Quotes about marijuana

A collection of quotes on the topic of marijuana, drug, people, use.

Best quotes about marijuana

Arnold Schwarzenegger photo

“Marijuana… That's not a drug, that's a plant.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947) actor, businessman and politician of Austrian-American heritage
Allen Ginsberg photo

“I smoke marijuana every chance I get.”

Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997) American poet

America (1956)

Josh Homme photo

“Nicotine, valium, vicodin, marijuana, ecstasy and alcohol.”

Josh Homme (1973) American musician

"Feel Good Hit of the Summer", Rated R (2000)
Lyrics, Queens of the Stone Age

Quotes about marijuana

Noam Chomsky photo
Patrick Buchanan photo
Steve Martin photo
Frank Zappa photo
Ronald Reagan photo

“The smoke from burning marijuana contains many more cancer-causing substances than tobacco.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

Taped statement (August 1979); Reagan is on record as opposing legalization of Marijuana: "I also want to applaud you for helping the people of Oregon fight a misguided minority that would legalize marijuana. That would be the worst possible message to send to our young people." Speech http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/073086a.htm (30 July 1986); Reagan's son Michael has disputed the fervor of his opposition: "Of course Dad was for legalization. … He wasn't crazy, he didn't want his kids in jail!"
"Reagan's Marijuana Comments Cause Stir" (11 May 2002) http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/5/11/12343.shtml
1970s
Context: The smoke from burning marijuana contains many more cancer-causing substances than tobacco. And if that isn’t enough it leads to bronchitis and emphysema. If adults want to take such chances that is their business. But surely the communications media … should let four million youngsters know what they are risking.

Norman Mailer photo

“One's condition on marijuana is always existential. One can feel the importance of each moment and how it is changing one.”

Norman Mailer (1923–2007) American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, film maker, actor and political candidate

Interview in Writers at Work Third Series (1967) edited by George Plimpton
Context: One's condition on marijuana is always existential. One can feel the importance of each moment and how it is changing one. One feels one's being, one becomes aware of the enormous apparatus of nothingness — the hum of a hi-fi set, the emptiness of a pointless interruption, one becomes aware of the war between each of us, how the nothingness in each of us seeks to attack the being of others, how our being in turn is attacked by the nothingness in others.

Teal Swan photo
Jimmy Carter photo

“Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use.”

Jimmy Carter (1924) American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981)

Message to Congress (2 August 1977)
Presidency (1977–1981), 1977

Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie photo
Bill Hicks photo
Bernie Sanders photo

“People can argue about the pluses and minuses of marijuana, but everyone knows it’s not a killer drug like heroin.”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

Twitter (11 August 2016) https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/763746712334852096, quoted in * 2016-08-11 Sanders joins Democrats criticizing DEA for marijuana decision David Weigel Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/08/11/sanders-joins-democrats-criticizing-dea-for-marijuana-decision/
2010s, 2016

Jack Herer photo
Merle Haggard photo

“I'm not a criminal. I did nothing wrong. I was helping my kids. We desperately need medical marijuana in this country..”

Brownie Mary (1922–1999) American medical cannabis activist

Herscher, E. (1992, August 5). "'Brownie Mary' Is Cheered During Testimony at City Hall". San Francisco Chronicle, p. A1.

John Fante photo
Jerzy Vetulani photo
Jesse Ventura photo
John Ehrlichman photo
Phil Brooks photo

