After a terrible car accident left Morgan Freeman with a shattered arm, elbow and shoulder, he couldn't overcome the pain. But when his wife offered him a solution, he couldn't turn it down.
The solution? Marijuana.
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Freeman calls for the legalization of marijuana, citing its medicinal benefits. A longtime user himself, he doesn't understand the opposition when it has helped many people. "They used to say, ‘You smoke that stuff, boy, you get hooked!" he told the publication.
"My first wife got me into it many years ago. How do I take it? However it comes! I'll eat it, drink it, smoke it, snort it! This movement is really a long time coming, and it's getting legs—longer legs. Now, the thrust is understanding that alcohol has no real medicinal use. Maybe if you have one drink it'll quiet you down, but two or three and you're f--ked."
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Freeman also has to wear a compression glove on his hand to prevent blood from pooling as a result of the accident. He told The Daily Beast that medical marijuana is one of the few solutions to help manage the pain from that and his nerve damage.
"Marijuana has many useful uses," he explained. "I have fibromyalgia pain in this arm, and the only thing that offers any relief is marijuana. They're talking about kids who have grand mal seizures, and they've discovered that marijuana eases that down to where these children can have a life. That right there, to me, says, ‘Legalize it across the board!'"
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As for the drug's downsides? He doesn't seem to come up with any. Instead, he argues marijuana actually helps curb violence.
"Look at Woodstock 1969. They said, ‘We're not going to bother them or say anything about smoking marijuana,' and not one problem or fight," he explained. "Then look at what happened in '99," he said, referencing the 30th-anniversary event that took a staunch view against the drug, which resulted in riots and arrests.
Despite his lingering pain, Freeman continues to dominate the big screen and is even coming out with a new rom-com featuring Diane Keaton called "5 Flights Up."
