Woody Harrelson and pot go together like bong and blitz, Kim and Kanye, or pot and pan. The 55-year-old actor hasn’t been without his bong for decades, and it’s almost unthinkable that he could give it up, but that’s exactly what’s happening. After a lifetime of pro-marijuana activism and an attitude that makes Harrelson nearly always “seem like he’s stoned,” CTV News reports that Woody and his weed are parting ways.
Only a year ago, Harrelson’s medical marijuana dispensary application in Hawaii hit a roadblock, according to the Los Angeles Times . The Wilson actor pushed hard to make the medical marijuana center happen, but he couldn’t get through all the red tape. It can’t be a coincidence that it’s also just about a year since Woody’s been stoned.
It’s hard to believe about a guy who still appears to wander through life grinning goofily, takes part in an interview while lying on his king-sized bed stretching, and generally fits the stoner stereotype like he was born to it.
The Vulture interviewed Harrelson about his upcoming film Wilson and writes that throughout the interview, Woody “spoke in between long pauses, stretching his words like taffy and squinting his eyes to ponder each point he made.”
In other words, Woody behaved exactly the way he always has and gave every sign that he was still a perfect pot smoker. Who knew that for all these years, it wasn’t Harrelson on pot ; it was just the man himself?
When asked what people get wrong about him, Harrelson said it’s the idea he’s a party animal.
After a moment, he admitted, “I am a party animal.”
The actor went on to explain that he’s decided to slow down on the party of his life that involves pot-smoking and partying.
“I’m now extremely moderate and… I actually stopped smoking pot almost a year ago.”
Okay, it’s not quite as incomprehensible as, say, Bob Marley quitting pot, but when Woody Harrelson quits pot, it’s a change that shakes things up in the marijuana legalization world.
Woody Harrelson tried to open a medical marijuana dispensary last year and is a long-time advocate for legalizing marijuana.
Harrelson explained that pot just wasn’t working well for him anymore. Woody agreed with the Vulture writer that pot “messes with my head and makes me less productive.” It can be a good break and a positive way to handle stress, but overuse of the super-strong strains of marijuana today’s growers are providing can indeed get in the way of accomplishing anything.
“Yeah, that was a little bit of my issue. Just 30 solid years of just partying too…hard.”
Harrelson emphasized that he doesn’t “have a problem at all with smoking.” He said he thinks pot is a “great drug” that doesn’t lead to the negative side effects of dark, violent, and angry feelings so often associated with recreational drugs.
Pot smokers are far more likely to feel euphoria, and medical marijuana seems to be incredibly efficacious at treating a wide variety of ailments, including chronic pain and insomnia.
The problem Woody has with pot is constant use. For many people, moderation just doesn’t happen that easily. Harrelson had a hard time coming up with the right words to describe the effect of pot overuse, but he said that “when you’re doing it all the time, it just becomes … Well, you know.”
Eventually, Woody explained what was bothering him about his decades of using pot all the time, every day, without limits.
“I feel like it was keeping me from being emotionally available.”
What do you think of legalizing marijuana? Should Woody Harrelson keep fighting to legalize marijuana even though he quit pot?
[Featured Image by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images]