“So all you people here, despite evidence to the contrary, still choose to support a man that for all intents and purposes can't even support himself? OK, OK, so if you're a Jeff Hardy fan, if you're wearing a Jeff Hardy t-shirt, if you're wearing one of his diabolical little handsleeves, God forbid if you have your face painted, I want to see you stand up right now. I want to hear you make some noise! Go ahead, if you love and support Jeff Hardy, let the world know! (Crowd cheers, stands up.) Cameraman, cameraman get a good shot, get a real good shot at all these people. The truth is ladies and gentlemen, I don't blame you. I don't blame anybody here for supporting Jeff Hardy. The people I blame, are their parents. Or let's be realistic here, I said parents, what I should have said was parent. Because it's obviously a single parent situation, just like the way Jeff Hardy grew up. See you people are so concerned with the relationship with your children failing, just like your marriage did, that you acquiesce to their every whim and their every desire. I hate to tell you, this doesn't make you a good parent, Philadelphia, it makes you an enabler. (Crowd boos. Starts chanting for Hardy.) And the fact that you even let your children look up to a guy like Jeff Hardy, just shows that you really don't care what happens to them to begin with. It's a sad situation. So I don't blame anybody here or sitting at home watching this, that supports Jeff Hardy if they're under 17, because they're young and they're, well, they're impressionable. The real problem lies with the parents, it's the parents who don't make a conscious effort to sit their children down and teach them the proper way to live! (Crowd boos.) You see it starts with a Jeff Hardy t-shirt, next thing you know they're smoking a pack of cigarettes, after that, they're drinking a bottle of beer. Right after that they move on to shots of Jack Daniels, which is a gateway drug for marijuana…(Crowd pops for marijuana.) And the fact that you people sit here and cheer that goes to show that I'm telling the truth! How about some old fashioned street drugs? And before you know it they're digging through Mom's purse because they're addicted, they're addicted to prescription medication. (Crowd cheers, Punk mouths,"That's not cool!" to fans.) All of this can be stopped before it's too late! Parents, all you have to do is talk to your children. Sit them down and show them the way, tell them the words that can save their lives, show them that sometimes it's what you don't do that makes you who you are! For weeks, for weeks I've been saying to people like you, just say no. But today I think we should just say yes. Yes to the future of a straight edge, drug free America! Just say yes to the winner of tonight's match, just say yes, to the World Heavyweight Champion! Thank you!”

Phil Brooks (1978) American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist

At Night of Champions 2009
Friday Night SmackDown

Phil Ochs photo

“Smoking marijuana is more fun than drinking beer,
But a friend of ours was captured and they gave him thirty years
Maybe we should raise our voices, ask somebody why
But demonstrations are a drag, besides we're much too high.”

Phil Ochs (1940–1976) American protest singer and songwriter

"Outside Of A Small Circle Of Friends" http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~trent/ochs/lyrics/small-circle-of-friends.html
Pleasures of the Harbor (1967)

Bill Maher photo
Harry Browne photo
Stephen King photo
Philipp Meyer photo
William F. Buckley Jr. photo
Bette Davis photo
Willie Nelson photo

“Marijuana is like sex. If I don't do it every day, I get a headache. I think marijuana should be recognized for what it is, as a medicine, an herb that grows in the ground. If you need it, use it.”

Willie Nelson (1933) American country music singer-songwriter.

[Nelson, Willie; Bud Shrake; Edwin Shrake, 2000, Willie: An Autobiography, Cooper Square Press, 197]

Jesse Ventura photo
Gary Johnson photo

“Most marijuana smokers are colored people, jazz musicians, and entertainers. Their satanic music is driven by marijuana, and marijuana smoking by white women makes them want to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and others. It is a drug that causes insanity, criminality, and death — the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”

Harry J. Anslinger (1892–1975) 1st Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics

As quoted in Legalizing Marijuana : Drug Policy Reform and Prohibition Politics‎ (2004) by Rudolph Joseph Gerber, p. 9; also in Hawking Hits on the Information Highway : The Challenge of Online Drug Sales for Law Enforcement (2008) by Laura L. Finley , p. 28, and "The Emperor Wears No Clothes: The Authoritative Historical Record of Cannabis and the Conspiracy Against Marijuana" (1994) by Jack Herer, Jeanie Cabarga, and Jeanie Herer, p. 29.
Disputed

Robin Williams photo
Bill Hicks photo

“Marijuana: a drug that kills … no one – and let's put it in a time frame – ever. Illegal.”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

