Althouse: After 30 years of marijuana use, Woody Harrelson gives it up because it was "keeping me from being emotionally available."

March 25, 2017

After 30 years of marijuana use, Woody Harrelson gives it up because it was "keeping me from being emotionally available."

"Still, he has nothing bad to say about marijuana, which he calls 'a great drug.'"

He's right — isn't he? — about the biggest problem with marijuana.

45 comments:

Rae said...: In my experience, heavy marijuana users are generally dropouts from their own lives.; 3/25/17, 8:53 AM
rehajm said...: 30 years of pot smoking makes you believe stopping pot smoking after 30 years will make you emotionally available.; 3/25/17, 8:55 AM
Will Cate said...: You could say that about any psychoactive substance, but, yes.; 3/25/17, 8:56 AM
traditionalguy said...: Self medicating with drugs never ends well. The best it can do is allow a user to start over again and again from nothing left to lose. You can say that passing out is a good way to be reborn, until the day you just plain die. Ask Janis Joplin.; 3/25/17, 9:03 AM
Michael The Magnificent said...: But will he give up Twinkies?; 3/25/17, 9:07 AM
Virgil Hilts said...: He seems to be a functioning pothead; he was truly fantastic in True Detective (though the idea that he got to be both married to Michelle Monaghan while having an affair with Alexandra Daddario (I thought) detracted somewhat from the otherwise gritty realism - something Woody apparently failed to object to in his psychotropic haze).; 3/25/17, 9:11 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: From "White Men Can't Jump" to "White Man Dumps Hemp."

Something like that.

I am Laslo.; 3/25/17, 9:25 AM
jaydub said...: It's going to be difficult for the average observer to tell he's off drugs.; 3/25/17, 9:34 AM
Meade said...: "He's right — isn't he? — about the biggest problem with marijuana."

Yes he is right. Marijuana makes people almost as emotionally unavailable as alcohol does. Trouble with alcohol is it also makes people TOO emotionally available. Which is disgusting and boring.; 3/25/17, 9:36 AM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: When did being emotionally available become a desirable characteristic in a man?; 3/25/17, 9:37 AM
David said...: That and the cognitive fog it produces.; 3/25/17, 9:39 AM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: I smoked pot occasionally in college, but gave it up when I realized A. I really didn't enjoy being high all that much and B. it makes you feel OK about doing nothing, fine with being lazy and unambitious. A couple of times, I went to a friend's place to smoke pot before going to a party or out to a gallery and we got high and ended up not leaving her place. Instead we sat there and watched some old movie and ate Doritos and giggled about dumb stuff. It's more interesting and fun to to actually, you know, go out into the world and engage with it.

At least Harrelson became a movie star, which is more than many do. Just about everyone who came of age since the '60's knows of at least one stoner who made getting high his chief priority in life. I know 2 potheads who were content to get crappy low-level jobs and lived at home with mom and dad until they were almost 40.

On the flip side, I also know plenty of people who have smoked pot occasionally their entire adult lives with no seeming ill effects. To them, it's no different than having an after dinner drink.

I don't think it should be illegal. But it's certainly not the entirely benign substance many pot advocates pretend it is.

And I think I was always kind of repelled by the pot culture. The marijuana leaf belt buckles and T-shirts, Cheech and Chong,the head shops and bongs, pot brownie recipes - all that crap. Perhaps it was just sour grapes, because I was really bad at rolling joints, or as they say now, spiffs.; 3/25/17, 9:48 AM
madAsHell said...: At 55 years of age, and you're worried about being emotionally available?

Emotionally available? This sounds like something a woman would say. I'm guessing he got the the pot or pussy ultimatum!!; 3/25/17, 9:52 AM
Carol said...: I was all enthralled with pot when I was 18, when a guy at a love-in got me high on some awful Mexican stuff. Within the year I tired of it, only to see it really take off seemingly everywhere. People were really pushy about it, and would get on your case for not getting high with them. In fact I was fired from a band for not going on the breaks with them. Got so I hated the whole damn thing. Makes you stupid the next morning, and you break things.

But it might be good for pain, someday if I need it. Any sort of interference with the pain signal can be helpful.; 3/25/17, 9:54 AM
damikesc said...: I don't think pot makes you emotionally unavailable. That's just the personality.

Pot likely makes it more pronounced.; 3/25/17, 9:55 AM
Meade said...: Emotionally available is sexy. Emotionally unavailable is not.; 3/25/17, 10:01 AM
J. Farmer said...: Hmm...I'd like to answer, but I have no idea what "emotionally available" even means.; 3/25/17, 10:04 AM
rehajm said...: I don't think pot makes you emotionally unavailable. That's just the personality. Pot likely makes it more pronounced.

Back when you could quote Cosby, someone told him cocaine was great because it intensified your personality. Cosby: But what is you're an asshole?; 3/25/17, 10:21 AM
Bad Lieutenant said...: You're emotionally unavailable, and apparently you don't take anything but wine by the box :-); 3/25/17, 10:25 AM
Fernandinande said...: An actor's job is to display fake emotions. When he can fake sincerity he'll have it made.; 3/25/17, 10:44 AM
Mary Beth said...: What if he's mixing up cause and effect? Maybe "emotionally unavailable" people tend more to become heavy users.; 3/25/17, 11:10 AM
Rusty said...: J. Farmer said...
"Hmm...I'd like to answer, but I have no idea what "emotionally available" even means."

