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." 

In 2024, Colbert asked Will Reclassifying Weed Help Biden? and unpacked the 2024 flap about the Easter coinciding with the Transgender Day of Visibility by noting that in 2025 the holiday would fall on 4/20. He predicted we would hear: "The liberals want to turn Jesus into some long-haired sandal-wearing beaded hippie who was all about peace and love. Groovy man! Forgive your enemies!" 

Answering the Colbert Questionnaire about his favorite smell in late 2025, "The Dude" Jeff Bridges responded that, "I dug the smell of some fresh weed, man," earning cheers from the crowd and a handshake from Colbert. 

For his final 4/20 monologue in 2026, Colbert began, "Hi(gh)...is what you all might be" before covering this year's fast-food 420 specials and segueing into Pope Leo as the best 4/20 hang, due to the white smoke coming from the Sistine Chapel upon his election. "He tried shoving a rolled-up towel under the door, but we knew what was going on," he mused.  

During a lengthy interview with GQ after The Late Show was cancelled for telling too much truth, Colbert reiterated his tale of youthful pot experimentation and was photographed smoking a joint while swimming in the pool at the Chateau Marmont in LA. He said on Strike Force Five that he'd envisioned getting drunk a lot after retiring, but at his age the aftereffects of drinking are too unpleasant. He didn't say that about smoking weed though.

I've loved the many send-offs for Stephen, like John Lithgow's "The Mighty Colbert" and Jimmy Fallon's re-written "My Way." And so we raise a joint, or a bong, or a vape pen, or a cannabis drink to Stephen Colbert, whose wise and witty humor kept us laughing through some tough years for our country – especially when we were stoned. 

UPDATES: During his final monologue, Colbert joked, "A lot of people have asked me what I plan to do after tonight, and the answer is drugs." 

His next stop was a return stint as host of the Monroe, Michigan public access show "Only in Monroe." At six minutes in on the show, he celebrated Michigan legalizing recreational marijuana in 2018, leading to a string of cannabis dispensaries in the town dubbed "The Green Mile." Colbert mused, "Though I think if I were naming a cannabis district after a Tom Hanks movie, I would go with Forest Hemp, or The Dank Vinci Code (among others, each one funnier than the next)." Nine minutes in, he wonders, "Did Bigfoot come here for the weed?"