In the summer of 2012, director Oliver Stone posed smoking a joint on the cover of High Times and used the publicity tour for his drug-cartel thriller Savages to call the U.S. war on drugs a failure, telling the Associated Press it was “worse than slavery, per capita.” Coming from an Oscar-winning filmmaker and Vietnam veteran, it was one of the bluntest celebrity attacks on drug policy in the months before Colorado and Washington voted to legalize marijuana.
What Happened
Stone’s Savages, based on Don Winslow’s novel about two Laguna Beach marijuana growers who run afoul of a Mexican cartel, opened in U.S. theaters on July 6, 2012. In June, OC Weekly reported that Stone was on the cover of the latest High Times, smoking a joint, as new editor-in-chief Chris Simunek tried to steer the magazine back toward drug war reporting. Stone told the paper that California now beat Thailand, Jamaica and Mexico for cannabis quality and joked, “I’m thinking of getting into the business myself.” Our original 2012 report described it as the August 2012 issue.
In an AP interview published July 5, 2012, Stone went further. “It’s worse than slavery, per capita,” he said of the drug war, adding that “in the black community, it is a form of slavery, this drug war, because it imprisons a huge portion of people.” He said he would “fight for decriminalization first,” called marijuana “much less harmful than tobacco and prescription drugs in many cases and certainly alcohol,” and blamed a “puritanical strain” that “got started with Nixon.” He also pointed to the prison system as “a $40 billion-a-year industry” that would resist change.
Background
Stone’s views were personal. He served as an infantryman in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968 and has said he smoked marijuana there. Shortly after returning home in late 1968, he was arrested near San Diego trying to bring a small amount of marijuana in from Mexico and spent about two weeks in jail before the charges were dropped, according to his biography, which cites a 2012 Telegraph interview. He wrote the 1978 prison drama Midnight Express, about an American jailed in Turkey for smuggling hashish, and won an Oscar for the screenplay.
What Happened Next
Savages earned mixed reviews and about $83 million worldwide. Four months after the AP interview, voters in Colorado and Washington legalized adult-use marijuana, the first states to do so. Stone kept speaking against prohibition in later interviews, though he moved on to political documentaries and the 2016 film Snowden.
Legacy
Stone’s argument, that the drug war was about prisons and money more than public health, became a common theme of the reform movement in the 2010s. The history behind it is covered in our guide to the war on drugs and marijuana, and the current federal picture is in federal marijuana laws. Adult-use marijuana is still a Schedule I drug under federal law in 2026; only state-licensed medical marijuana and FDA-approved products moved to Schedule III in April 2026.
Oliver Stone and the War on Drugs FAQ
What did Oliver Stone say about the war on drugs?
In July 2012 he told the Associated Press the drug war was “worse than slavery, per capita,” said it imprisons a huge share of Black Americans, and said he would push for decriminalization first.
Was Oliver Stone on the cover of High Times?
Yes. In the summer of 2012, while promoting Savages, he appeared on the High Times cover smoking a joint.
Was Oliver Stone ever arrested for marijuana?
Yes. In late 1968, days after returning from Vietnam, he was arrested for trying to bring marijuana across the Mexican border near San Diego. The charges were later dismissed.
Originally reported by The Weed Street Journal; rewritten and updated in October 2026 with what happened next.