There are probably far more obvious legal, cultural and health reasons to embrace cannabis, but Chelsea Handler’s enthusiasm for it is tied very specifically to one politician.
It probably hit its peak on Nov. 8, 2016, after Handler realized that cannabis was useful in soothing the sense of apocalyptic anxiety she was feeling about the state of the union.
“I was reintroduced to cannabis during the Trump election,” says the comedian, author and talk-show host, in an interview with Postmedia. “It was pretty much the only thing that got me through it.”
In fact, Handler says there has been a symbiotic relationship between her embrace of pot and her embrace of political activism. As anyone who had paid attention to her Twitter feed knows, Handler has been one of the current commander-in-chief’s most vocal critics. These days, she reckons that 99 per cent of her tweets are of a political nature, particularly as her country heads into historic mid-term elections.
The political climate in her country helped develop a sense of urgency in Handler. She has become a tireless advocate of progressive candidates up for election in November. Cannabis, on the other hand, helps quell the anger and promote a certain diplomacy. In general, she says, cannabis makes “everybody a little less annoying and everything a little bit more tolerable.”
“I became hell-bent on knowing more and more and more about politics and pot,” Handler says. “The two helped me really function and actually have conversations around my own country with leading conservative people. That way we can have different opinions without it going off the rails, without it becoming uncivilized, with it becoming a healthy conversation. The two kind of go together in my head. It was like one extreme to the other.”
Pot and politics will mix when Handler steps away from her country for a seven-city tour of Canada that kicks off in Calgary Sept. 20 at Mount Royal University’s Bella Concert Hall. Dubbed A Civilized Conversation with Chelsea Handler, the comedian is being presented by Civilized, a digital media outlet based in New Brunswick. Derek Riedle, the publisher of Civilized, will moderate the Canadian events.
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Chelsea Handler in her stand-up Netflix special Uganda Be Kidding Me Live.
Canada is set to make recreational marijuana legal on Oct. 17. Handler met Riedle when she spoke at a cannabis conference in New Brunswick earlier this year.
While Canada may be ahead of the curve compared to most states in the U.S., Handler says she believes legalization is inevitable in her country even if America currently has an Attorney General opposed to legalization. Handler announced in February that she plans to create her own line of marijuana, which is still in the planning stages.
“There is so much money in this business and so many Republican millionaires that are putting money to the promotion of cannabis and advocacy of cannabis,” Handler says. “I do believe it will be the next alcohol. I do believe people will see the health benefits. In terms of the legalities and the kind of limbo state we are in here in the States, I really hope this president doesn’t last that much longer. So I’m not really concerned about any of the bulls — t (Attorney General Jeff Sessions is) getting into about criminalizing it.”
While Handler may be committed to civilized discourse with conservatives, that diplomacy hasn’t been extended to America’s First Family. A few weeks ago, the president’s oldest son attacked Handler on Twitter, suggesting she leave the country. In late August after Handler tweeted “I can’t wait for Donald Trump junior to flip on his father” in reference to Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign, he responded by tweeting “I’d say stick to comedy but you weren’t funny enough to avoid cancellation of your Netflix show. Stay away from politics — no reason to suck at two things.”
While it’s tempting to see this “twitter feud” as a battle of wits between Handler and a severely outwitted Donald Trump Jr., one gets the impression that Handler doesn’t want to give the president’s eldest son that much credit.
“I don’t think about Donald Trump Jr. ever,” she says. “And I don’t think many other people are thinking about him either. I don’t care about that family … The writing is on the wall. It’s so obvious and disgusting what they’ve done. And they’ll get caught. It may not happen when we want it to and everything may take a little bit longer, but it’s not going to end well. For people like Donald Trump, when they fall, it’s a big loud crash.”
Handler rose to fame with her late-night talk show Chelsea Lately, which ran from 2007 to 2014. Her 2016 comedic documentary Netflix series, Chelsea Does, tackled dark issues such as racism and drug addiction and she hosted the talk-show Chelsea, also on Netflix, until it was cancelled in 2017.
An author whose five memoirs have all been New York Times bestsellers, Handler is currently working on a sixth book. She also starts production in October on a new series for Netflix about white privilege, which will begin with the comedian turning a critical gaze on herself.
“Basically I’m going to hang myself out to dry first and talk about the fact that I didn’t realize that half my career is because I’m white and pretty rather than me picking myself up by my bootstraps and working hard, which I always thought was the reason,” she says.
“Finally, I had the luxury of looking around and reading some books by some black authors who explained to me what the difference is between growing up in this world as a person of colour versus being white. I just felt horrified and humiliated that I didn’t know more sooner. That documentary is about trying to find out why white people think affirmative action is a bad thing, why you would want to keep any of our brothers and sisters down and why we are in denial that we are all benefits of white privilege.”
A Civilized Conversation With Chelsea Handler takes place Thursday, Sept. 20 at 8 p.m. at Mount Royal University’s Bella Concert Hall.
With files from Canadian Press
