I’m 37 years old and I’ve never smoked pot. Believe me, this isn’t the result of some Nancy Reagan pledge I took in the eighth grade. I just refuse to utilize any substance that makes me have the munchies more than I do every day in my unaltered state.
A Pair of Dicks movie director Kevin Smith — you may remember that he’s the one Jennifer Garner hated — was never much of a stoner. That is, until he hung out with Seth Rogen last summer. Now he’s doling out advice to our leaders of tomorrow that basically translates to: “Smoke!”
The king of stoner moviemakers, Kevin Smith, never really smoked much marijuana until Seth Rogen talked him into it last summer, he says. Now he sparks up at least three times a day and credits pot for helping him to dig his way out of a creative slump.
Not the sort of advice responsible parents, doctors or educators are likely to embrace, Smith told The Post’s Don Kaplan, “I know you’re supposed to tell kids not to do drugs, but, kids, do it! Do weed! Don’t do the other stuff, but weed is good . . . What you want to do is what I did, build a movie empire and, at age 38, smoke it all away.
…Now, thanks to a steady diet of marijuana, Smith says he’s moved on to greener pastures — writing a new “Batman” comic and directing films he didn’t write, including the upcoming cop buddy flick, “A Pair of Dicks,” with Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. Smith says he’s “just not good” at directing his own stories anymore: “Judd Apatow is way better at being Kevin Smith now than Kevin Smith ever was. So Judd Apatow should do it for a while, and I should figure out something else, and weed has been [bleeping] helpful with that.”
Shit, I’ve been missing out on so much potential creativity by taking this whole sober stance. I plan to start sparking up immediately to see if it will help me be able to do pottery. I’ve always wanted to throw a pot; maybe inhaling some is the place to start. Mmm … Fritos!
could not agree MORE!
LEGALIZE IT!
I agree!!!
Life would be ten times better. Look at Amsterdam!! Its not like everyone who lives there is an unemployed stoner!!
I have a brother who smokes weed maybe once a week.. He has been doing this for over 30 years. He went from MENSA to not being able to hold a conversation with my 10 year-old son. Yeah weed!
same thing can be said about whiskey…beer even… i’m sorry that’s happened, and i’m really not being a smart ass here, but…perhaps your bro is totally fibbing about the once a week thing?…….. the people i know who have become somewhat socially brain-dead had mushrooms & extacy to thank for that as well; not strictly marijuana…
just sayin’, guys.
Yeah sorry to hear that…what makes you think it was the weed? Scientists have been studying it for years, there is not ONE documented case of overdose, or real scientific evidence supporting decreased brain function. There maybe something else going on here that he is not telling you about, or he has some other disorder.
That is not true. He is lying to you when he says that he’s smoking weed “maybe once a week.” There is just no damned way that would make him so permanently stupid that he can’t hold a conversation with a 10 year old.
He’s either doing some other drug or he’s just sick of talking to your son and so he pretends to be stupid to get out of it.
Ya, I have to agree with the replies before me. There is something else going on with your brother. Even a daily smoker can carry on a conversation. Usually stoners talk too much about things they find fascinating and you can’t shut them up. I know dozens (if not more) regular pot smokers and I’ve never heard of this problem your brother has. One thing to remember about alcohol and drug addicts is that they lie about everything in order to protect their addiction. Maybe you should confront your brother and find out what else he’s up to.
Loved this post, thanks Wendie. I agree, I think if we legalized marijuana we could free up people in jail for it, help those who have chronic pain or nausea, and even help out the economy. Just google how much California made off of it last year!
I have chronic pain and I use medical marijuana. Because I have bad abdominal pain (and anxiety over it) I have a hard time eating enough to stay healthy. Medical marijuana helps with the pain, anxiety, and stimulates my appetite. I’d rather keep using it than be addicted to narcotics and benzodiazapines. Chronic pain sufferers also have a higher success rate of pain control versus opiate drug treatment. What does that say?
This article was not about medical marijuana.
Though I advocate it, the last line of this post made me laugh. It is so true.
although rather than food, you just get silly ideas that dont work when you’re not wasted.
Thanks Seth.. We can nor wait to see the creativity this will spark!!
xoxo
girlsgoneweed.com
The reason why marijuana wasn’t legalized (and was one of the first drugs to be deemed illegal) was because African Americans and Mexicans were the ones predominately smoking it. Sad, but true.
not much has changed, except now all the white people do it too lol
i live in europe and most of my friends have been smoking pot at least once a week since i was in 8th grade. i usually choose not to because im boring when high but i think some people are really incredible, funny,kind,smart stoners, it depends on the personalitiy. and as for a previous coment, what ive seen of in america there are as many white pot smokers as africanamericans and mexicans, maybe even more.
The weed issue. As Sa has already mentioned undesirables smoked it, timber dollars feared it, and Dupont had invested too much in paper pulp related chemical to allow it, therefore call it evil, and make it illegal.
1 acre of hemp produces more paper than 1 acre of forest, and unlike trees, hemp grows back right away.
If you wanna talk about sustainable products, then it becomes a no-brainer.
Please legalize it
Kevin Smith is a one hit wonder. Everything he’s done since “Clerks” has sucked.
Legalize it already. It replaces a butt load of expensive pharmaceuticals. Oh wait that is the problem big pharma won’t make their money.
