Justice

Morgan Freeman Just Made a Brilliant Defense of Marijuana

May 6th 2015

The man behind America's favorite voice has lots to say about the benefits of marijuana. Academy Award winning actor Morgan Freeman says marijuana has been a big help following a major car accident he got into seven years ago.

“They used to say, ‘You smoke that stuff, boy, you get hooked!” Freeman said in a new interview with the Daily Beast. “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!"

Regarding the legalization of pot in the U.S., Freeman said the "movement is really a long time coming, and it’s getting legs—longer legs," adding that the next step is fully understanding the negative impact of alcohol.

"Now, the thrust is understanding that alcohol has no real medicinal use," He continued. "Maybe if you have one drink it’ll quiet you down, but two or three and you’re fucked."

Recently the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation published a study revealing a 17.5 percent spike in binge drinking among women between 2005 and 2012. The research found a 4.9 percent increase in binge drinking among men in that same time frame. Following the report, writer Jessica Valenti suggested certain women swap booze for marijuana as a means to unwind and de-stress. Though many people enjoy relaxing with a drink, its health effects are far scarier. Earlier this year, findings from Scientific Reports showed alcohol is 114 times more dangerous than marijuana.

Freeman also states that he has been helped medicinally by marijuana.

“Marijuana has many useful uses,” Freeman told the publication. “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!’”

Marijuana not only provides relief for physical conditions, but can ease the effects of mental illness, according to research from the University of Buffalo Institute on Addictions. Researchers found that THC, an active compound in weed, could boost the moods of users and help fight depression.

“Using compounds derived from cannabis – marijuana – to restore normal endocannabinoid function could potentially help stabilize moods and ease depression,” Dr. Samir Haj-Dahmane, the study’s lead researcher, said in a release. “Using compounds derived from cannabis — marijuana — to restore normal endocannabinoid function could potentially help stabilize moods and ease depression.”

Though some argue that marijuana leads users to more dangerous substances, the "gateway" drug theory was debunked in 1999 when the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences published research that found "[t]here is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs."


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