Ganja Vibes Blog

The 10 Most Successful Potheads on the Planet...Cool Enough to Admit It

An unemployed porno addict, sitting in his parents’ basement, playing video games, eating Lucky Charms out of the box with one hand while he lazily scratches his balls with the other. A dread-lock having, patchouli oil smelling, tie-die wearing, Phish listening, hula-hoop twirling space cadet. A burger flipping, acne having, socially inept, friendless loser… These are the common stereotypes associated with the term ‘pothead’. In a recent piece we published on pot farms, a debate erupted in the comments section, with some arguing that if you smoke pot, you’ll be poor, gay, and “washing dishes until you’re dead.” Where these stereotypes originated remains a mystery to us. In reality, they couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only have 42% of Americans admitted to trying pot, but pot smokers have gone on to become some of the most successful people in our society. We’re not talking about Willie Nelson and Snoop. These guys are on the Forbes 500, they’re leading the free world, and they prove that all existing pothead stereotypes are nothing more than myths. Sir Richard Branson While the ‘Sir’ in front of this guy’s name puts him in some very elite company, it doesn’t automatically get him on this list. What does earn him a spot is the fact that he’s the 236th richest person in the world, founder of the Virgin empire, which encompasses everything from airlines to record stores to cell phones, and made his entire multi-billion dollar fortune from absolutely nothing. Not only does this man smoke weed, he gets high with his 21-year-old son. He has publicly stated that there’s nothing wrong with smoking pot, has petitioned for the legalization of pot, and even said that if it were legal, he’d sell it. Rick Steves Your name doesn’t become synonymous with ‘European Travel’ by accident. You can’t just take a bong hit, lay back in your bean bag and toss off a few ‘graphs on how awesome the Louvre is. And yet here’s Rick Steves, author of 27 top selling European travel guides, host of his own TV show and radio show, and a very outspoken pothead. He’s a member of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, and credits pot for turning him into a better travel writer by opening his mind to new things. Aaron Sorkin In fairness to tokers around the world, Sorkin is a bit more of a ‘drug addict’ than he is ‘pothead’. He started dabbling with weed and coke back in the late ’80s, has been in and out of rehab numerous times, and was arrested for possession of marijuana, mushrooms and crack in 2001. So yeah, he loves to smoke weed… but he also loves to freebase. Not cool, Aaron! However, the man’s drug problems have done little to hinder his success in Hollywood. His work on The West Wing, both as writer and producer, earned him multiple Emmy Awards, and countless nominations for other awards. Michael Phelps Mr. “Has More Olympic Gold Medals Than Anyone In History” made headlines this week when photos of him and a bong surfaced. Since the scandal, Phelps has given a few interviews decrying his “bad judgment,” promising it was a dumb mistake that never happened before and won’t happen again… but we know that’s bullsh*t. Phelps was hitting that bong like a pro, not daintily toking some little amateur joint. With this in mind, we’re going to go ahead and assume this wasn’t Phelps’s first time. It might be his last, but it definitely wasn’t his first. This means that you can become the most world class athlete of all time and be a pot smoker at the same time. Stereotype shattered. Barack Obama Almost every American President before Barry, from Washington to Clinton to Bush, has had a pot addled past. Clinton purportedly tried and failed to smoke a joint, Bush was a boozer, but messed with coke and pot from time to time, Washington even grew marijuana on his farm. But as far as we know, none have admitted to smoking as much pot as Obama. He wrote extensively about his stoner past in his book Dreams of My Father, and in a 2007 interview stated “When I was a kid I inhaled frequently. That was the point.” Anyone who wonders what kind of future a pothead can have should take a hard look at Barack Obama. Not only can you grow up to be ridiculously smart, you can grow up to be President. Michael Bloomberg The Mayor of New York’s last name is associated with ‘business’ and ‘success’, not ‘failure’ and ‘the munchies’. But if you’re one of those idiots who believes a pothead could never amount to anything, you’d have never guessed this was the way Bloomberg would turn out. Did he smoke pot when he was younger? In his own words “You bet I did. And I enjoyed it!” Ted Turner Ted is a rare breed of billionaire — he comes off as completely absent minded, incapable of even putting on his own pants. Yet he is a mega-mogul. He single-handedly invented the 24-hour news cycle with CNN, was named Time’s Man of the Year in 1991, is the largest private land owner in America, and also owns a few other TV stations, and the Atlanta Braves. So… owning lots of stuff? Not what you’d expect from a guy who grew pot in his college dorm room. Ted is also a major funder of the Kentucky Hemp Museum, along with renowned stoner Woody Harelson, and is a well known fan of the classic stoner cartoon Scooby-Doo. Montel Williams The talk show prince discovered pot late in life, and for good reason. Back in 1999 he was diagnosed withMultiple Sclerosis, and couldn’t find anything to suppress his symptoms. He tried all sorts of pain killers; none worked, and all had horrible side effects. So he decided to try medical marijuana (same thing as regular marijuana, FYI) and it worked wonders for him! Years later, he is one of MS’s most recognizable faces, one of medical marijuana’s staunchest defenders, and even though he’s baked all the time, still managed to host his own talk show until 2008, when it was unfortunately canceled. Well, at least he’s still got his weed. Stephen King We haven’t included many creative types on this list, mostly because they’re all potheads. Every actor, musician and artist ever is a huge pothead. It’s a fact, don’t dispute us. But writing 1,000 page novels is a slightly different process. You can’t just ‘jam out’ The Stand. Over the course of his career, both his output and his success have been unparalleled. He’s authored upwards of 50 novels and short stories which have sold a collective 500 million copies worldwide. He’s also been one of the most vocal proponents for the legalization of marijuana, calling laws against the drug “ridiculous,” and stating that “I think that marijuana should not only be legal, I think it should be a cottage industry.” It makes perfect sense. You’d have to be stoned to come up with some of the sh*t this guy has. Arnold Schwarzenegger The Governator is the only man on this list who is actually on video smoking weed. In the classic documentary Pumping Iron, he is seen smoking, and loving, a joint. But hey man, that was the’70s, right? Things have chanced since then. Haven’t they? Well, Schwarzenegger hasn’t been puffing since his election to office, but he has presided over California’s recent medical marijuana renaissance. Now anyone who wants one can get a pot prescription in the state, which gives them legal access to some of the best weed in the country, and even allows them to grow plants in their own home. According to Arnold, marijuana “is not a drug, it’s a leaf.” Source: http://starhightech.com/starhightech/?p=616 http://coedmagazine.com/2011/12/26/10-successful-potheads-who-admit-it/#photo=9

