Here are 22 quotes about cannabis from some of our favorite doctors, scientists, and other notable figures:
Quotes About Cannabis
1. “The evidence is overwhelming that marijuana can relieve certain types of pain, nausea, vomiting and other symptoms caused by such illnesses as multiple sclerosis, cancer and AIDS …”
Joycelyn Elders, Pediatrician, public health administrator
Source: Medical Marijuana Caregiver’s Journal, Chemo Sabe, 2007
2. “Marihuana worked like a charm…the sheer bliss of not experiencing nausea — and then not having to fear it for all the days intervening between treatments — was the greatest boost I received in all my year of treatment, and surely had a most important effect upon my eventual cure.”
Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and historian of science
Source: Marihuana, The Forbidden Medicine by Lester Grinspoon, M.D. & James B. Bakalar, Yale University Press, 1997
3. “Marijuana is seen as efficacious in reducing nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy”
American Nurses Association
Source: American Nurses Association, In Support of Patients’ Safe Access to Therapeutic Marijuana, December 2008
4. “Contrary to what we’ve all been mis-taught [marijuana is] not a very harmful drug… it’s a drug remarkably free of toxicity providing it’s used intelligently.”
Lester Grinspoon, Psychiatry Professor at Harvard University
Source: ‘Dr. Lester Grinspoon – Harvard Medical School, “We are Brainwashed about Cannabis”’, Canna Insider
5. “I’d like to see the government back a programme of research into the medical properties of cannabis and I do not object to its responsible use as a recreational relaxant.”
Sir Richard Branson, Founder of Virgin Group
Source: Why we believe it is time to decriminalise cannabis, Independent, September 1997
6. “Marijuana doesn’t have a high potential for abuse, and there are very legitimate medical applications. In fact, sometimes marijuana is the only thing that works…”
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Neurosurgeon and TV personality
Source: Why I changed My Mind on Weed, CNN, August 2013
7. “The IOM report, Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base, released in March 1999, found that marijuana’s active components are potentially effective in treating pain, nausea and vomiting, AIDS-related loss of appetite, and other symptoms and should be tested rigorously in clinical trials.”
John A. Benson, Doctor of Medicine, Professor of Internal Medicine
Source: From Marijuana to Medicine, Issues in Science and Technology, Spring 1999
8. “Jurisdictions that have legalized medical marijuana, decriminalized possession of marijuana and/or other drugs, or tolerated limited, retail sales…have not experienced significant, if any, increases in marijuana or other drug use.”
American Public Health Association
Source: What can we learn from the Portuguese decriminalization of illicit drugs?, Br J Criminol, Hughes CE, Stevens A
9. “I’ve been smoking marijuana for 40 years now, and … I think it’s a tremendous blessing.”
Lester Grinspoon, Psychiatry Professor at Harvard University
Source: The Stoner’s Cookbook, Confirmed with Lester Grinspoon by email
10. “New evidence shows marijuana not only helps with cancer side effects but may fight cancer itself! Oh pot, is there anything you can’t do?”
Bill Maher, TV host, comedian
Source: Bill Maher Official Facebook page, September 2012
11. “Is marijuana addictive? Yes, in the sense that most of the really pleasant things in life are worth endlessly repeating.”
Richard Neville, Australian journalist
Source: Playpower, ‘Johnny Pot Wears Gold Sandals and a Black Derby Hat’, 1971
12. “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?”
Willie Nelson, Musician, writer, actor, activist
Source: Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America’s Gutsiest Troublemakers, Nick Offerman, 2015
13. “Marijuana (cannabis) has been used medicinally for centuries. It has been shown to be effective in treating a wide range of symptoms and conditions.”
American Nurses Association
Source: American Nurses Association, In Support of Patients’ Safe Access to Therapeutic Marijuana, December 2008
14. “Why is marijuana against the law? It grows naturally upon our planet. Doesn’t the idea of making nature against the law seem to you a bit . . . unnatural?”
Bill Hicks, Comedian
Source: Revelations, 1992
15. “[Some] patients do not respond well to other medications and have no effective alternative to smoking marijuana…”
John A. Benson, Doctor of Medicine, Professor of Internal Medicine
Source: From Marijuana to Medicine, Issues in Science and Technology, Spring 1999
16. “I don’t think [cannabis] is more dangerous than alcohol.”
Barack Obama
Source: Daily News, January 2014
17. “It is irresponsible not to provide the best care we can as a medical community, care that could involve marijuana. We have been terribly and systematically misled for nearly 70 years in the United States, and I apologize for my own role in that.”
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Neurosurgeon and TV personality
Source: Why I changed My Mind on Weed, CNN, August 2013
18. That is not a drug, it’s a leaf.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger / Governor of California 2003-2010
Source: Independent, October 2007
19. “It is beyond my comprehension that any humane person would withhold such a beneficial substance from people in such great need simply because others use it for different purposes.”
Stephen Jay Gould, American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist and historian of science
Source: Marihuana, The Forbidden Medicine by Lester Grinspoon, M.D. & James B. Bakalar, Yale University Press, 1997
20. “I’ve come to realize there really are medical benefits to medical marijuana. … For many of the patients I spoke with, medical marijuana is not a joke. It’s not funny. It’s a treatment that they’ve come to rely on.”
David Casarett, Physician, author, researcher, and professor at the University of Pennsylvania
Source: When Weed Is The Cure: A Doctor’s Case for Medical Marijuana, NPR, July 2015
21. “I have found in my study of these patients that cannabis is really a safe, effective and non-toxic alternative to many standard medications.”
Philip Denney, Physician and co-founder of a medical cannabis evaluation practice
Source: Testimony to the Arkansas legislature in support of House Bill 1303, “An Act to Permit the Medical Use of Marijuana”, Nov. 17, 2005
22. “Indeed, marijuana is less toxic than many of the drugs that physicians prescribe every day.”
Joycelyn Elders, Pediatrician, Public Health Administrator
Source: Medical Marijuana Caregiver’s Journal, Chemo Sabe, 2007
