They are successful, rich, famous and… weed smokers!
The advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project has released its annual list of the top 50 most influential Americans who have used marijuana. The people who appear on it just might surprise you.
To qualify for MPP’s list, individuals must (1) be alive, (2) be a U.S. citizen, and (3) have consumed marijuana at least once in their life according to either their own account or that of a legitimate source. They do not need to currently consume marijuana or support marijuana policy reform.
Check out our 20 favorites from MPP’s list below, and go here to see all 50.
# 1. Miley Cyrus
“You know you’re a stoner when your friends make you a Bob Marley cake.”
# 2. Madonna
“[My behavior on the show in 1994] wasn’t because I was excited about you. I think it may have had something to do with the joint I smoked before I came on.”
# 3. Lady Gaga
“I smoke a lot of pot when I write music.”
# 4. Morgan Freeman
“My first wife got me into it many years ago. I have fibromyalgia pain in this arm, and the only thing that offers any relief is marijuana.”
# 5. Snoop Dogg
“It makes me feel the way I need to feel.”
# 6. Jay Z
“I smoked some weed, and that’s how I finished ‘Izzo.’”
# 7. Whoopi Goldberg
“The vape pen has changed my life. No, I’m not exaggerating. In fact, her name is Sippy. Yes, she’s a she. And yes, I named her Sippy because I take tiny, little sips — sassy sips, even — from her. And with each sip comes relief — from pressure, pain, stress, discomfort.”
# 8. Brad Pitt
“I was hiding out from the celebrity thing, I was smoking way too much [marijuana].”
# 9. Jennifer Aniston
“I enjoy it once in a while. There is nothing wrong with that. Everything in moderation. I wouldn’t call myself a pot-head.”
# 10. Bill Maher
“Look, I have never made a secret of the fact that I have tried marijuana… About 50,000 times.”
# 11. Michael Bloomberg
“You bet I did. And I enjoyed it.”
# 12. Barack Obama
“When I was a kid, I inhaled. Frequently. That was the point.”
# 13. Bill Clinton
“When I was in England, I experimented with marijuana a time or two.”
# 14. Stephen Colbert
“First, [in high school], I smoked a lot of pot … and that’s how I got to know the people ‘half in’ the society of my high school and we waved at each other over the bong. Then I got to know people by making jokes.”
# 15. George W. Bush
“I wouldn’t answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don’t want some little kid doing what I tried.”
# 16. Martha Stewart
“Of course I know how to roll a joint.”
# 17. Rick Steves
“I have used cannabis all over the world.”
# 18. Justin Timberlake
“The only thing pot does for me is it gets me to stop thinking. Sometimes I have a brain that needs to be turned off. Some people are just better high.”
# 19. Susan Sarandon
“I’ve never worked high, and I’ve never filmed high. But I’ve read scripts high and gotten a different perspective.”
# 20. Maureen Dowd
“Sitting in my hotel room in Denver, I nibbled off the end and then, when nothing happened, nibbled some more. I figured if I was reporting on the social revolution rocking Colorado in January, the giddy culmination of pot Prohibition, I should try a taste of legal, edible pot from a local shop.”
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[Cannabis & Creativity: Does smoking make me more creative?]