Beloved singer—and now actress—Stefani Germanotta, aka Lady Gaga, is a huge star, one that we’re pretty sure could speed up the cannabis liberation movement if she decided to speak more on it. Gaga has always been candid about cannabis use in the past, but in those times, the still existing stigma seemed to shade past revelations, like when she told the z100 Morning Show with Elvis Duran in 2013, “I do put that pressure on myself; I have to be high to be creative. I need that, that’s an error in my life that happened for over 10 years. Can I be brilliant without it?”
After a bad injury, medical cannabis became a source of pain relief for Lady Gaga— even though she notes a bit of concurrent escapism. Considering the common tale of opioid abuse spouting from chronic pain management, we should be more than happy to see Gaga going the cannabis route no matter who doesn’t approve.
During that old interview she said, “I have been addicted to it and it’s ultimately related to anxiety coping and it’s a form of self-medication and I was smoking up to 15-20 marijuana cigarettes a day with no tobacco.
I was living on a totally other psychedelic plane, numbing myself completely, and looking back I do see now that some of it had to do with my hip pain. I didn’t know where the pain was coming from so I was just in a lot of pain and very depressed all the time and not really sure why.”
This pain is very much still a part of Lady Gaga’s life, on full display in last year’s Netflix documentary Five Foot Two, where she is shown on camera smoking cannabis rolled cigarillos throughout filming. It’s heartbreaking to see how chronic pain and autoimmune conditions can hurt someone who even has all of the resources that Gaga has, but knowing that she finds at least some relief in cannabis is reassuring.
People magazine also noticed that Gaga never gave any verbal explanation during Five Foot Two, “While the singer never addresses her use of marijuana, Gaga is seen smoking several joints on camera. Whether she’s riding in the car, recording music, or hanging out with friends, the singer never passes up the opportunity to light up.”
Advocates often want another piece of Gaga, and though it’s true that many cannabis people wish she would talk about it more openly, with judgy quotes like those in People, one of the leading celebrity rags, it’s not hard to see why she just wants to let it speak for itself. Legalization could be coming to her home state of New York as soon as springtime, so maybe we will hear more about it.
Now that Lady Gaga is heading for yet another awards season, this time as an actress and a singer, here’s hoping her profile continues to rise. Maybe down the road she will dish more to the mainstream about how cannabis helps her life. The conversations may yet come up, being that A Star Is Born was a very emotional portrait of addiction. This is a hugely painful topic for many Americans, and since more research comes out each month about how cannabis can help with many forms of substance abuse, it could very well be discussed on the awards junket. We’ll be watching and listening for these interesting questions to be addressed by one of our cannabis favs.
