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RainDog

(28,784 posts)
Tue Jul 22, 2014, 02:49 AM Jul 2014

James Garner supported legalization of cannabis

http://blog.seattlepi.com/marijuana/2014/07/20/james-garner-a-fan-of-marijuana-and-legalization-died-sunday/#10916103=0&14898101=0

From his memoir:

“I started smoking marijuana in my late teens. I drank to get drunk but ultimately didn’t like the effect. Not so with grass. Grass is smooth. It had the opposite effect from alcohol: it made me more tolerant and forgiving. …

“I smoked marijuana for 50 years. I don’t know where I’d be without it. It opened my mind to a lot of things, and now its active ingredient, THC, relaxes me and eases my arthritis pain. I’ve concluded that marijuana should be legal and alcohol should be illegal. But, good luck with that.”


Garner mentions he gave up alcohol, except for occasional social drinking, at 30.
13 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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James Garner supported legalization of cannabis (Original Post) RainDog Jul 2014 OP
Wow.. bless his heart! Cha Jul 2014 #1
Apparently he had arthritis for many years RainDog Jul 2014 #3
Yeah, I imagine it Would help. I stopped smoking Cha Jul 2014 #5
I miss James Garner, he was a good and great man. Uncle Joe Jul 2014 #2
I never knew he was a pot smoker for so many years RainDog Jul 2014 #4
Brawaaa.. he's our shining example Cha Jul 2014 #6
one of many RainDog Jul 2014 #8
Mahalo for that and KICK! Cha Jul 2014 #10
Your post calls for a song and a vision. Uncle Joe Jul 2014 #11
nice. thanks n/t RainDog Jul 2014 #13
Honestly, I didn't know until I read your OP. I always liked him but have discovered or Uncle Joe Jul 2014 #7
look like interesting episodes RainDog Jul 2014 #9
P.S. Something just popped into my head when I was downstairs.. Cha Jul 2014 #12

Cha

(295,913 posts)
1. Wow.. bless his heart!
Tue Jul 22, 2014, 03:06 AM
Jul 2014
“I smoked marijuana for 50 years. I don’t know where I’d be without it. It opened my mind to a lot of things, and now its active ingredient, THC, relaxes me and eases my arthritis pain. I’ve concluded that marijuana should be legal and alcohol should be illegal. But, good luck with that.”

Gotta love someone who says that. Mahalo Raindog~

RainDog

(28,784 posts)
3. Apparently he had arthritis for many years
Tue Jul 22, 2014, 03:12 AM
Jul 2014

there's a link to some of his bio at the link in the OP. Interesting tidbits.

Cha

(295,913 posts)
5. Yeah, I imagine it Would help. I stopped smoking
Tue Jul 22, 2014, 03:17 AM
Jul 2014

way back in the early part of the century and drinking.. but fortunately I don't have any health problems that would be alleviated from MJ. I definitely think it should be legal all over the country like my home state and town of Denver Colorado. And, who knows.. one of these days.. ?

RainDog

(28,784 posts)
4. I never knew he was a pot smoker for so many years
Tue Jul 22, 2014, 03:13 AM
Jul 2014

too bad he didn't accomplish anything during the 50 years he smoked pot...

RainDog

(28,784 posts)
8. one of many
Tue Jul 22, 2014, 03:30 AM
Jul 2014

I posted here, in the past, that Louis Armstrong said he smoked pot for the majority of his life because it helped him cope with racist society. There's that smooth - obviously Armstrong had the same response to marijuana that Garner did - I say this b/c not everyone does have the same response, but everyone I know has had that same response... smooth.

Carl Sagan, of course, was also a big supporter of cannabis legalization and assumed it would be legal in his lifetime. But he was an optimist.

Uncle Joe

(58,112 posts)
7. Honestly, I didn't know until I read your OP. I always liked him but have discovered or
Tue Jul 22, 2014, 03:29 AM
Jul 2014

remembered things that I had forgotten about the man until after his passing, such as these two prescient episodes from the Rockford Files on this thread by Ptah concerning Grand Juries vs the 5th Amendment and particularly mass surveillance in 1978 two year before Reagan came to power and passed Executive Order 12333.



http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025273747

Rockford Files; two episodes that reflected James Garner's politics.
"So Help Me God" and "The House on Willis Avenue"






http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5273417

A primer on Executive Order 12333: The Mass Surveillance Starlet.



On top of all that he was a Korean War Veteran with two Purple Hearts, one of them from "friendly fire" (personally I think that should be called fucked up fire or WTF fire) during combat and he attended Martin Luther King's speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

RainDog

(28,784 posts)
9. look like interesting episodes
Tue Jul 22, 2014, 03:32 AM
Jul 2014

...and, yeah, reading some of his bio at the link was interesting to me, too.

Cha

(295,913 posts)
12. P.S. Something just popped into my head when I was downstairs..
Tue Jul 22, 2014, 03:55 AM
Jul 2014

Stacy Keach in the Cheech and Chong movie(UP in Smoke"?).. after having inadvertently smoked pot.. and when it hits him he says "I have a feeling I'm about to go on the biggest pig out of my life!"..

That's how I remember it anyway.

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