The Chronicle's All Time Top 20 Favorite Quotes About Marijuana

 20. Author Stephen King has always been ahead of his time when it comes to his outlandish Sci-Fi and horror novels, but it seems he’s ahead of the times when it comes to marijuana too:

"I think that marijuana should not only be legal, I think it should be a cottage industry. It would be wonderful for the state of Maine. There's some pretty good homegrown dope. I'm sure it would be even better if you could grow it with fertilizers and have greenhouses."

- Stephen King

 

19. 'Friends' star Jennifer Aniston comes in at #19 just because she had the balls to publicly say this:

"I enjoy smoking cannabis and see no harm in it".

- Jennifer Aniston

18. Politician William F. Buckley Jr. was telling the truth about marijuana way back in the 50s. Why didn’t anyone listen?

"Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could."

- William F. Buckley Jr

17. Who says weed makes you lazy? Even professional athletes enjoy a good toke some times. Take it from pro-baseballer Bill Lee:

"Smoking's a way to let you down slowly from a ballgame. It also makes you use less of the resources around. It makes people better in the way they act towards society. Everybody's nicer. It's hard to be mean when you're stoned."

-Bill Lee

16. Hemp has the power to save the world. It can replace oil, plastic, paper, wood and many other toxic and harmful substances and people knew this even 100 years ago, namely assembly line inventor Henry Ford:

"Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?"

-  Henry Ford quote on Marijuana

15. Tonight Show host Jay Leno may be a complete douchebag, but he did make at least one funny joke:

"Forty million Americans smoked marijuana; the only ones who didn't like it were Judge Ginsberg, Clarence Thomas and Bill Clinton."

- Jay Leno

14. Oh, Barack. We all know you used to smoke weed. And you liked it didn’t you? You know there’s nothing wrong with it, so legalize it already! What are you waiting for?

"When I was a kid I inhaled frequently. That was the point."

- Barack Obama

13. Whatever happened to following the sage advice of our benevolent Founding Fathers? They were some pretty wise dudes and we should listen to them more often:

"Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country."

- Thomas Jefferson

12. I love Arnold’s quote because it is the truth, put very simply. All I want to know is, why didn’t he fight for full legalization in CA when he had the chance? Pressure from above I suspect.

"That is not a drug. It’s a leaf."

- Arnold Schwarzenegger

11. Terence McKenna’s quote struck home with me. How dare they call this the ‘land of the free’ when I’m not allowed to smoke a joint in the privacy of my own home?:

"If the words "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" don't include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn't worth the hemp it was written on."

-  Terence McKenna

10. Willie Nelson once smoked a joint while sitting on top of the White House. He’s the coolest motherfucker ever. Period. End of argument. He also has the balls to tell the truth about marijuana:

“The biggest killer on the planet is stress and I still think the best medicine is and always has been cannabis.” 

-Willie Nelson

9. The late comedian Bill Hicks was always able to make people see the truth about marijuana prohibition and make them laugh at the same time:

“Why is marijuana against the law? It grows naturally upon our planet. Doesn't the idea of making nature against the law seem to you a bit . . . unnatural?”

 - Bill Hicks

8. Comedian Steve Martin lets us in on his toking schedule. Sounds a lot like mine!:

"I used to smoke marijuana. But I'll tell you something: I would only smoke it in the late evening. Oh, occasionally the early evening, but usually the late evening - or the mid-evening. Just the early evening, mid-evening and late evening. Occasionally, early afternoon, early mid-afternoon, or perhaps the late-mid-afternoon. Oh, sometimes the early-mid-late-early morning. . . . ...But never at dusk." 

-Steve Martin

7. No matter what the prohibitionists say, all of the founding fathers were down with the herb. If you don’t believe me read if for yourself, straight from the diary of George Washington:

"Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere."

- George Washington

6. Jazz musician Louis Armstrong created some of the greatest tunes in the history of music and he was probably high as fuck the whole time. How else could he do it?:

"It really puzzles me to see marijuana connected with narcotics . . . dope and all that crap. It's a thousand times better than whiskey - it's an assistant - a friend."

-  Louis Armstrong

5. Can marijuana save the world? Well, according to world-famous astro-physicist Carl Sagan, it couldn’t hurt:

“The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world."

-  Carl Sagan

4. It’s no secret that counter culture icon Hunter S. Thompson enjoyed his drugs, but did you know he considered marijuana a ‘basic staple of life’? I couldn’t agree more:

"I have always loved marijuana. It has been a source of joy and comfort to me for many years. And I still think of it as a basic staple of life, along with beer and ice and grapefruits -and millions of Americans agree with me."

- Hunter S. Thompson

3. Our next quote comes from author and TV personality Richard Neville. Neville famously aroused controversy in the 1980s when he smoked weed on camera to test it’s affect on his driving skills as part of the Australian TV show ‘Midday Show’. Neville’s quote hit’s the nail on the head:

“Is marijuana addictive? Yes, in the sense that most of the really pleasant things in life are worth endlessly repeating.”

-Richard Neville

2. Willie Nelson kicks so much ass we had to give him two spots on our list. Willie’s quote highlights the essential hypocrisy of outlawing a part of nature:

“I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?” 

-Willie Nelson

1. And our number one all-time favorite quote about marijuana comes from the man himself, reggae legend Bob Marley. Marley was always a staunch purveyor of the spiritual side of ganja and was able to sum up the complete essence of what it means to be a pot smoker in one short, beautiful, elegant sentence:

“When you smoke the herb, it reveals you to yourself.”

-Bob Marley