Actor Morgan Freeman discussed his use of marijuana to ease his pain after a traumatic injury seven years ago. In an interview with the Daily Beast, the Hollywood star compared alcohol to marijuana, arguing that the plant has actual medical benefits, while alcohol does not.
From the Daily Beast:
Seven years ago, he was driving across Mississippi when his vehicle, a 1997 Nissan Maxima, skidded off the highway, flipping over several times. Freeman was rescued using the Jaws of Life and medevaced to a nearby hospital in Memphis. His left shoulder, arm, and elbow were shattered, and doctors operated for four hours to repair the nerves in his arm. He still hasn’t regained the full use of his left hand and wears a yellow compression glove to prevent blood pooling.
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.
A new poll from Fox News in April found that more than half of Americans (51%) support the legalization of marijuana, with 44 percent opposed.
