CBD is having its moment in Hollywood. The ingredient, also known as cannabinoid, is an oil derived from hemp plants (not hemp seeds) and is found in both marijuana and hemp plants. Unlike marijuana, CBD is legal in all 50 states, however recreational marijuana is legal now in a number of states. Celebrities are increasingly vocal and open about green in their lives. This includes use of CBD for a myriad of health and beauty treatments, to marijuana as normal a part of recreation as James Bond’s martinis. And let’s not leave out business! Some who use neither CBD nor marijuana are not immune to these new opportunities in the marketplace.
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Seth Rogen – For Alzheimer’s Treatment
We all know how much Seth Rogen loves marijuana and we have seen him smoke up in movies such as “Pineapple Express” and “This is The End”. There are some actors who fake being stoners, but Rogen is proud to admit that he is indeed a pothead.
Seth also believes strongly in the benefits of cannabis for Alzheimer’s prevention. In particular, Rogen’s passion circulates around the legalization of CBD for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Rogen’s mother-in-law, Adele Miller, had an early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. He saw first-hand the way how the illness changed her and left her unable to care for herself.
Appearing in front of Congress in 2014, Rogen documented these changes and the impact the disease had on his family’s life. He argued in support of legislation to increase federal funding for care and research of Alzheimer’s.
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Alessandra Ambrosio – For a Good Night’s Sleep
Victoria’s Secret model Alessandra Ambrosio swears by CBD to help her with sleep and anxiety. In an interview, she mentioned that it’s important to get eight full hours of sleep to be ready for a runway show. However, with the stress of an upcoming fashion show, it can be difficult to calm the mind enough sleep easily. When Ambrosio gets anxious, she uses CBD oil to feel more relaxed and peaceful. She also drinks CBD water for an extra cannabis-powered boost.
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Whoopi Goldberg – For Good Living and More
Whoopi Goldberg is a talk show host of The View, actress, performer, comedienne, and cannabis advocate. In fact, many would agree that she is an outspoken cannabis advocate. Goldberg proudly supports CBD as a health supplement.
Whoopi speaks highly of cannabis and its counterparts for various health issues not just feminine. She’s used a vape pen for years for pain, stress and glaucoma. Whoopi has also admitted to consuming CBD when she cannot get THC. She supports people consuming CBD at work as the compound is non-psychoactive.
Last year, she and Maya Elisabeth started Maya & Whoopi – which sells edibles, tinctures, salves, and more.
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Woody Harrelson – For Art and Commerce
Woody Harrelson, a marijuana advocate and actor, has tried and failed to gain a permit that would allow him to open his own marijuana dispensary in Hawaii. A hugely versatile actor, Harrelson has appeared in countless popular tv series and films such as Cheers, Natural Born Killers, White Men Can’t Jump, Zombieland, The Hunger Games, and Seven Psychopaths, to name a few.
Marijuana has even cropped up in his film career. He narrated a weed documentary named Grass and appeared in another documentary by the same director called Go Further. He co-starred with fellow marijuana enthusiasts Matthew McConaughey and Willie Nelson in the stoner comedy Surfer, Dude before popping up in another documentary called Hempsters: Plant the Seed.
Here’s betting Harrelson will get his dispensary in the future!
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Mike Tyson – It’s a Good Investment
Former boxer Mike Tyson is also constructing Tyson Ranch, a project to build a pot farm in California City, approximately 50 miles from Los Angeles. Rob Hickman, an investor backing Tyson Ranch, told CNNMoney that Tyson “doesn’t drink anymore, he’s a heavy CBD and a heavy marijuana user.” “The news of Mike Tyson setting up a cannabis farm caught many by surprise because he’s not necessarily a figure that you would associate with cannabis use,” said John Kagia, a cannabis industry analyst for New Frontier Data.
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Gene Simmons – Purely for Business
Aside from advocating the amazing benefits that CBD has to offer, many celebrities also invest in the cannabis industry. Gene Simmons invested $10 million in Invictus, a Canadian cannabis grower. Although he’s never smoked pot, he’s quoted as saying that he believes in cannabis. For Simmons, it’s purely a business move. “I’ve got $10 million wrapped up in the stock because I believe in it,” Simmons told CNNMoney. Invictus went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange last month with a ticker bearing his name: GENE.
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Montel Williams – A Veteran’s Recovery
Montel has been famous for years for his acting career, but in 2016 the cannabis community won a huge victory while he was travelling through the Frankfurt airport. Police found cannabinoids in his luggage, but after he proved that it was CBD prescribed as a medical use product by a licensed doctor, he was released. Williams suffers from Multiple Sclerosis and has been a proponent of legalization ever since he tried it and found relief. He has been an outspoken advocate since 1999.
