto’s stoner persona.
Homer also references the “bong-rattling bass” of Grand Funk Railroad, adding another quick cannabis-related line to the episode’s broader rock festival satire.
Season 8, Episode 6 – “A Milhouse Divided”
Otto exits a store called “Stoner’s Pot Palace” and angrily says the name is false advertising.
The joke is that the store sells cooking pots rather than marijuana, disappointing Otto.
Season 8, Episode 20 – “The Canine Mutiny”
Chief Wiggum and other police officers confiscate marijuana from a blind man’s home, then proceed to smoke the evidence themselves.
The scene is one of the show’s more direct marijuana gags, turning a police bust into a “pot party” and using it to mock Wiggum’s corruption and incompetence.
Season 8, Episode 21 – “The Old Man and the Lisa”
Mr. Burns refers to an environmentalist as a “hemp-smoking friend.”
The line is a quick jab at environmentalists and hippie stereotypes, using hemp as a stand-in for marijuana culture.
Season 8, Episode 25 – “The Secret War of Lisa Simpson”
A police museum exhibit references a “Hippie Pot Party.”
The gag treats a marijuana gathering like a historical police matter, fitting the episode’s military-school and law-enforcement setting.
Season 9, Episode 1 – “The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson”
While Marge and the kids are in New York, they see a Broadway musical called “Kickin’ It: A Musical Journey Through the Betty Ford Center.”
One lyric includes “no more pot or Demerol,” making it a direct marijuana reference inside the show’s larger joke about celebrity rehab.
Season 9, Episode 13 – “The Joy of Sect”
During the Movementarian indoctrination film, Otto says the place reeks of “wacky tobaccy.”
The slang term is a direct marijuana reference, and the joke lands because even Otto, the show’s most obvious stoner, thinks the room smells too much like marijuana.
Season 10, Episode 23 – “Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo”
Homer complains that he wanted to go to Jamaica so he could “pass the dutchie on the left-hand side.”
The line references “Pass the Dutchie,” the famous reggae song, and uses it as a quick marijuana joke tied to Homer’s inappropriate vacation wish.
Season 11, Episode 2 – “Brother’s Little Helper”
In a surreal sequence involving Ned and Maude Flanders, Ned cheerfully refers to a “pot party.”
The joke is based on the absurdity of Ned Flanders, one of the show’s most conservative characters, being placed in a hippie-style marijuana scene.
Season 11, Episode 17 – “Bart to the Future”
In the future, Bart helps Lisa, who has become president. When Lisa asks how she can repay him, Bart whispers, “Legalize it.”
The line is a clear marijuana legalization reference, using one of the best-known pro-marijuana slogans as a punchline.
Season 12, Episode 4 – “Lisa the Tree Hugger”
A store called Hemp City is destroyed after a giant redwood rolls through Springfield.
The store’s signage includes hemp-themed jokes, and a newspaper headline later says Hemp City was reduced to “stems and seeds,” making it one of the show’s clearest hemp and marijuana wordplay moments.
Season 13, Episode 5 – “The Blunder Years”
In a flashback, young Homer, Lenny and Carl stumble onto Fat Tony’s secret “wacky tobacky” patch.
The scene directly references a hidden marijuana grow, with Fat Tony treating it like a mob secret and the kids reacting with wide-eyed curiosity.
Season 13, Episode 16 – “Weekend at Burnsie’s”
This is The Simpsons’ most marijuana-focused episode.
After crows injure Homer’s eyes, Dr. Hibbert prescribes him medical marijuana. Homer becomes relaxed, happy and unusually amused by Mr. Burns’ jokes, eventually leading Burns to promote him.
The episode includes several direct marijuana references, including “medical marijuana,” “prescription pot,” “Texas THC,” a prescription bong and a ballot fight over recriminalizing medical marijuana. Homer also organizes a pro-marijuana rally featuring Phish.
The episode treats marijuana as the central plot device, using it to parody both medical marijuana access and anti-marijuana backlash.
Season 14, Episode 4 – “Large Marge”
After Marge performs a wild physical stunt, Otto reacts by saying, “What am I smoking? Oh yeah… pot.”
It’s a quick character-based joke, using Otto’s marijuana use as the punchline.
The Simpsons Movie (2007)
Otto is shown smoking from a bong during the chaos surrounding Springfield being sealed under a giant dome.
The scene is brief, but it is a direct visual marijuana reference and reinforces Otto’s long-running stoner persona.
Season 19, Episode 19 – “Mona Leaves-a”
After Mona leaves Marge a hemp purse, Marge says it smells like concerts.
The joke links hemp products with marijuana culture and the smell of smoke at concerts, while keeping the reference quick and character-driven.
Season 20, Episode 17 – “The Good, the Sad and the Drugly”
A Vancouver road sign says, “Come for the film tax credits, stay for the marijuana.”
