RIP David Hockney, Cannabis Legalization Supporter

"Pearblossom Highway," David Hockney photocollage, 1986

British-born, California-residing artist David Hockney has died at age 88, making him another long-living, productive marijuana smoker. 

His death came nine months after the close of a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, reports the NY Times. "But even at that point, he was not finished. Working out of his studio in London, using a wheelchair, his health failing, he continued to paint." Best known for his poolside scenes and double portraits that celebrated the Southern California sunlight, Hockney worked in many media, including photography and iPads. 

Born in 1937, the year marijuana was effectively made illegal in the US, Hockney earned a scholarship to a local art school at a young age and in 1959, he enrolled at the Royal College of Art in London. Seeing a major Picasso exhibition at the Tate Gallery the following year cemented his interest in art, and cubism (which was developed after Picasso tried cannabis). 

Hockney came out as gay when he was 23, seven years before Britain decriminalized homosexual acts. He took the occasion of his exhibit at London's Royal Academy of Arts in the summer of 1999 to call for the legalization of marijuana. "I remember Jack Straw [UK's home minister] in 1968 saying 'you can't legalise marijuana as we haven't got enough information'. Thirty years later, he's said exactly the same thing. I don't know what life has taught him, I've learnt quite a lot. I've smoked a lot of marijuana. It hasn't harmed me."

The artist said he smoked a regular "joint" with a glass of whiskey in the evening. But, he hastened to add, he had never indulged in stimulants when working because "drugs and art don't mix…You have to be very clear-headed." Drugs made you "too pleased with everything," he said, and to create great work "you have to struggle." (Source: Dalya Alberge, HOCKNEY SAYS DRUGS ARE FINE BUT NOT FOR ART, The Times (UK), May 27, 1999.) 

"He is a big supporter of California’s decision to legalise cannabis," says a 2020 The Times article that interviewed Hockney saying, “I always assumed they kept marijuana illegal because of the power of the alcohol lobby. That’s their competition. But the alcohol lobby has become less powerful, and of course there are lots of people now in their seventies or eighties who’ve smoked marijuana for 40 or 50 years. And they know it’s harmless.” He told The Times he smokes it himself, "not when he works, but in the evening to relax." Reportedly, he had a California Medical Marijuana card. He was also a chain cigarette smoker and staunch pro-tobacco campaigner. In 2005, he fought to stop a ban on smoking in pubs and restaurants. 

Etana Launches "Herbs" Cannabis Brand at Her Berkeley Birthday Party

Reggae singer/songwriter Etana introduced her women-grown, organic cannabis brand Etana Herbs at a concert celebrating her birthday at the intimate Chapel of the Flowers in Berkeley, CA on Saturday May 23. Hot off the presses and flown in from LA for the event was her packaging, featuring a fearless image of the musician, now available on a T-shirt at her website. 

Wearing a glittering jacket and luminous "high" heels, she commanded the stage and conjured up much enthusiastic dancing / swaying with joy in the crowd of Reggae fans, who had just feasted on an authentic meal of jerk chicken, oxtail, veggies and plantains. 

Stopping her concert to make her ganja brand announcement, she noted, "It's all natural, organic, just the way we like it," and named some of the strains/flavors, like  papaya.

The artist then treated the crowd to some of her songs from "Etana - The Ganja Collection," her 4/20/26 digital release,  a "soulful 7-track tribute to the Sacred Herb, Roots Reggae & Jamaican culture." 

She began with "Sensemilla":

I have found a tree that heals inside of me
Changes everything, everything that I've been told....

It's the herb that calm my nerves
It's the herb that will heal the world

And moved into "Gimi De Weed": 

This one is for all ganja lovers around the world
All ganja boys and all ganja girls...

No more youths in the jail house for weed...
Oh what a day when ganja man get free

Colbert and Cannabis: A Farewell Tribute

As we approach the final days of Stephen Colbert hosting CBS's The Late Show this Thursday, we follow CelebStoner's lead and look back at our favorite moments when Colbert celebrated cannabis. 

In a January 2006 City Arts and Lectures interview in San Francisco, Colbert said he smoked "a lot of pot" for a period of time in high school. That would explain a lot. 

