When it comes to marijuana, there are both pros and cons to its usage, many of which we all know. It’s why many governments around the world are beginning to make their stance on it known.
On the one hand, there are the medicinal benefits to the substance. On the other, there are the addictive tendencies to it which have seen many people seeking rehab for weed addiction, including a number of celebrities.
Many celebrities have taken the stance of pro-cannabis down the years, many of which have even given it up since. But who are the celebrities that were previous users but have decided to remove that element of their lifestyle?
Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney has long been an advocate of cannabis usage and was a keen consumer of it since the mid-1960s when he was first introduced to it by Bob Dylan. The Beatles spoke about the substance on a number of occasions and much of their music will certainly have been influenced by it, with long evenings in the studio.
However, Macca called time on his usage of marijuana after becoming a father in his 70s, in which he thought he should remain sober, of which he has been ever since.
Robert Downey Jr.
You’d lose count of the amount of drugs Robert Downey Jr. has taken down the years and marijuana was certainly one of them. He got into a lot of trouble in his younger days and his consumption of the drug and relationship with it was certainly an unhealthy one.
However, after periods in rehab he has completely turned his life around and become one of Hollywood’s richest and most in demand actors. To this day he’s starring in plenty of huge box office hits, most notably Iron Man in the Iron Man and Avengers movies. What’s more, he’s also on his way to playing Sherlock Holmes for a third time as his career continues to blossom.
Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt was long known as a stoner by the Hollywood elite, and he’s even shared spliffs with many of his fellow actors, including George Clooney. However, he eventually decided enough was enough after his relationship with cannabis was just too unhealthy. The Bullet Train actor said: “I was doing the same thing every night and numbing myself to sleep—the same routine: Couldn’t wait to get home and hide out.”
It was at that point he gave up the drug and concentrated further on his acting, which to this day is still going from strength to strength.
Lady Gaga
The press have always been on Lady Gaga’s back, but her career has never suffered because of it. The New Yorker burst onto the scene with songs like Just Dance and Poker Face and she’s followed them up to be one of the biggest stars on the planet.
Now making her name in the movie business too, in films such as A Star Is Born and House of Gucci, her career is among the most intriguing and exciting in the business. However, that may not have been if she hadn’t recovered from weed addiction.
In 2013 she revealed she had suffered from addiction to the substance, smoking up to 15 joints a day. Initially using cannabis to ease the pain of a hip industry, she said, “I was just numbing, numbing, numbing myself then sleeping it off, then getting on stage, killing it in pain, then getting off and smoking, smoking, smoking, not knowing what the pain was.”
To combat the abuse, she checked herself into a rehab centre, and today she’s never felt better.
Mark Wahlberg
We’ve all seen Mark Wahlberg’s crazy daily schedule, and nowhere to be seen is marijuana. That’s because he gave up the substance over 10 years ago after previously smoking it on a daily basis.
His decision came after an observation from his daughter, with him claiming he decided to kick cannabis to the curb following something she said. He told the story that they were driving down the road and you could smell the substance from somewhere. Asking what it was, Wahlberg replied it was “skunk”. Replying to her father and Wahlberg’s wife, she said, “Sometimes Daddy smells like that.”
It was at that point Wahlberg knew he had to give it up, and did so.
Today, Wahlberg is still acting in huge movies, as well as running a successful burger joint chain, Wahlburgers, with the running also transformed into a reality TV show.
