“Never give up the ganja.”
Morgan Freeman famously said those bold words in a 2003 interview with The Guardian. It was then when we learned that this man, one of Hollywood’s most prolific actors, didn’t mince words when it came to marijuana.
And now Freeman is again talking about his love of cannabis, which he uses regularly. In a new Daily Beast profile, Freeman spoke about the pain he feels daily — the result of a near-deadly car accident seven years ago.
“I have fibromyalgia pain in this arm,” he told the site, “and the only thing that offers any relief is marijuana.”
More from The Daily Beast’s profile:
I ask him about his stance on the legalization of marijuana, since he’s a longtime user. “They used to say, ‘You smoke that stuff, boy, you get hooked!” says a chuckling Freeman. “My first wife got me into it many years ago. How do I take it? However it comes! I’ll eat it, drink it, smoke it, snort it! This movement is really a long time coming, and it’s getting legs—longer legs. Now, the thrust is understanding that alcohol has no real medicinal use. Maybe if you have one drink it’ll quiet you down, but two or three and you’re fucked.”
He pauses, and points to the glove-aid jutting out from his left suit sleeve. “Marijuana has many useful uses,” he says. “I have fibromyalgia pain in this arm, and the only thing that offers any relief is marijuana. They’re talking about kids who have grand mal seizures, and they’ve discovered that marijuana eases that down to where these children can have a life. That right there, to me, says, ‘Legalize it across the board!’”
“And what negative effects does it have?” Freeman continues. “Look at Woodstock 1969. They said, ‘We’re not going to bother them or say anything about smoking marijuana,’ and not one problem or fight. Then look at what happened in ’99,” he says, referencing the less marijuana-friendly 30th-anniversary event, which resulted in riots and arrests.