On his 2007 The Colbert Report debut, during a (mock) interview with Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance, Colbert demonstrated that he knew what "shake" is. Nadelmann commented that while viewers surely must get drunk to watch Fox host Bill O'Reilly, probably half of Colbert's audience got stoned before watching. On his January 18 show that year while introducing O'Reilly, Colbert announced, "You're not high, Bill O'Reilly is really here. You might also be high." 

That July, he showed a clip of the USDA's 1942 film Hemp for Victory film before introducing Marijuana Policy Project's Aaron Houston. Later, he asked Ben & Jerry about their flavor named for VIP Willie Nelson, "What's his made of, shredded tax forms and hash?" 

During a 2008 interview with Carole King, Colbert pulled out his Tapestry album and noted it was a double, briefly demonstrating how this allowed people to clean their pot on it in the 70s. On his premiere Colbert Report of 2014, after Colorado started selling legal pot, he took on columnists Ruth Marcus and Davis Brooks with the line: "I applaud Marcus and Brooks for taking a stand against legalizing the pot they smoked." 

Since The Late Show with Stephen Colbert premiered on September 8, 2015, the pot jokes continued. 

A 2016 segment, "Stephen Colbert Gets All Up in Your Faith" had him commenting on the first cannabis church while pantomiming a killer bong rip. That year, he interviewed Whoopi Goldberg when she introduced her Whoopi & Maya cannabis product line, designed for women. In 2017, he introduced Kathy Bates as "an Academy Award–winning actress who terrified us in Misery, inspired us in Titanic, and now she sells us weed on the Netflix show Disjointed." Bates demonstrated her technique for using a vape pen.

The Late Show won a Best Video Segment Tokey Award in 2023 for "The Ganja Girls: Seniors Smoking Weed." For 4/20 that year, he opened with a "Yes We Cannabis" segment from the "dank, grooved-out wonder planet known as Chillaxia." 

Is Ethel Kennedy's Experience with LSD Therapy Informing Current US Policy?

Health Secretary RFK Jr.'s parents Robert and Ethel Kennedy

As the federal government moves to legalize psychedelics, particularly ibogaine, at the urging of Joe Rogan and in hopes no doubt that his and other drug-peace loving minions will look kindly on Trump and his coattail brigade of brigands in the upcoming midterm elections. Standing with Trump and Rogan at the policy announcement was HHS Secretary RFK Jr., whose support for psychedelics may stem from his mother Ethel's clinical experience with LSD in the 1960s while her husband was a US Senator.

Michael Pollan spoke about Ethel's LSD experience and RFK Sr.'s Congressional-floor comments on the topic during a Fresh Air interview about his new book, A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness. According to Acid Dreams by Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain, "The decision to curtail LSD research was the subject of a Congressional probe....the inquiry in the spring of 1966 was lead by Senator Robert Kennedy (D-NY), whose wife Ethel reportedly underwent LSD therapy with Dr. Ross MacLean." (p. 93). 

A SPIN magazine article "When Bobby Kennedy Defended LSD" reprinted in a newsletter from MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), says that the conservative Sen. Thomas Dodd (D-CT), an alcoholic who was later censured by the Senate for political corruption, convened The Special Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency for three hearings on LSD and other psychedelic drugs in 1966. 

"RFK, whose wife had been treated with LSD and benefitted from the experience, adopted a quite different tone in his questioning of FDA and NIMH officials in his own subcommittee hearing on LSD," says the article. "He was curious as to why so many LSD research projects were getting scrapped. When the officials evaded the questions, RFK got straight to the point. 'Why if they were worthwhile six months ago, why aren’t they worthwhile now?' he asked repeatedly."

The article quotes Kennedy saying, "Perhaps to some extent we have lost sight of the fact that (LSD) can be very, very helpful in our society if used properly.”

Women's Biographies on Film

Inspired by a post on a Turner Classic Movies Facebook fan group that noted it's Women's History Month and asked for readers to send in their favorite costumes worn by women(!), I started coming up with this list of women who have been portrayed in film instead, and it's quite an impressive one: 

Greta Garbo lead the way in Queen Christina (1933). Just the way she runs up the steps for her entrance hooked me. And Katharine Hepburn was a fine Mary of Scotland in 1936. 