Salvation (2005)

Michael Savage photo

“I intend to make this day forward the first day of the rest of my life. We can change our lives. You say, 'Well, what's wrong with your life, Michael?' Well, it's not that there's anything wrong with my life, but it's not what I want it to be. I don't feel that I'm inspiring people in the way I want to inspire them. You see, you can inspire through hate; you can inspire through love, hope, humor – the positives. I look at the history of the world, and I look at the world today, and I realize that if we don't inspire each other through positive attributes – love, hope and humor – we're gonna descend into the barbarism of the Left and the barbarism of ISIS. You like me to be hard, you like me to be tough, you like me to give you the breaking news, you like me to be cynical, you like me to analytical, you like me to give you stuff that you don't hear anywhere else – I get that. But there's a limit to that. There's a lot of area beyond all that.I think of Christmas. Christianity is the religion of peace. Christianity is the true religion of peace. 'Turn the other cheek.' 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' These are messages that come from Christianity. What can you do in an age of deceit and lies and terror? You can go to church again. However un-needing you think you really are, you know in your heart that there's something missing in you. You know that you crave something greater. Because the human being is not a dog. We are unique creatures. And we need something different than the bear, the dog, the snake and the eagle. What is that thing that we need? It's that 'thing' called God.The media has promulgated the idea, and promoted the idea, that we only need food and fornication. And so when people are empty that's what they seek. And when they are really empty, what happens? They become drug addicts. They start with marijuana, they end up with heroin, crack, you name it. As God has been driven out of America, drugs have entered America. What does an empty soul look to do? An empty soul looks to fill itself. Just as an empty vessel needs to be filled with a liquid to be complete, an empty human being needs to fill itself to be complete. And how does it fill itself? I know, again, many of you will laugh because you're cynical; it's through those things I'm talking about – inspiration. Do you think a musician can play one day without inspiration from somewhere? The greatest artists in the history of the world were not drug-addicts. They were usually God-addicts. Look at the greatest art in history, you'll find most of them were super religious people, who literally saw God in their living room, and they took the power of God and that was transmitted through the paintbrush, or through that piece of marble. How could a man like Rodin take a piece of inert stone, and inside that stone see the essence of the human form, and sculpt from that block of inert stone, a marble, the portrait of a human being that looks so real – a hundred years later I go and look at them in the museum, and literally inside that carved eye I can see the person; how is that possible? How? It's a different show than I've ever done in my 21 years, because each day to me – I must tell you – I see as my last day, my last day on Earth.”

Michael Savage (1942) U.S. radio talk show host, Commentator, and Author

The Savage Nation (1995- ), 2015

Michael Savage photo
Michael Savage photo
Jared Polis photo

“Boulder Rep. Jared Polis is something of a hero to the medical marijuana industry, but recently he took on another fight: the battle against the Stop Online Piracy Act.”

Jared Polis (1975) American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and US Representative

www.csindy.com, Colorado Springs Independent, January 19, 2012, Congressman fights SOPA with porn, Bryce Crawford http://www.csindy.com/IndyBlog/archives/2012/01/19/congressman-fights-sopa-with-porn,
About

John Fante photo
Merle Haggard photo

“We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee
We don’t take our trips on LSD
We don’t burn our draft cards down on Main Street
We like living right and being free.”

Merle Haggard (1937–2016) American country music song writer, singer and musician

"Okie from Muskogee" (September 1969), co-written with Roy Edward Burris; the title track of Okie from Muskogee (October 1969) · 1969 performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iYY2FQHFwE · 2009 performance with Willie Nelson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4AgZST_TG8

David Sedaris photo
Mo Brooks photo
Bill Clinton photo

“When I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two -- and didn't like it -- and didn't inhale and never tried inhaling again.”

Bill Clinton (1946) 42nd President of the United States

Television interview (March 1992), quoted in the New York Times (31 March 1992) realone audio file http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/RANCHO/POLITICS/ididntinhale.rm
1990s

James Carville photo

“I didn’t just experiment with marijuana — if you know what I mean.”

