Saturday Night Live alum Jim Breuer on his marijuana addiction

These days Jim’s show revolves around family — being a husband, a father and the son of elderly parents. Of course, he still includes some humor from Half Baked and Saturday Night Live, but that material isn’t what carries his show.

The whole thing is in support of the comedian’s upcoming Comedy Central special, Let’s Clear the Air, which is set to debut June 6.

The title plays off of Half Baked, and Jim says it’s intended to “clear the air” about who he is now. Being a pot addict was never part of his plan, and he says Saturday Night Live was a reason for his dependence on the substance.

“That decision (to quit) was based out of a couple of things, mostly out of what I was becoming as a person,” he said. “By then, I was addicted to pot to numb myself. I was very moody and angry, and that’s something I never ever was my whole life. My wife said, ‘You’re the big advocate of, “If you don’t like your job, no money is worth that. Quit.’ ” I was like, ‘You don’t get it. It’s Saturday Night Live.’ She said, ‘I don’t care if you are the king of heaven. You are miserable. You’re ugly. Quit.’ ”

So, he did.

“I just wanted to feel better,” he said. “I would rather be broke (and) living in a tent than to live like that. It’s just like any other job. Someone hires you, and that person who hired you can’t stand some of his bosses, so he quits. And now the bosses that move in never were a fan of you, so they do everything they can to oust you, and if they can’t oust you, they make your life miserable. And that was my scenario.”

Once he was off the show, Jim and his wife moved to the suburbs and decided to start a family. The decision to quit smoking marijuana followed soon, but the comedian says it’s still something he thinks about every day.

Indeed, when Breuer gave up marijuana for good, his desire to do stand-up came back. Still, he isn’t saying it’s easy to leave the substance alone.

“I would go, ‘Well, I’ll stop for a week,’ ” he said. “Then I’d feel like, ‘Well it’s all right to do it on Thursday night, Everyone’s in bed. It will help me sleep.’ Until finally I went, ‘Just get rid of it, and let’s just start this run.’

“Each day I would struggle, and to this day I struggle. I never, ever thought I would say it. I always thought, ‘Oh, that’s drinkers or that’s drug addicts,’ but every day I struggle a little bit … I loved it. That was the problem. Will I walk away forever? I don’t know.”

via www.tennessean.com | Printer-friendly article page.

I don’t have a problem with anyone giving up marijuana.  I figure, great, more for me.

According to the Institute of Medicine report, Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base (1999), 9% of those who use marijuana become “clinically dependent”, as defined by DSM-III-R criteria.  By comparison, the figures for dependence are 15% for alcohol, 17% for cocaine, 23% for heroin, and 32% for tobacco.  Jim Breuer could very well be one of those 9% and if his life is better without cannabis, good for him.

However, I’m not sure I can see how marijuana was the problem, if I’m following his story straight:

• Person A hires Jim Breuer for SNL – Breuer is a happy pot smoker.  (Assumption – Brewer began SNL in 1995, Half Baked was released Jan 16, 1998.  That movie would’ve been in production and casting in 1997, and who would cast a total non-pothead in that role?)
• Person A quits SNL, Person B comes in, hates Jim Breuer.
• Breuer continues to smoke pot to “numb” himself to the SNL situation that made him “moody and angry”.
• Breuer quits SNL, then later quits pot.
• Breuer admits he “struggles” with pot because he “loved it”.

Seems to me SNL was the problem, not the pot, but I cannot walk in Jim Breuer’s shoes and there is probably a whole lot more not contained in this story.  Still, I can’t help thinking this is some diabolical plot by Samson Simpson to intimidate us potheads, B, since killing Killer didn’t do it, yo!