Greer Garson played orphans' advocate Edna Gladney in Blossoms in the Dust (1941) and Marie Curie Madame Curie (1943), a role played by Rosamund Pike in the 2019 film Radioactive. Garson was Oscar-nominated for playing Eleanor Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello (1960); Jean Stapleton played the role in the 1982 TV movie Eleanor, First Lady of the World. 

Bette Davis portrayed Queen Elizabeth I in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). Jean Simmons played the young Queen in Young Bess (1953), as Cate Blanchett did (more realistically) in Elizabeth (1998).

Deborah Kerr starred in a fictionalized account of governess Anna Leonowens in The King and I (1956).  In 1959, The Diary of Anne Frank premiered; Shelly Winters donated the Supporting Actress Oscar she won for the film to the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. Susan Hayward won an Oscar for her portrayal of Barbara Graham in I Want to Live. (Jazz, and marijuana, are blamed.) Patty Duke was named Best Supporting Actress for playing Helen Keller in A Miracle Worker (1962).

Cleopatra (1963) starred Elizabeth Taylor, the first actress to make a million dollars for a role. (The Queen of Egypt was also portrayed as smoking something in the 2005/07 HBO series Rome.) Debbie Reynolds played The Unsinkable Molly Brown in 1964; Kathy Bates played the role in Titanic (1997).  In 1965, Julie Andrews played a version of Maria von Trapp (without the yodel) in The Sound of Music.

Women's History Month 2026 - Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future

The theme of this year's Women's History Month is “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future,” encompassing "financial sustainability, community resilience, leadership succession, and intergenerational equity." 

"Whether developing green technologies, advancing economic justice, strengthening education systems, or building civic power – women are designing blueprints for sustainable transformation," says the National Women's History Foundation. "This theme affirms that shaping a sustainable future means fostering systems that support both people and the planet." 

The cannabis, psychedelics and environmental movements have many women to honor who have advanced sustainability. 

One is Tina Gordon of Moon Made Farms, in Southern Humboldt, California. In her sustainably grown garden, Gordon incorporates "aspects of nature, native soil, and on-site composting, we introduce forest and plant material to our gardens to ensure the best and healthiest product. We want to encourage the genetics, and ultimately epigenetics of the plant to carry through an expression of this unique geographic environment."

Sophia Buggs—also known as Lady Buggs—is an urban farmer, medicine woman, and community leader in Youngstown, Ohio. Through stories, blessings, and reflections, she explores themes of ancestral connection, Indigenous practices, food justice, and the challenges and joys of negotiating community partnerships. Her talk at the Women's Visionary Congress 2023 is both a celebration of cultural heritage and a call to honor the unseen forces and generational wisdom that guide us toward collective healing and empowerment. 

Winona LaDuke (pictured), the Native American activist who ran for Vice President on Ralph Nader's ticket in 1996 and 2000, is growing hemp and other crops in Osage, MN, where she operates a hemp market store and coffee shop. "I want to scale up and join the 400,000 other horse powered farming operations in North America, understanding the sacred relationship between life, power and the future," LaDuke writes. "I would like to live well, I am interested in decoupling food and hemp from fossil fuels, and I am also interested in the quality of life which small-scale farming creates." 

Paul McCartney: Man on the Run

The new Amazon Prime documentary, "Paul McCartney: Man on the Run" charts McCartney's marijuana arrests and their affect on his music, and life. 

Through archival film footage and interviews, the film follows McCartney's musical journey, starting with the breakup The Beatles. Criticized for putting out apolitical albums of what he later called (unapologetically) "silly love songs" with his band Wings—featuring his wife Linda on keyboards—the band and Paul's songwriting gained an edge when he faced jail time for growing five marijuana plants on their family farm in March 1973. 

According to a TV interviewer in the film, it was said in court that, "McCartney had a considerable interest in horticulture, and many of his fans sent him seeds to grow. The cannabis seeds, it was said, came to him in such a way."  He admitted he had knowingly growing the plants, but claimed he didn't know what they were. 

The film does not mention the statement McCartney made in court regarding cannabis's legal status. “I feel that there should be legislation on the use of cannabis," he said. "Drink is a much worse drug to my mind than cannabis.” 

Later that year, Wings hit their stride with the release of their album "Band on the Run." The album was recorded in Nigera, where McCartney said he smoked the strongest weed he ever had in an interview with Marc Maron where he noted that "for the creative process it was required."