Updated: October 2023
When cannabis makes an appearance on the silver screen, clueless characters and raunchy, lowbrow humor usually follow suit. There’s nothing wrong with harmless jokes about trippy highs, but some “stoner movies” actually have something to say about society, recreational cannabis use, and the turbulent relationship between the two.
This list includes a little bit of both. From an animated hallucination to a tongue-in-cheek “just say no” satire, these 13 quotes are some of our favorite examples of onscreen cannabis references.
1. Friday (1995)
Smokey (Chris Tucker): Weed is from the earth. God put this here for me and you. Take advantage, man, take advantage.
2. Grandma’s Boy (2006)
Grandma Lilly (Doris Roberts) [after mistaking cannabis for tea]: I can hear my hair growing.
3. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)
Dewey (John C. Reilly) [after a groupie offers him a joint]: You know what, I don’t want no hangover. I can’t get no hangover.
Sam (Tim Meadows): It doesn’t give you a hangover!
Dewey: What if I get addicted to it or something?
Sam: It’s not habit-forming!
Dewey Cox: Oh, okay… well, I don’t know… I don’t want to overdose on it.
Sam: You can’t OD on it!
Dewey Cox: It’s not gonna make me wanna have sex, is it?
Sam: It makes sex even better!
Dewey Cox: Sounds kind of expensive.
Sam: It’s the cheapest drug there is.
4. How High (2001)
Silas (Method Man): So, you’re trying to get something to bring your nerves down too, huh, bro?
Jamal (Redman): Yeah… I figure if I study high, take the test high, get high scores! Right?
5. Pineapple Express (2008)
Saul (James Franco) [after Dale (Seth Rogen) picks up a cross-shaped joint]: You ever smoke one of those?
Dale: You could SMOKE this? No.
Saul: This. Is. The future. This is like the apex of the vortex of joint engineering. It’s rumored that M. M. O’Shaughnessy designed the first one – the guy who designed the Golden Gate Bridge. My second favorite civil engineer behind Hannskarl Bandel, Madison Square Garden. What you do is you light all three ends at the same time—
Dale: Really?!
Saul: —and then the smoke converges, creating a trifecta of joint-smoking power. This is it, man. This is what your grandchildren are gonna be smoking. The future. The future.
6. Super Troopers (2001)
Thorny (Jay Chandrasekhar): Littering and… smoking the reefer. Now to teach you boys a lesson, me and officer Rabbit are going to stand here while you three smoke the whole bag.
7. Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke (1978)
Pedro De Pacas (Cheech Marin): Hey man, am I driving okay?
Anthony “Man” Stoner (Tommy Chong): I think we’re parked, man.
8. Half Baked (1998)
Thurgood (Dave Chappelle): The MacGyver smoker is a very handy guy to have around, especially when it comes to reefer.
[Reenactment] Friend: Hey, man, we’re out of papers.
McGayver Smoker (Stephen Baldwin): All right. Then get me a toilet paper roll, a corkscrew and some tin foil.
Friend: We don’t have a corkscrew.
McGayver Smoker: All right. Then get me an avocado, an ice pick and my snorkel. Trust me, bro. I’ve made bongs with less. Hurry up!
9. Friday (1995)
Smokey: I know you don’t smoke weed. I know this, but I’m gonna get you high today, because it’s Friday, you ain’t got no job, and you ain’t got shit to do!
10. Pineapple Express (2008)
Saul [describing Pineapple Express, a new cannabis strain]: This is like if that Blue Oyster shit met that Afghan Kush I had, and they had a baby. And then, meanwhile, that crazy Northern Light stuff I had and the Super Red Espresso Snowflake met and had a baby. And by some miracle, those two babies met and f***ed. This would be the shit that they birthed.
11. Knocked Up (2007)
Ben (Seth Rogen): It is, like, the best medicine. Because it fixes everything. Jonah broke his elbow once. He just got high, and it still clicks, but I mean… he’s okay.
12. Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004)
Harold (John Cho) [riding a cheetah]: Dude, am I really high, or is this actually working?
Kumar (Kal Penn): Both.
13. Reefer Madness (1936):
FBI official [referring to a newspaper clipping]: A fifteen-year-old lad apprehended in the act of staging a holdup. Fifteen years old, and a marijuana addict. Here is a most tragic case.
Dr. Carroll: Yes. I remember. Just a young boy under the influence of drugs, who killed his entire family with an axe.
Chronic Therapy
At Chronic Therapy, we cultivate dozens of exclusive strains so you can choose the effects you experience. Before your next cannabis movie marathon, visit our recreational cannabis dispensary in Wheat Ridge and Cortez, Colorado, to browse our selection of cannabis strains, concentrates, topicals, and edibles.