The sign joke is a direct marijuana reference tied to Canada’s reputation for looser marijuana attitudes, years before nationwide legalization.
Season 22, Episode 8 – “The Fight Before Christmas”
In a Christmas dream sequence parodying The Polar Express, Otto operates a train and shovels marijuana leaves into the furnace to keep it going.
The sight gag turns Otto’s stoner identity into literal fuel for the fantasy sequence.
Season 22, Episode 16 – “A Midsummer’s Nice Dream”
Cheech & Chong come to Springfield, making the episode one of the show’s most marijuana-heavy installments outside “Weekend at Burnsie’s” and “Highway to Well.”
Homer joins Cheech on stage and repeatedly leans into marijuana jokes, including references to “reefer comedy,” 4:20, joints, hash and a van “made of weed.” The episode also includes a fantasy sequence involving a head shop and Principal Skinner dressed in marijuana leaves.
Season 22, Episode 18 – “The Great Simpsina”
The Great Raymondo mentions that he is alone with his memories and his medical marijuana.
It’s a quick line, but a direct medical marijuana reference, played as a dry joke from an elderly magician.
Season 23, Episode 14 – “At Long Last Leave”
After Springfield is emptied out, Lisa says she could finally see a planetarium show without secondhand marijuana.
The line is a direct reference to people smoking marijuana during planetarium shows, playing on the long-running association between stoners, laser shows and space-themed visuals.
Season 24, Episode 15 – “Black-Eyed, Please”
Homer spends time with Ned Flanders’ beatnik parents, Capri and Nedward, while they smoke marijuana in Ned’s house.
The scene turns Ned’s ultra-religious worldview against his parents’ hippie background, using marijuana to push him toward an uncharacteristic burst of anger.
Season 24, Episode 16 – “Dark Knight Court”
During Mr. Burns’ song “High to Be Loathed,” he sings that he doesn’t take “cocaine or Mary Jane.”
“Mary Jane” is a direct marijuana reference, used as part of the song’s wordplay and villainous theatricality.
Season 24, Episode 22 – “Dangers on a Train”
At a mostly abandoned mall, Homer learns that the old train he wants to use for his anniversary is being replaced by a medical marijuana stand.
The line is a quick reference to the spread of medical marijuana businesses and marks another example of the show treating marijuana as increasingly mainstream.
Season 27, Episode 21 – “Simprovised”
A background stand called “Luigi’s Medical Marinara” appears at the Springfield Fringe Festival.
The joke is a clear play on “medical marijuana,” turning the phrase into an Italian food pun.
Season 28, Episode 11 – “Pork and Burns”
Homer visits what appears to be a medical marijuana clinic as part of his attempt to move on from his attachment to a pet pig.
The reference is brief, but it again shows the series using medical marijuana as a casual, modern punchline.
Season 30, Episode 21 – “D’oh Canada”
During the family’s trip to Canada, a Mountie notes that Canada has universal health care, parental leave and legalized marijuana.
Homer immediately wonders why they do not live there. The line directly references Canada’s nationwide marijuana legalization and frames it as one of several progressive Canadian policies.
Season 30, Episode 23 – “Crystal Blue-Haired Persuasion”
Disco Stu is shown growing a marijuana plant with the help of a crystal grow light.
The visual gag fits the episode’s satire of wellness fads, with Stu using crystals not for spiritual healing but to improve his marijuana crop.
Season 31, Episode 17 – “Highway to Well”
This is the show’s second major marijuana-centered episode.
Marge gets a job at Well + Good, an upscale legal cannabis store, initially not realizing what the business sells. Once she finds out, she becomes an effective salesperson, treating marijuana like any other wellness product.
Homer, Moe and Lenny then open a rival shop that recreates the old, illegal experience of buying marijuana in a back room. The episode contrasts corporate cannabis with older black-market marijuana culture, while also touching on prices, taxes, marketing and normalization.
The episode uses marijuana legalization as the central plot, with Marge representing polished legal cannabis and Homer representing the old-school illicit market.
Season 34, Episode 7 – “From Beer to Paternity”
Amber, Duffman’s estranged daughter, opens a business called Amber’s Cannabis & Cannabis Accessories.
Duffman becomes the shop’s mascot under the name “Puffman,” turning the beer mascot into a marijuana mascot.
Season 35, Episode 6 – “Iron Marge”
Bart and Lisa visit North Townsburg, where they see stores called “Liquor & Weed” and “Liquor, Weed & Tax Preparation.”
The background gag treats marijuana businesses as common storefronts, folding them into the town’s rough, adult-oriented business landscape.
Season 35, Episode 14 – “Night of the Living Wage”
When Marge says she may need to get a job, Bart reminds her that she has already had plenty, including “weed sommelier.”
The line is a callback to Marge’s job at the marijuana dispensary in “Highway to Well,” and it shows that the cannabis-store storyline had become part of her broader work history.
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