Hellraiser Keith Richards has revealed he still often kickstarts his day smoking cannabis – aged 71.
The Rolling Stones legend told how he has been unable to kick his weed habit despite giving up his other vices.
Rocker Keith told MOJO magazine: “One of the most pleasant things to watch is a map of America [showing States where cannabis is legal ], where it goes, green... green... green.
"Whether it’s a good thing in the long run, I don’t know.”
Speaking in 2010, guitarist Keith claimed he had “given up everything now” after a lifetime spent taking drugs.
He quit heroin in 1978 after his fifth arrest, and cocaine in 2006 after he fell from a tree in Fiji and needed brain surgery.
On quitting coke, he said previously: “You’re like, ‘I’ve got the message, oh Lord’. I’ve given up everything now – which is a trip in itself.
"I’m just waiting for them to invent something more interesting… I’m all ready to road-test it, when they do.”
Asked by MOJO if he still drank, he said: “I like to keep my hand in.” But he insisted: “Other than that, I’m pretty straight.”
Keith said in his autobiography Life he believes the secret to his longevity is that the drugs he took were of a high quality.
He wrote: “I’d never put more in to get a little higher. That’s where most f*** up.
“It’s the greed involved that never really affected me. People think once they’ve got this high, if they take some more they’re going to get a little higher.
“There’s no such thing. Especially with cocaine. Maybe that’s a measure of control and I’m rare in that respect.”
In the chat with MOJO, he also claimed Mick Jagger, 72, got off lightly in his autobiography despite Keith saying his bandmate had a “tiny todger”.
In the book, he famously wrote: “Marianne Faithfull had no fun with his tiny todger. I know he’s got an enormous pair of balls – but it doesn’t quite fill the gap.”
Keith said: “He called me and said, ‘I have to talk to you…’ Of course, a few things rankled with him.
"But I then produced the pages I’d blue-pencilled out. ‘Look – you’re getting off lightly, pal!’”
He added: “Mick and I joust with each other all the time. From my end, it’s never been a fight. Mick’s a control freak.
“It’s necessary for him to believe he’s ‘numero uno’ so most of the time I go along with it – unless I think he’s making a really wrong decision affecting the Stones.
“We enjoy jousting, I wake up in the middle of the night sometimes and jot down a line – ‘I’ll save that one for him’.”
But he said they were “mates” at the end of the day.
“He’s amazing. What he puts in there is a rare dedication.
“It’s like, ‘Relax, Mick – take it easy.’ But Mick Jagger relaxing? That’s very rare.”
The rocker, who also confirmed there would be a new Stones album, joked: “He doesn’t particularly like to work with me all the time – but he doesn’t want me to work with anyone else, either.
“He’s a bit jealous in that way.”
Regular cannabis use 'always carries risks'
Cannabis use “always” comes with risks at any age, medics have warned.
Dr Ian Campbell, of Park House Medical Centre, based in Nottingham and London, said regular use can cause anxiety, insomnia and depression.
He said: “There’s always the risk of it being a lead-in to harder drug use.
"People who are at risk of psychotic illness like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder increase their risk even more when using cannabis.
“There is some argument for using cannabis to help chronic pain, in MS for example, but the evidence is poor.
“Even occasional use of cannabis is unhelpful and an unacceptable risk for health and wellbeing.”
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