CANNABIS CULTURE – Academy Award-winning Hollywood icon Jack Nicholson criticized America’s War on Drugs in a recent interview with a British newspaper, and said he still smokes marijuana.

“I don’t tend to say this publicly, but we can see it’s a curative thing,” Nicholson told the UK’s Daily Mail. “The narcotics industry is also enormous. It funds terrorism and – this is a huge problem in America – fuels the foreign gangs. More than 85 per cent of men incarcerated in America are on drug-related offences. It costs $40,000 a year for every prisoner.

“If they were really serious about the economy there would be a sensible discussion about legalisation.”

The actor – who holds several Oscar records and is one of the most celebrated actors in the business – is (also) known as a notorious party animal and pot smoker, and has been quoted on the subject before.

“My point of view, while extremely cogent, is unpopular…”, he is reported to have said. “That the repressive nature of the legalities vis-a-vis drugs are destroying the legal system and corrupting the police system.”

Nicholson broke into the movie business with drug-filled pictures like The Trip, and Easy Rider. Nicholson’s Rider co-star Peter Fonda admitted, forty years after the film was made, that the actors had been smoking real marijuana while filming.

In the Mail article, Nicholson recounts his days of hard partying, but said, “There was always a discipline within my partying structure.”

“I’ve woken up in trees, I’ve woken up almost hanging off cliffs, but I’ve always known how to sort myself out,” he said.

The 73-year-old star said that although he still smokes pot, his days of using hard drugs and alcohol are over.

“The last three times I’ve been in New York filming, I didn’t leave my hotel room for one single night. People won’t believe that, but it’s true. But you adjust your life to your circumstances, and I can spend a lot of time on my own. I think of myself as social, but my friends are always telling me, “‘Jack, you need to get out more.'”