Guys in dresses probably know.; 3/25/17, 11:47 AM
Michael said...: Pot, as Harrelson demonstrates, makes one stupid.; 3/25/17, 12:05 PM
heyboom said...: Kind of ironic that after expending considerable energy trying to get marijuana legalized he gives it up after it's starting to become legal in states.; 3/25/17, 12:08 PM
Simon Kenton said...: Last I smoked was down in the canyon of the Arkansas near the tracks in the night. When the train came by you leaned into it for the dazzle, the dense blasts of heat and cold thrust off the engines and the spaces between cars, the layers of scent from exhaust, brakes, lubricants, the thrum of diesel and stridor of flange on rail. Those rails have turned to rust; this was decades ago. It was wonderful. I got 3 months of bronchitis out of it and thought, "Wonderful? Yes. But not worth it."; 3/25/17, 12:16 PM
FullMoon said...: Moderation is key; 3/25/17, 12:34 PM
Bob Loblaw said...: He seems to be a functioning pothead; he was truly fantastic in True Detective...

He's done his best work over the last fifteen years or so. Everybody likes to think they're getting better at what they do as time goes by, but in Harrelson's case it's true.

Kind of ironic that after expending considerable energy trying to get marijuana legalized he gives it up after it's starting to become legal in states.

My brother used to be into indie music. As soon as a band became popular if you asked him about that band he'd snort with disgust and say "they sold out".; 3/25/17, 1:09 PM
SukieTawdry said...: What does it mean to be "emotionally available"?; 3/25/17, 1:20 PM
CJ said...: I've always found marijuana to be boring and the body buzz makes me uncomfortable.

There are much more interesting drugs out there, and I don't mean common psychadelics like LSD or mushrooms. Maybe I didn't take enough or high quality enough LSD, but I wasn't wowed by it. Made me laugh and see trails but didn't give me greater consciousness.

In my opinion the most interesting drug is speed. The right amount will quite literally expand your mind. Finding the right amount is the hard part to find though - too much and you go nuts.; 3/25/17, 1:42 PM
Meade said...: In this case, I suspect it meant Woody Harrelson agreed that he needs to be a better husband and dad.; 3/25/17, 2:06 PM
mockturtle said...: emotionally available??? Ye gods!; 3/25/17, 2:06 PM
mockturtle said...: In this case, I suspect it meant Woody Harrelson agreed that he needs to be a better husband and dad.

You are right, Meade. But why wouldn't he have said it that way? Somehow 'emotionally available' sounds like something a female clinical psychologist would come up with.; 3/25/17, 2:08 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I think the main effect of marijuana is apathy.; 3/25/17, 2:22 PM
Meade said...: "In my opinion the most interesting drug is speed."

"Pot is fun." "Speed kills."

Steve Jobs: "Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life."; 3/25/17, 2:25 PM
Meade said...: "something a female clinical psychologist would come up with"

Exactly. That's where he got it.; 3/25/17, 2:30 PM
FullMoon said...: CJ said... [hush][hide comment]

I've always found marijuana to be boring and the body buzz makes me uncomfortable.

There are much more interesting drugs out there,...

Yeah, apparantly there is one out there now that encourages some people to strip all their clothes off, attack people and try to eat thier faces, as opposed to plain ol' PCP/Angel dust that makes some strip naked and fight with three or four cops in the middle of the street.; 3/25/17, 2:36 PM
whitney said...: About 6 or 7 years ago I was in a bad accident and was confined to a wheelchair for about 6 months and because my house wasn't wheelchair accessible I had to call the fire department every time I had to go to a Dr appointment, which is a service btw, so that was the only time I left the house. I smoked lots of weed then and it definitely kept me from going stir crazy but I was happy to stop when I rejoined the world.; 3/25/17, 4:22 PM
mockturtle said...: Ann posits: I think the main effect of marijuana is apathy.

I'd have to disagree. Apathy implies lack of interest in anything. While I would argue that pot makes one un-ambitious, unproductive and unperturbed, it makes food, sex and old movies very interesting, indeed.; 3/25/17, 4:28 PM
FullMoon said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/25/17, 4:48 PM
n.n said...: His experience describes any obsessive behavior, but a psychoactive drug would at minimum increase the recovery time.; 3/25/17, 4:48 PM
rcocean said...: "Taking LSD was a profound experience, one of the most important things in my life."

I've always been amazed at what a complete moron Steve Jobs was -unless it related to computers and making money.

His stupidity literally killed him.; 3/25/17, 4:53 PM
rcocean said...: It isn't hard for an actor to be a functional alcoholic or pot head. They only need to work part of the year and most of their "Work" consists in sitting around on the set, waiting for their turn to get in front of the camera.

Its not like they're doing brain surgery.; 3/25/17, 4:55 PM
CJ said...: In the right dosage speed helps people do very important things.; 3/25/17, 5:04 PM
FullMoon said...: Blogger CJ said...

In the right dosage speed helps people do very important things.

And her knights they toast the tournament,
The falcons they fly above.
And the queen will a drink of the dew tonight
But the jester she cries alone,
Because Merlin he spoke of an instant spell
To make the devil's white knights moan
And-a all in all, the seagull said,
"As I look to where I've been,
The whole wide human race
Has a-taken far too much Methedrine".
What goes on? Chick-a-chick.
What goes on? I really wanna know.; 3/25/17, 9:00 PM
mockturtle said...: A line from The Boys in the Band "Give me Librium or give me meth."

I gave up weed and other rec drugs when I left the hippie life.; 3/25/17, 11:26 PM