2012 Top 50 Most Influential Marijuana Users
Thank you for checking out MPP's first annual "Top 50 Most Influential Marijuana Users" list. In order to come up with the final ranking, we asked our supporters to choose from nearly 200 influential people to help us narrow down the list to the final 50 you see here. We took the 37 individuals who received the most votes from our supporters and added them to MPP's top 13 automatic qualifiers (including people like Clarence Thomas). Then all 50 were ranked using the criteria below.
In order to have qualified for the list, each individual must (1) have tried marijuana at least once, (2) be alive, and (3) be living in the U.S. or be a U.S. citizen. We also asked our supporters to adhere to the definition for the "Power 50" list that's used by "Out" magazine, which employs the following criteria: "the power to influence cultural and social attitudes, political clout, individual wealth, and a person's media profile."
In sum, we're not concerned with an individual's popularity, or even whether he or she supports marijuana policy reform. Rather, the 2012 "Top 50 Most Influential Marijuana Users" list is meant to identify people who have used marijuana and achieved high levels of success or influence.
We hope you enjoy this list. We're excited to see how the most influential marijuana users change from year to year. (Prediction: Newt Gingrich will drop off the list.)
22. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
“Regular marijuana use didn't impede the ability of basketball legend… Kareem Abdul-Jabbar”
(Source: Forbes)
23. Brad Pitt
“I was hiding out from the celebrity thing, I was smoking way too much [marijuana].”
(Source: Daily Mail)
24. Angelina Jolie
“… the one that has the worst effect for me was pot. I felt silly and giggly - I hate feeling like that.”
(Source: Metro)
25. Harrison Ford
“At the 2002 NORML Conference, Bill Maher called for "prominent people... who smoke a lot of pot," like Ford.”
(Source: Celebstoner)
26. David Letterman
“I went through one period when I smoked a surprising, a really breath-taking, amount of grass almost every night.”
(Source: Cannabis Culture)
27. Jack Nicholson
“The hard drugs are gone, but he continues… to smoke cannabis.”
(Source: Daily Mail)
28. Jeff Bridges
“If it's (marijuana) offered I'll take it but I'm not a regular smoker, despite what people may think.”
(Source: azcentral.com)
29. Oliver Stone
“I went to Vietnam, and I was there for a long time. [Using marijuana] made the difference between staying human or, as Michael Douglas said, becoming a beast.”
(Source: The Raw Story)
30. Johnny Depp
"I'm not a great pothead or anything like that… but weed is much, much less dangerous than alcohol."
(Source: Celebstoner)
