The 40 most successful stoners of all time

TODAY, WHILE MANY ATTENDED CHURCH followed by Easter brunch, ganja smokers around the world celebrated 4/20 with the sanctity of a wake ‘n’ bake. Though the act can call forth images of couch-locked unproductiveness and Funyun binges, our rich history of hemp-honoring hall-of-famers will make you think differently about the common weed enthusiast.

Here are 40 of the most successful stoners of all time.

1. Barack Obama

“When I was a kid, I inhaled frequently.”

2. Jay-Z

“That record was, like, a process. I remember…I don’t smoke that much…. Well, my man who sold weed and shit came, and he said, “Man, you need — man, just smoke some weed.” I smoked some weed, and that’s how I finished “Izzo.””

3. Bill Maher

“I have never made a secret of the fact that I have tried marijuana. About 50,000 times.”

4. Bill Gates

“As for drugs — well, Gates was certainly not unusual there. Marijuana was the pharmaceutical of choice.” (From Gates: How Microsoft’s Mogul Reinvented an Industry — And Made Himself the Richest Man in America, by Stephen Manes)

5. George Clooney

The owner of a local cannabis cafe in Amsterdam once told reporters that Clooney was “no stranger there,” while shooting on location for Ocean’s Twelve.”

6. Lady Gaga

“I smoke a lot of pot when I write music.”

7. Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is known for smoking weed to enhance creativity and promote relaxation.

8. Carl Sagan

9. George Washington

The first president of the US actually had his own hemp farm, and was known for separating out the most potent seeds to grow plants with higher concentrations of THC.

10. Bob Marley

“When you smoke the herb, it reveals you to yourself.”

11. Willie Nelson

“I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?”

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12. Abraham Lincoln

“Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing my Hohner harmonica.” (from a letter written by Lincoln during his presidency to the head of the Hohner Harmonica Company in Germany)

13. Michael Phelps

‘Nuff said.

14. David Letterman

“I went through one period where I smoked a surprising, a really breathtaking, amount of grass almost every night.”

15. Morgan Freeman

“Never give up the ganja.” (Morgan Freeman is known for referring to marijuana as “God’s own weed.”)

16. Martha Stewart

“Of course I know how to roll a joint.”

17. Hugh Hefner

“Smoking helped put me in touch with the realm of the senses.”

18. Miley Cyrus

“I think weed is the best drug on earth. […] Hollywood is a coke town, but weed is so much better.”

19. Rihanna

“Kush rolled, glass full — I prefer the better things.”

20. Snoop Dogg

“It makes me feel the way I need to feel.”

21. Hunter S. Thompson

“I have always loved marijuana. It has been a source of joy and comfort to me for many years. And I still think of it as a basic staple of life, along with beer and ice and grapefruits — and millions of Americans agree with me.”

22. Alexander Dumas

“When you return to this mundane sphere from your visionary world, you would seem to leave a Neapolitan spring for a Lapland winter — to quit paradise for earth — heaven for hell! Taste the hashish, guest of mine — taste the hashish!”

23. Herodotus

The Greek historian Herodotus was the first to make any mention of cannabis in Western literature: “The Scythians put the Seeds of this hemp under the bags, upon the burning stones; and immediately a more agreeable vapor is emitted than from the incense burnt in Greece. The Company extremely transported with the scent, howl aloud.”

24. Stephen King

“I think that marijuana should not only be legal, I think it should be a cottage industry.”

25. Jimi Hendrix

“Purple haze all in my brain…”

26. Jerry Garcia

“Me and a friend of mine went up into the hills with two joints, the San Francisco foothills, and smoked these joints and just got so high and laughed and roared and went skipping down the streets doing funny things and just having a helluva time.” (on the first time he smoked marijuana)

27. Janis Joplin

“When I bring home my hard-earned pay, I spend my money all on Mary Jane.”

28 & 29. Cheech & Chong

The Original Stoners.

30. Lil Wayne

“I smoke weed all day.”

31. Kristen Stewart

“I’m kind of a weirdo, creative Valley Girl who smokes pot. Big deal.”

32. Johnny Depp

“I’m not a great pothead or anything like that…but weed is much, much less dangerous than alcohol.”

33. Kirsten Dunst

“I do like weed. I have a different outlook on marijuana than America does. My best friend Sasha’s dad was Carl Sagan, the astronomer. He was the biggest pot smoker in the world and he was a genius.”

34. Brad Pitt

“I was hiding out from the celebrity thing, I was smoking way too much dope, I was sitting on the couch and just turning into a doughnut.”

35. Jennifer Aniston

“I enjoy it once in a while. There is nothing wrong with that. Everything in moderation. I wouldn’t call myself a pot-head.”

36. Woody Harrelson

Harrelson is an enthusiast and activist for the legalization of both marijuana and hemp.

37. Shakespeare

Researchers found clay pipes with traces of cannabis in the garden of Shakespeare’s home in Stratford-on-Avon, which have been dated to the 17th century, contemporary with Shakespeare himself.

38. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Defying the stereotype that stoners have no drive and/or are wasting their lives, according to Arnold, marijuana “is not a drug, it’s a leaf.”

39. Bob Dylan

Apparently, on August 28, 1964, Bob Dylan introduced the Beatles to marijuana.

40. Madonna

“It wasn’t because I was excited about you. I think it may have had something to do with the joint I smoked before I came on.” (on her behavior on David Letterman in 1994)