James Carville (1944) political writer, consultant and United States Marine

In a speech to LSU students at the Manship School of Communications' Holliday Forum on January 27, 2006.

Amy Poehler photo
Noam Chomsky photo

“If the principle is, "Let's not get lethal substances out to the public", the first one you'd go after is tobacco. The next one you'd go after is alcohol. Way down the list you'd get to cocaine, and sort of invisibly low you'd get to marijuana.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Dialogue with trade unionists, February 2, 1999 https://web.archive.org/web/20051226071614/http://zpedia.org/Chomsky_on_pot.
Quotes 1990s, 1995-1999

William F. Buckley Jr. photo
Kent Hovind photo

“God's commandments are not grievous. God put them in the garden, said "You can eat of any tree except that one tree, The Knowledge of Good and Evil." It's real simple, Adam. Enjoy the garden, have lots of kids, and don't learn about evil. […] Parents, don't teach your kids about all the evil things. Don't have drug education classes where you show them, "Hey, this is marijuana. This is how you smoke it. Now don't you do that." Duh. Don't put them in sex ed classes in seventh grade, it's a plumbing class at that time. Don't do that, okay? Let them be ignorant. Let them learn it from mom and dad, not from some heathen, okay? It's real simple Adam. Enjoy the world and have lots of kids and don't learn about evil. Don't learn all that stuff. The Lord said, "Hey, have you eaten off that tree I told you not to eat from?" God is not asking for information. He's asking for a confession. And the man said, "The woman (he passed the buck) whom thou gavest to be with me. Now God, this is really your fault, you know. If you hadn't given her to me I wouldn't have this problem." He said to the woman, "Have you done this?" She said, "Well, the snake that you made…." We still do the same thing, nothing changes, okay? Fear God, keep his commandments. Just like the taking of life is very important in any culture. Murder is serious. Giving life is important. That's why God put certain rules down for reproduction, okay? Follow his rules. "Thou shalt not commit adultery. Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." Don't even look and lust or you've committed adultery already in your heart. By the way, ladies, that's why it's important how you dress, okay? My daddy always said, "If you're not in business, don't advertise."”

Kent Hovind (1953) American young Earth creationist

Women should dress in modest apparel. That's what the Bible says, alright.
Creation seminars (2003-2005), The dangers of evolution

Bob Barr photo

“There is no legitimate use whatsoever for marijuana. This is not medicine. This is bogus witchcraft. It has no place in medicine, no place in pain relief…”

Bob Barr (1948) Republican and Libertarian politician

"Drug War Chronicle" (17 May 2002), as quoted in "Barr Booed for Anti-Pot Remarks in Home District Event" http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/237/barrbooed.shtml.
2000s, 2002

Tathagata Satpathy photo

“In the villages of my constituency, old people, venerable people used to smoke marijuana. Today, by imposing ban on natural substances, which people have been using for ages, from the time of Shiva, we have actually forced a lot of these people to move on to alcohol.”

Tathagata Satpathy (1956) Indian politician

Criticising the ban on marijuana, as quoted in " Tathagata Satpathy: the MP who doesn't mind stirring the pot http://www.business-standard.com/article/specials/tathagata-satpathy-the-mp-who-doesn-t-mind-stirring-the-pot-115121800318_1.html" Business Standard (19 December 2015)

Jerzy Vetulani photo

“They can't drop the charges without saying I haven't done anything wrong. And if they do that, I'm going to ask for my marijuana back.”

Brownie Mary (1922–1999) American medical cannabis activist

As quoted in Torgoff, Martin (2005). Can't Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945-2000. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0743230116. p. 443.

