On the tail finish of an interview with Time journal for his Icon of the 12 months story, Elton John dropped a bomb: “Legalizing marijuana in America and Canada is without doubt one of the best errors of all time.”
It was preceded by this remark: “I preserve that it’s addictive. It results in different medicine. And if you’re stoned — and I’ve been stoned — you don’t suppose usually.”
Media retailers picked it up immediately, together with my web site CelebStoner. Music followers instantly panned John’s statements, noting his previous as a cocaine addict, which he acknowledged within the interview.
“Disgrace on him,” wrote fan Jeffrey Kabik on Fb. “Authorized weed frees up cops to battle actual crime.”
The 360’s singer Audrey Clark opined, “Large mistake. He must smoke a blunt.”
New Jersey activist Edward Grimes identified, “These pesky legal guidelines don’t have an effect on you if you’re a billionaire with pasty white privilege.”
In the meantime, Keith Saunders of NORML (the group devoted to reforming marijuana legal guidelines) joked, “So THAT’s why he by no means did a reggae track.”
In 2020, John mentioned the event when he was “smoking a joint and listening to [Kraftwerk’s Trans-Europe Express] on actually loud audio system” and thought he noticed God. However now John’s singing a special tune about hashish, which by no means prompted him to overdose like he did on cocaine in 1975 (as was depicted within the John biopic Rocketman).
John’s rivalry that hashish is a gateway to medicine like cocaine and heroin has been debunked many instances. In response to Healthline, “Whereas many individuals do use hashish earlier than utilizing different substances, that alone isn’t proof that hashish use prompted them to do different medicine. One thought is that hashish — like alcohol and nicotine — is usually simpler to entry and afford than different substances. So, if somebody goes to do them, they’ll in all probability begin with hashish.”
On the identical time, the “California sober” strategy, the place hashish is used as an “exit drug” to assist these battling substance abuse taper off from extra highly effective opiates and the like, has gained traction lately, as has the motion to reclassify hashish federally from a Schedule I narcotic — outlined as medicine “which have a excessive potential for abuse and no medical use within the U.S.” — alongside heroin and fentanyl, to Schedule III, which is extra acceptable to the instances and would eradicate the state-federal divide when it comes felony expenses for possession or use.
As for John’s declare that marijuana legalization “is without doubt one of the best errors of all time,” that’s arduous to fathom. Would John desire folks proceed to go to jail for pot? He by no means was caught, by no means had a mug shot or frolicked in in a cell. He’s a privileged rock star who was fortunate to outlive the ’70s and ’80s, in contrast to a few of his colleagues. One might additionally argue that greater than half of America disagrees: 38 states have decriminalized hashish for medical use; 24 enable for leisure use — legal guidelines voted in by residents.
In his 2012 ebook Love Is the Remedy, John wrote: “I used to be so ignorant about medicine and so naive. I imply, my band was smoking marijuana for years; I didn’t even know what a joint was. And I’d by no means seen a line of cocaine in my life, and I don’t know whether or not it’s bravado, or, ‘OK, I’ll take part,’ however, [in] my stupidity, I had a line of coke and that began the entire course of… I all the time mentioned cocaine was the drug that made me open up. I might discuss to folks. However then it turned the drug that closed me down, as a result of the final two weeks of my use of cocaine I spent in a room in London, utilizing it and never popping out for 2 weeks. And it utterly shut me down.”
Within the Time interview, he additionally commented: “You make horrible selections on medicine. It actually upsets me, considering again on how many individuals I in all probability damage.”
His co-songwriter Bernie Taupin instructed Time, “I used to be terrified for him. It was completely horrible. Numerous the work that we did within the instances when he was at his worst wasn’t the most effective of each of us. I wasn’t in a position to creatively make investments any time in writing materials that associated to him till he really discovered himself, after which it was simpler for me to replicate upon it.”
Taupin, who has spoken about his personal drug issues, might need been referring to songs just like the peppy 1977 disco quantity, “Chunk Your Lip (Get Up and Dance).”
In 1990, John sought remedy at Lutheran Normal Hospital in Illinois for drug, alcohol and meals addictions and later joined Alcoholics Nameless. He’s been sober ever since.
With John, now 77, not touring and affected by sudden blindness as a consequence of an eye fixed an infection, you’d suppose he may loosen up about hashish, which is thought to assist folks with glaucoma, or be inclined to mild one up and provides it one other strive.
Steve Bloom is the founding father of CelebStoner.
