Freeman, Sarandon: people who support legalization

A change in the law often involves its spokespeople. In the United States and England, a number of celebrities are defending the legalization of marijuana, This will give the message a little more exposure.

Susan Sarandon

We knew Susan Sarandon as a women's rights activist. The lead actress of Thelma and Louise has given her American fans a new reason to love her, and legalization activists a new voice.

In an interview to be published in the August issue of High Times, Susan Sarandon declared herself an occasional smoker, preferring a joint to a glass of alcohol to relax.

«It's absurd that more states haven't legalized marijuana yet,» she told the magazine. «It's a major source of revenue... The benefits are also glaring for the children with epileptic seizures are avoided by taking medical marijuana. It's also a lovely way to socialize and be with people - and to find yourself de-stressing. This is very important because technology has made people multi-task. We become distracted, almost crazy. Smoking helps to reconnect, to be present and aware.»

Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman confided in The Daily Beast. He admits to being a long-time smoker, and talks about the pain in his left arm resulting from his car accident in 1997.

«The marijuana has many possible uses. I have fibromyalgia in my left arm, and the only thing that relieves my pain is marijuana. They talk about children who suffered from epileptic seizures, and they found that marijuana could soften those seizures until they had a normal life. That's what makes me say: legalize it all over the country!»

According to Morgan Freeman, the legalization movement is based on a fact that its detractors fail to understand: «Now, the important thing is to understand that alcohol has no medicinal virtue. One glass soothes you, but two or three and you're upside down.» He also points out that, in addition to its medical benefits, the negative effects of cannabis are rare.

On the subject of judicial treatment of users, he already said in 2012 that imprisoning consumers was «the stupidest law possible: you put people in prison, in contact with real criminals, who have done nothing but smoke. We're spending billions trying to win a war we're doomed to lose. We could make billions. Just legalize it and tax it like alcohol.»

Richard Branson

In early April, in a Guardian article, Sir Richard Branson urged the UK to legalize drug use and possession, following Portugal's example. For him, the record of the war on drugs is very poor:

«If we talk about it as an investment, the war on drugs has had no return on investment. If it were a business, it would have closed a long time ago. That's not what success looks like. The idea of eradicating drugs from the world by declaring war on consumers is fundamentally flawed: it doesn't reduce drug-taking. This devastating conclusion means that we are wasting our scarce resources on a massive scale.»

In the words of Richard Branson, the decriminalization of drug possession in Portugal, The main result of the 15-year ban has been to halve the number of overdoses. The money previously spent on enforcing prohibition is now being used to reconnect addicts with society.

And more generally, Hollywood

From Hollywood, where prohibition often raged, In both the scripts and the cast, several names come to mind:

• Jack Black: a far cry from his role in Orange County, Jack Black was on the cover of High Times, and played a concert for NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws).
• Whoopi Goldberg : defended legalization during a TV show with 3 million viewers
• Woody Harrelson known for advocating marijuana and for his Saturday Night Live sketch (below)

We won't go into the list of celebrities known to smoke and stop there. We'll just point out that in France, celebrities are much less vocal about legalizing cannabis, which explains, among other things why the legalization debate is so complicated.