@ lorelei – I suspect your brother may be having other issues and I am really sorry. I hope he can get help.
Exactly! It’s drugs like Vicodin and Percocet and Ativan and Adderall and Oxycontin etc etc that are super addictive and harmful for you. Doctors get kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies to prescribe these drugs to you. They get nothing if they prescribe weed. Other than the smoke inhalation (and there are other, non-toxic ways to injest it), marijuana is not harmful nor is it addictive. It’s because of Big Pharma and DuPont and Reagan that it’s been demonized and made illegal. It’s just weird to me, because it’s so much better than alcohol! Alcohol makes me feel horrible! I would rather see alcohol made illegal and pot legalized. It would be a much better world.
Oh, and yeah I’m stoned right now. As you can see I can still formulate coherent sentences and spell big words.
Ingest, not injest. But I’m pretty sure I spelled everything else right! :)
Marinol, a legal and synthetic version of THC, is nowhere near as effective as smoking marijuana. I’ve used both because I have terrible pain, and the traditional form is way better for effectiveness, immediacy of action, and duration of action.
I think maybe anonymous meant a vaporizer. It’s immediate the way smoking is but doesn’t produce the tar and other harmful secondhand effects of actually smoking.
lol im stoned too. glad to see my fellow readers being such advocates to mj. :)
I agree! LEGALIZE!!!!!!!
Does anyone else think that Kevin Smith sounds depressed???
Just an interesting point (im not disagreeing with anyone). I am a psychiatric nurse in England, and pretty much every psychotic patient I meet (not the masses that suffer from depression or anxiety based disorders) is on the weed. This is the reason why I personally will never touch it. That and a best friends twin smoked pot a fair bit for a few years and now has irreversable, fairly untreatable schizophrenia. Oh and the majority of research I have had access to from medical databases tends to say that the majority of adults are fine with it, but when kids with developing brains smoke it, it can seriously mess with the wiring. For all the people that are saying that its the most wonderous thing in the world, it isnt. It sure can help though. But i would put it on the same level as alcohol – needs to be taken with some caution. (alcohol can kill pain in the same way as marijuana).
Thanks for the professional perspective on weed smoking. I have to ask though, is it possible that the best friend’s twin was doing something else that he/she wasn’t talking about? Rarely do you find a pot smoker who doesn’t ever drink alcohol or indulge in another substance. Many substance users/abusers/addicts will own up to the pot smoking but lie about anything harder than that. I believe it is true that pot causes temporary paranoia, anxiety and depression for some people but it is usually reversed when the smoking is discontinued for a significant period of time. There may be some people with an underlying mental illness that is really obvious when they are under the influence but not so much when they are sober. Many people who suffer from mental illness also have a comorbidity of substance abuse/addiction. The majority of schizophrenics and other conditions, self-medicate themselve at some point during their illness or life. It has been shown that a vast number of abusers/addicts, who have gone into substance abuse treatment, have a dual diagnosis which includes some other mental illness that wasn’t caused by any psychoactive substance. After detox from the drug of choice, they are diagnosed and medicated correctly, under the supervision of a doctor. These patients have a better chance at staying clean than those that go to a non-dual diagnosis facility. Ok, I am rambling here and certainly don’t mean to discredit your opinion. There is a lot about pot that is unknown still and you are probably a wise person to avoid it but I just don’t like the reputation pot can have as something that can cause severe mental illness because that scientific proof doesn’t exist.
You really need to go back to nursing school, because your assumptions about schizophrenia and marijuana use being as strongly tied as you say is false. I don’t even know where to begin with your misinformation, and I don’t think you were getting the full story.
It’s funny, they say it isn’t at all physically addictive, but most of the poeple I’ve known who used it seemed like they couldn’t get through a day without it. I have a friend who had to make 7 attempts before she was finally able to quit using pot, knowing that if her hubby found out, there would be serious trouble. I guess if you have an addictive personality, anything can be addictive, and that’s why I have never touched the stuff. I’d rather not be dependent.
There is a serious difference between mental addiction and physical.
when they say it isnt addictive they mean you get no physical problems when you try and come off it (think heroin addicts) but there is no denying the mental strain and simple need for a smoke from people who use it regularly.
I have never smoke pot and never will, however, if I really had to take a stance on it I would say that it is much like alcohol-fine in moderation. Personally my experience with it has been very negative. I had a roommate who did not inform me of his habits until he moved in, after which he spent most of his day smoking pot, eating In&Out, gaining a good deal of weight, and even started selling it before he got the boot. It seems to me to be a filler for people who have to much time on their hands….but I digress.
In short…if that’s what you want to do it’s your own choice. I’d rather keep my brain cells for learning and my free time for running and kayaking.
All these activities being done in my spare time in between reading celebrity gossip blogs…of course. :D
Thats why I stopped smoking it about 7 years ago – it made me fat, lazy and boring. All power to those who manage to be contributing members of society while stoned, I spent far too much time watching’Road Trip’ on a loop.
Incidentally, we just had a tenant move out who smoked more pot than anyone I have ever seen. He used to get so stoned he would drool, and several times got lost in a not-very-big house.
I think its great in moderation, but chronic overusers are just like alcoholics.
that thar’s an excellent point.