Nick Diaz photo

“My fight career has gotten in the way of my marijuana smoking”

Nick Diaz (1983) American mixed martial artist

Diaz was asked whether his pot smoking was getting in the way of his fight career after testing positive for marijuana in a post UFC 143 drug test. Diaz was on a 5-year suspention, which was later reduced to 18 months (2012)

Michael Chabon photo
Mark Pesce photo
Richard Nixon photo

“You know, it's a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana are Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob? What is the matter with them? I suppose it is because most of them are psychiatrists.”

Richard Nixon (1913–1994) 37th President of the United States of America

Statement (26 May 1971) as quoted in Newsweek (27 May 2004) http://web.archive.org/web/20060614124156/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5079259/site/newsweek/
1970s

Jesse Ventura photo
Larry Sharpe photo
Ann Druyan photo
Jesse Ventura photo
Mike Huckabee photo

“I think there were a lot of Christian people who simply stayed home for reasons that I can't figure out. But I think every time we lose major elections or major issues like the same-sex marriage issue or the marijuana issue, it's because Christians just didn't show up and vote.I lay the blame though at the feet of those who sit faithfully in church each Sunday; they probably heard their pastor talk about the importance of this election and how so much was on the line, and yet maybe because they just didn't want to bother with having to stand in line at an election polling place, they just didn't go vote. And we're going to pay dearly for that.If I were Cardinal Dolan or any of the Catholic bishops or priests, I would certainly be very frustrated and discouraged and wonder why aren't they understanding that if they join a church and belong to it, why would they not respect its teachings as having validity. It's one thing to say "well, I can't agree with everything" although I'm not sure why you'd join a church if you dismiss it. But to be openly contemptuous of its teaching and doctrine, it's something I can't understand.”

Mike Huckabee (1955) Arkansas politician

Focus on the Family radio program http://www.focusonthefamily.com/radio.aspx?ID={D560C7FD-E01C-4B76-845E-9B5C2FCD3A34}, , quoted in [2012-11-08, Huckabee: Any Time We Lose 'It's Because Christians Just Didn't Show Up and Vote', Kyle, Mantyla, Right Wing Watch, http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/huckabee-any-time-we-lose-its-because-christians-just-didnt-show-and-vote, 2012-11-09]

Dana Rohrabacher photo

“The American people, through the 35 states that have liberalized laws banning either medical marijuana, marijuana in general, or cannabinoid oils, have made it clear that federal enforcers should stay out of their personal lives. It’s time for restraint of the federal government’s over-aggressive weed warriors.”

Dana Rohrabacher (1947) American politician

"O.C. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher trying again with bill protecting state marijuana laws", The Orange County Register http://www.ocregister.com/articles/rohrabacher-659189-laws-state.html (April 23, 2015)

Bill O'Neill photo
Anthony Burgess photo

“I remember an old proverb. It says that youth thinks itself wise just as drunk men think themselves sober. Youth is not wise! Youth knows nothing about life! Youth knows nothing about anything except for massive cliches which for the most part through the media of pop songs are just foisted on them by middle-age entrepreneurs and exploiters who should know better. When we start thinking that pop music is close to God, then we'll think pop music is aesthetically better than it is. And it's only the aesthetic value of pop music that we're really concerned. I mean the only way we can judge Wagner or Beethoven or any other composer is aesthetically. We don't regard Wagner or Beethoven nor Shakespeare or Milton as great teachers. When we start claiming for Lennon or McCartney or Maharishi or any other of these pop prophets the ability to transport us to a region where God becomes manifest then I see red. We're satisfied with our little long playing record, ten pop numbers or thereabouts a side. This is great art, we've been told this by the great pundits of our age. And in consequence why should we bother to learn? There's nothing more delightful than to be told: "You don't have to learn, my boy. There's nothing in it. Modern art? There's nothing in it." When you're told these things you sit down with a sigh of relief: "Thank God I don't have to learn, I don't have to travel, I don't have to exert myself in the slightest. I am what I am. Youth is youth. Pop is pop. There's no need to progress. There's no need to do anything. Let us sit down, smoke our marijuana (an admirable thing in itself but not the end of anything), let us listen to our records and life has become a single moment. And the single moment is eternity. We're with God. Finis!”

Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) English writer

Pop Music

Gary Johnson photo
Ethan Nadelmann photo
Luboš Motl photo

“Your humble correspondent realizes that many readers are left-wing, anti-string-theory fighters. So they probably smoke marijuana and this is my modest attempt to help them.”

Luboš Motl (1973) Czech physicist and translator

http://motls.blogspot.com/2007/06/marijuana-creates-holes-in-lungs.html
The Reference Frame http://motls.blogspot.com/

Michael Chabon photo
Hugh Downs photo
Bill Bailey photo
P. J. O'Rourke photo
Meher Baba photo

“Tell those who indulge in these drugs (LSD, marijuana, and other types) that it is harmful physically, mentally and spiritually, and that they should stop the taking of these drugs.”

Meher Baba (1894–1969) Indian mystic

To Robert Dreyfuss in 1964, p. 6403.
Lord Meher (1986)
Context: Tell those who indulge in these drugs (LSD, marijuana, and other types) that it is harmful physically, mentally and spiritually, and that they should stop the taking of these drugs. Your duty is to tell them, regardless of whether they accept what you say, or if they ridicule or humiliate you, to boldly and bravely face these things.

Bill Bailey photo

“Marijuana? It's harmless really, unless you fashion it into a club and beat somebody over the head with it.
'Beards' (track 12) 5:29”

Bill Bailey (1965) English comedian, musician, actor, TV and radio presenter and author

Bewilderness: New York (audio CD, 2002)

Virgil Miller Newton photo
Tom Robbins photo

“Except in the areas of civil rights and medical marijuana, the legacy of the sixties counterculture has been largely superficial.”

Tom Robbins (1932) American writer

The Syntax of Sorcery (2012)
Context: Except in the areas of civil rights and medical marijuana, the legacy of the sixties counterculture has been largely superficial. Still, though the light has dimmed and gone underground, something in me would like to think the sixties phenomenon was a dress rehearsal for a grander, wider leap in consciousness yet to come. However, since Seafood Kabob is likely to win the Belmont Stakes before a psychic jailbreak of that magnitude materializes, my strategy is to try to live as if that day were already here.

P. J. O'Rourke photo

“Marijuana is […] self-punishing. It makes you acutely sensitive and in this world, what worse punishment could there be?”

P. J. O'Rourke (1947) American journalist

Rolling Stone (November 1989), as cited in The Yale Book of Quotations https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0300107986, ed. Fred Shapiro, Yale University Press (2006), p. 567

Eldridge Cleaver photo
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez photo

“A few more ways to gain traction: - Support a Federal Jobs Guarantee, - Bailout Student Debt, - Legalize Marijuana & Explore Reparations, Baby Bonds. Here’s our Student Loan Cancellation Digital Town Hall…”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (1989) American politician

Twitter post, https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1080310857161232384 (1 January 2019)
Twitter Quotes (2019), January 2019

James P. Gray photo
James P. Gray photo
James P. Gray photo

“The most widely used 'illegal' drug is marijuana, yet, by every measure, it is much less harmful than alcohol or tobacco. In my 30 adult years, this gross injustice has turned me very cynical toward the government.”

James P. Gray (1945) American judge

“Transcript of Judge James P. Gray's Visit to the Drug Policy Forum,” The New York Times, (June 14, 2001) https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/14/national/transcript-of-judge-james-p-grays-visit-to-the-drug-policy-forum.html

James P. Gray photo

“The war on drugs has done considerable damage to the fourth amendment and that something is very wrong indeed when a person gets a longer sentence for marijuana than for espionage.”

James P. Gray (1945) American judge

Arnold S. Trebach, Fatal Distraction: The War on Drugs in the Age of Islamic Terrorism, Bloomington, Indiana, Unlimited Publishing LLC (2006) p. 74

Noam Chomsky photo
Bill Hicks photo
Bill Maher photo