Jorge

PUBLIC
PEOPLE
ON
POT
BY MOLLY CATE
Photo of Willie Nelson by James Minchin
Photo of Woody Harrelson by Link Kingsman
Every movement needs its public champions, and the
legalization effort is no different.
Leaders from within the cannabis community have spoken
through the organization NORML (National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) and magazines like High
Times. Jack Herer and Ed Rosenthal were among many who
spoke of common sense and liberty, but were not well-known.
Since the turn of the 21st century, cannabis has become a
full-fledged social movement with the rise of our own public
champions.
We still have lots of friends in the entertainment world -- the
indomitable Willie Nelson, the late Bob Marley (for whom
it was a sacrament) and Woody Harrelson come to mind. A
nifty list of the “50 Most Influential Marijuana Consumers”
compiled by the Marijuana Policy Project adds more; Whoopi
Goldberg, George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, Rihanna, Rush
Limbaugh, Martha Stewart, Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, and
Lady Gaga to name but a few. The MPP list also includes
quite a few people from the world of politics -- Presidents
Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, eight 2016
presidential candidates, plus Supreme Court nominee
Clarence Thomas and Secretary of State John Kerry.
Legalization backer and businessman George Soros
is there, though not the outspoken Richard
Branson, founder of Virgin.
Except for Bill Gates, luminaries from
science and technology are missing
from that MPP list. A 2011 Coed.
com list called “The 10 Smartest
Pot Smokers on the Planet…
Cool Enough to Admit
It” fills the gap. Here
you’ll see Apple
co-founder
Steve Jobs,
astrophysicist Carl Sagan, biologist
Stephen Jay Gould, anthropologist
Margaret Mead, Nobel Prize winner
(for the discovery of the DNA
molecule) Francis Crick,
quantum physicist Richard
Feynman, and neurologist
Oliver Sachs. Demon
weed definitely didn’t
ruin their lives!
In fact, several
of these
brilliantly
29 | Emerald | July 2016