Aaron Sorkin (b. June 9, 1961)
In 1989 Aaron Sorkin received the prestigious Outer Critics Circle award as Outstanding American Playwright for the stage version of A Few Good Men, later nominated for a Golden Globe. Sorkin has lived up to his promise, writing screenplays like Charlie Wilson's War and creating the Emmy Award-winning, hit NBC TV series "West Wing."
Sorkin picked up an Oscar for writing The Social Network about Facebook founders Sean Parker and Dustin Moskovitz, who donated $170,000 to the 2010 campaign to pass Prop. 19 in California, which sought to legalize marijuana for adult use.
After he was arrested at the Burbank Airport in April 2001 when authorities found hallucinogenic mushrooms and small amounts of rock cocaine and marijuana in his luggage, Sorkin pleaded guilty to three drug possession charges and entered a two-year diversion program.
The second episode of Sorkin's first TV series "Sports Night" has a sports TV show anchorman telling a magazine that he's a member of a pro-marijuana-legalization organization. The character makes some fine arguments for reason and sanity while the network insists he apologize on air, citing his contract's morality clause and raising the spectre of insurance fraud. Meanwhile, his co-anchor is mainly concerned that he's not seen as cool as his co-star.
Sorkin's new HBO series "The Newsroom," has also addressed marijuana in one of its plots.
SOURCE: 'WEST WING'S' SORKIN GUILTY OF DRUG CHARGES, Los Angeles Times, June 20, 2001