Eighteen years ago, television celebrity Montel Williams couldn’t have imagined he’d one day be standing in a sleek Santa Ana dispensary chatting with fans about his new line of cannabis products. Long before California’s modern “green rush,” back when medical marijuana patients still risked having their homes seized for giving cannabis to needy friends, Williams was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He was also in constant pain, downing a dozen opioids a day and battling depression that left him suicidal.
In 2001, a doctor quietly recommended that Williams try medical marijuana to ease the chronic nerve pain and muscle spasms that accompany his incurable autoimmune disease. Williams says he found immediate relief, and he’s taken cannabis products almost daily since.
He’s also become one of the most high-profile proponents of medical marijuana, supporting legalization initiatives throughout the country even as threats of a crackdown by the Trump administration are looming.
“I feel no one has a right to get into the middle of a conversation between a doctor and a patient,” he said. “If a doctor recommends cannabis, then everyone else needs to shut up and get out of that conversation.”
Williams is passionate about ensuring that serious medical patients such as himself – who need super clean, easy-to-consume products with precise ratios of particular compounds – don’t get forgotten as the more-profitable recreational marijuana movement spreads.
That mission led him Wednesday to Bud and Bloom dispensary in Santa Ana, where the trim 61-year-old in a bright paisley shirt was introducing the first two products available from his new California-based company, LenitivLabs.
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Melissa Etheridge – “Marijuana is Medicine”
Singer Melissa Etheridge realized that marijuana is medicine when she had breast cancer 13 years ago. She has been a recreational marijuana smoker since early adulthood.
After Melissa received her first round of chemotherapy 13 years ago, her whole viewpoint on cannabis changed. Whereas she has previously seen marijuana as something to use for fun, she discovered that it helped to alleviate the terrible suffering caused by chemotherapy. It helped with the pain, and it helped her with depression. Now she is fully recovered and even smokes pot with her adult children!
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Rihanna – For the People
Truly music royalty, Rihanna has won nine Grammy Awards, 12 Billboard Music Awards, and 12 American Music Awards. She has sold over 250 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling musicians of all time, and there seems to be no end in sight to her output. Rihanna is open about her use of marijuana and continues to advocate for its wider legalization and usage.
If there’s one thing that Rihanna doesn’t care about, it’s what people have to say about her. Her public display of affection towards marijuana has been publicized and criticized — even more so since the singer hopped on Instagram in 2011 — still instead of paying mind to the comments section, she rolls up a blunt for the haters. We can’t be mad at that. You love who and what you love, right?
Rihanna’s relationship with weed sparked rumors in 2010 of the singer being banned from a Barbados hotel for heavy pot smoking. Before we knew it, the singer was an advocate for greenery through countless Instagram selfies, showing her with a blunt either between her red-hued lips or between her fingertips.
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Michael J. Fox – Parkinson’s Relief
Best known for starring in the Back to the Future trilogy and the original Teen Wolf, Michael J. Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991 at the age of 29. He has since begun using CBD as a means of alleviating his Parkinson’s symptoms. The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research has found that a high amount of cannabinoid receptors are found in the human basal ganglia, a group of brain cells responsible for movement and affected by Parkinson’s disease. Several studies funded by MJFF have found that cannabinoids, like CBD, may help to protect brain cells via antioxidant and anti-inflammatory mechanisms.
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Jim Belushi – Back to the Earth
Jim Belushi is an American actor, comedian, farmer, singer and musician. He is the younger brother of the deceased comic actor John Belushi.
Jim’s happy place is growing pot in Oregon. He describes a spiritual connection to the marijuana he’s growing on his 93-acre spread near Eagle Point. Belushi started his cannabis enterprise three years ago with a 48-plant medical marijuana grow that has expanded into the greenhouses, equipment and manpower to compete in an ever-changing cannabis industry.
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Morgan Freeman – For Chronic Pain
Morgan Freeman is an American actor, producer, and narrator. What many fans of his legendary acting don’t realize is that Freeman is using his voice to fight for cannabis legalization. That’s correct, Freeman has pushed for medical marijuana legislation, and arguably way before it was a popular social movement. His advocacy for cannabis use has helped normalize the conversation.
Based on his more recent interviews on the subject, we can safely assume that Freeman has been using cannabis, at least recreationally, since Woodstock. It seems as if the plant’s potential medicinal applications were suggested to him only in 2008, though, after a severe motor vehicle accident left him with chronic pain.