Talk Host Tokers

Talk host tokers By Dana Larsen - Sunday, May 29 2005 TAGS: CC55 Late night talk show hosts tend to be pot friendly Talk show icon Johnny Carson died in January, and his death was mourned by fans around the world. But what many did not know was that, like virtually every major talk show host that followed him, Johnny Carson was a fan of the forbidden herb. In a 1982 documentary called Johnny Goes Home, Carson took his viewers on a tour of his hometown Norfolk, Nebraska. He rode in his old High School's homecoming parade, and also took viewers inside the local movie theater, where he explained how he and his friends had first seen the classic anti-pot propaganda film Reefer Madness. "As a kid I did grow up in what was called an innocent age..." said Carson. "We had heard about marijuana, we weren't very sure what it was, but we found out because one day, right up on that screen, a picture played here in the late 30's called Reefer Madness. We didn't know what "reefer madness" meant either, but it had to do with the evils of marijuana smoking. Wayward girls would have terrible, wanton behavior. We didn't know what that meant, but we wanted some of that." Carson had previously explained his marijuana views in a 1967 interview with Playboy, when Carson was asked his thoughts on pot and LSD. "I don't put marijuana in the same bag with LSD or any of the hard narcotics," said Carson. "People are wrong when they say marijuana isn't addicting, though. I've known people who use it, known them all my adult life, and I know they are at least psychologically addicted. But it's just a mild stimulant, actually. And I think that the laws against its use are repressive out of all proportion." Although Carson avoided openly discussing his own personal political views on his show, saying "I just don't feel that Johnny Carson should become a social commentator," he occasionally let his open-minded fondness for toking slip through. Carson liked to imply that his band leader, Doc Severinsen, was a heavy pot smoker. One classic quip came when President Carter recommended in 1977 that possessing under an ounce of bud shouldn't be illegal. "The trouble is that nobody in our band knows what an ounce or less means," joked Carson. To which Doc replied, "It means you're about out." Jay Leno Jay Leno took over hosting The Tonight Show in 1992, and he has made pot-friendly jokes a regular part of his monologue, continuing Carson's tradition by implying that bandleader Kevin Eubanks is a toker. Although we have no evidence that Leno himself partakes of the herb, he has made a point of promoting pot culture on his show. Pot icon Tommy Chong also made his first post-prison appearance on The Tonight Show, with Leno complaining about the injustice of the anti-bong laws. David Letterman David Letterman also went through a phatty phase in his younger years. In a pair of interviews with Playboy magazine, he described his pot experiences. "I went through one period when I smoked a surprising, a really breath-taking, amount of grass almost every night," Letterman told Playboy. "One night I smoked down a big joint and then went downstairs and ate two pints of Haagen-Dazs ice cream and then went back to bed. An hour later I woke up and thought my heart had stopped. And the next day I went to a cardiologist and he said, 'Well, no, it didn't stop. Everything's fine.' And that was the end of my pot experiences." Jon Stewart The Daily Show with Jon Stewart is a popular show among counterculture news junkies. According to right-wing pundit Bill O'Reilly, 87% of those who watch The Daily Show are "stoned slackers." Yet O'Reilly was forced to apologize after research by Comedy Central found that Daily Show viewers are more likely to have college degrees than those who watch The O'Reilly Factor. Nevertheless, stoners will find favor with Stewart's unabashedly pro-pot jokes and performances. Stewart had a cameo in Dave Chappelle's pot-comedy Half Baked, playing the Enhancement Smoker. "You ever seen the back of a twenty on weed?" asked Stewart. "Oh, there's some weird shit in there man. There's a dude sitting in the bushes. Does he have a gun? I don't know man, I don't know. What? Red team go! Red team go!" Conan O'Brien Conan O'Brien has always been the talk-show host most willing to educate and have fun with pot humor. One of the very first episodes of Conan's show featured a comedian riffing off hemp humor, jokes about how hemp could be used to make paper four times more efficiently than trees. One classic cannabis character from Conan O'Brien's show was "Tokey the Anti-Drug Bong." Tokey would spew anti-pot propaganda, while also spewing smoke from out of his chamber. When Conan asked Tokey what the fumes were, Tokey replied "That's my sweet, sweet marijuana smoke. I mean I'm a bong, it happens, it's natural. I might be giving the kids a mixed message, but man, it does smell good." Steve Allen The first host of The Tonight Show was Steve Allen, who has been an outspoken opponent of America's drug war for many years. In 1955, Steve Allen interviewed stoner comedian Lord Buckley (CC#53, Dead Funny). Interestingly, Lord Buckley had another unlikely friend in the TV industry. Buckley was busted for pot possession in 1943, but the charges were dismissed thanks to intervention from Buckley's friend, Ed Sullivan. The multi-talented Steve Allen has another fun cannabis connection. His jazz Christmas album, Cool Yule, was recorded by ganja icon Louis Armstrong.