Stars Peddle Their Own Pot

Celebrity endorsements matter.

A favorite movie or TV star, an elite athlete, or a famous musician can easily tap into a ready-made fan base filled with purchasing power. Teens and tweens — and adults, too — look up to their icons and want to be like them. Fans want to have what stars have. They want to live the glamorous way they live.

Those endorsements are worth millions. From the early days of Joe Namath hawking Noxzema shaving cream and Bill Cosby pushing Jell-O to George Foreman and his grill and Matthew McConaughey driving around in Lincoln cars — they become beloved parts of our pop culture.

But snacks and grills and cars are one thing. Stars are now peddling their own pot.

The latest to join the weed craze is late country legend Merle Haggard, who soon will be featured on his own brand of marijuana.

Before Haggard died on April 6, he had been working with the Colorado Weed Co. to develop marijuana strains. Now, his daughter, Jenessa Haggard-Bennett, and her husband, Brian Bennett, are putting the finishing touches on the endeavor, according to Westword.com.

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It doesn’t quite jibe with the opening lyrics of “Okie From Muskogee,” which Haggard co-wrote in 1969 and which is clearly anti-drug: “We don’t smoke marijuana in Muskogee/We don’t take no trips on LSD/We don’t burn no draft cards down on Main Street/We like livin’ right and bein’ free.”

But later in life, according to Haggard-Bennett, her dad believed cannabis “could cure a whole bunch of things.”

[lz_bulleted_list title=”Stars Touting Their Own Booze”]Justin Timberlake — 901 Tequila|George Clooney — Casamigos Tequila|Dan Aykroyd — Crystal Head Vodka|Drew Barrymore — Barrymore Wines|Francis Ford Coppola — Coppola Wines|Bethenny Frankel — Skinnygirl Cocktails|Danny DeVito — Limoncello|Willie Nelson — Old Whisky River Bourbon[/lz_bulleted_list]

Haggard’s daughter and son-in-law were helping him grow marijuana on his 280-acre property in California when he passed away.

The pot, called “Merle’s Girls,” is expected to launch in a few months. (The name was chosen by his daughter from a time when Merle sponsored a girls’ soccer team in California, Westword.com reported. Once he signed on, they changed the team name to Merle’s Girls.)

Haggard joins other musicians and celebs who are entering the drug-pusher world by selling their own signature weed. Willie Nelson was hiring people this past summer for his Willie’s Reserve pot company in Colorado. Marley Natural has come out with a line of weed strains named after late reggae star Bob Marley. Snoop Dogg offers Leafs by Snoop. Tommy Chong, a longtime self-proclaimed stoner, recently released Chong Star, a strain sold in Pueblo, Colorado. Woody Harrelson has talked about opening a legal dispensary in Hawaii.

Much of this is being touted as medicinal.

“My belief is that all pot use is medical,” Chong said in an interview with Colorado’s Summit Daily in August.

Related: Medial Marijuana is a Big Lie 

But the idea behind medical marijuana — that it somehow benefits people who smoke it — actually hides the truth that it is a dangerous, addictive drug that can seriously damage a smoker’s physical and mental health.

And patterning one’s life after celebrities is never a good idea anyway. Some of our highest-achieving icons invariably let us down — Michael Phelps caught smoking pot, Lance Armstrong caught doping, Serena Williams throwing a tantrum on the tennis court.

And some famous people should never be put on pedestals anyway — Justin Bieber, the Kardashians, and Miley Cyrus, to name a few.

As President George W. Bush said in 2004 when the baseball steroid scandal was unfolding, “It sends the wrong message — that there are shortcuts to accomplishment, and that performance is more important than character.”

He added, “We must stand with our families to help them raise healthy, responsible children. And when it comes to helping children make right choices, there is work for all of us to do. One of the worst decisions our children can make is to gamble their lives and futures on drugs.”