At the age of 84, Loretta Lynn tried marijuana for the first time. The country music legend was prescribed the drug as a way to soothe the painful symptoms of her glaucoma. However, unlike her good pal Willie Nelson (famous for his love of smoking weed), she said her first marijuana experience would also be her last.
“I got glaucoma and they gave me one of these cigarettes,” said Lynn. “I took one smoke off of it and it hit me right here in the chest. I like to have died! Glaucoma is just going to have to take over.”
After catching wind that Lynn is giving up on medicinal marijuana as a form of treatment, Nelson is urging his friend to give it another shot, but this time with his help.
“She’s got a lot of guts,” Nelson told The Associated Press in Nashville, Tennessee according to Billboard. “She’ll try anything. Maybe I should help her.”
The 83-year-old outlaw country singer is seeking to assist a lot more people than just Lynn to give marijuana a try. Nelson recently signed on as the face of a line of legal marijuana in Colorado and Washington, cleverly coined “Willie’s Reserve.” The line is a long time in the making for the country music legend who has been an active advocate for the legalization of marijuana for decades.
The incoming administration has many advocates in fear of a federal-wide marijuana ban due to Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Jeff Sessions, who has said multiple times he doesn’t believe marijuana should be legalized on a national level. However, Nelson remains optimistic his business venture will endure.
“I think people would be smarter than that,” Nelson said. “You look and see the benefits. You weigh them against the things that might possibly happen. I think marijuana is probably the safest medicine you can take. These new guys that are coming in there trying to shut it down, I don’t think they will be successful. People will say, ‘Hey wait a minute. Heroin, cocaine, OK. But it grows in the ground. It seems to be normal. Let it alone.'”
Nelson will be releasing his forthcoming album, God’s Problem Child, this coming spring with longtime producer Buddy Cannon. The album will feature a song written by Cannon’s 92-year-old mother as well as a few of the final recordings by musician Leon Russell, whom passed away last November.
So what do you think? Should Loretta Lynn give the medicinal drug one last try or call it quits? Let us know in the comments!