World famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson does not understand why marijuana is illegal.
Neil deGrasse Tyson is famous for his notable work in the field of astrophysics. He hosted the revival of Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” and is following Sagan’s footsteps in another way as well.
Like Sagan, Tyson does not believe marijuana should be criminalized.
“The illegality of cannabis is outrageous,” Sagan wrote in the 1971 book “Marihuana Reconsidered.” “An impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.”
Tom Angell, of Marijuana Majority submitted a question to Tyson at a public event asking the physicist about his views on marijuana.
“If you really analyze it,” Tyson said, “relative to other things that are legal, there’s no reason for it to ever have been made illegal in the system of laws.”
“Alcohol is legal,” he continued, “and it can mess you up way more than smoking a few J’s.”
Tyson is not an advocate for marijuana. “I don’t count myself among active recreational drug users,” Tyson said in a 2015 Reddit AMA. “For me, the least altered state of awareness I can achieve is the one I seek, because that one is most likely to be closest to reality.”
However, even if his job takes him into the cosmos, Tyson seems to have a grounded approach to marijuana. His views are in line with the majority of Americans. A recent poll showed that 94 percent of Americans support medical marijuana while 61 percent support recreational use.
