I've smoked cannabis five nights a week for 44 years and my dealer's on speed dial

Tenchi

Bluelighter
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Daily Fail said:
He is one of the world’s biggest-selling thriller writers, with his Jack Reacher novels so successful one is bought every two seconds.
Now author Lee Child has admitted he keeps his writing razor-sharp by working while high on cannabis and even claims that it should be made compulsory.
‘I’ve been smoking weed for 44 years, five nights a week,’ the author confessed. ‘I’m the poster boy to prove it doesn’t do you much harm.
‘I have a guy on speed dial in New York who comes over with a huge range of marijuana. I smoke it in a pipe because I’ve never been any good at rolling my own joints.’
Child was brought up in Birmingham and moved to America in 1999 after he published the first of his Reacher novels, of which he has now sold 70 million.
The latest, Never Go Back, comes out on August 28 and is his 18th. Last year, Tom Cruise starred in the movie Jack Reacher.
The books, all revenge-themed, have brought huge material success to this British author with an all-American hero.
Reacher, a former soldier, roams the country, uncovering wrongdoing and dispensing rough justice, before drifting off again.
His life is so stripped down that he doesn’t own a change of clothes. Something of an enigma, he has much in common with his 58-year-old creator who, despite his wealth, leads a spartan life.
The kitchen cupboards of Child’s Manhattan apartment are bare: no food, no cooking equipment, because he exists mostly on coffee and marijuana.


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^ I found that a little odd myself, I guess maybe that is how he keeps his tolerance reasonable or perhaps he feels it helps him avoid some of the negative drawbacks of daily smoking.

It is nice that he has came out and admitted this, I don't think it will have a huge impact but it may change the perceptions of some of his readers which can only be a good thing.
 
I've read all the Jack Reacher books, I really get into them, I would never have guessed Child was a huge stoner. I'll have to buy Never Go Back at the end of Aug.
 
Poledriver -

I too have read and reread every installment in this terrific series. Which are your faves? For me, the best is without a doubt "The Enemy", followed by "Persuader" and of course "Killing Floor", the very first installment. As to Reacher being a stoner - here and there the evidence exists, for example when he (Reacher) speculates with women about a permanent vacation in Jamaica and smoking a pound of weed a week, which he then amends to a pound a day lol...(if memory serves this was in a discussion with Roscoe, the female police officer in "Killing Floor"...although it seems that he expressed the sentiment in more than one book). Also in "The Enemy", Reacher comments with regard to his attitude about marijuana use in the military vs. amphetamine use: "We'd rather they be docile than overly excited..." or some such. In a couple places he discovers some kid smoking and has no reaction other than what could only be considered endorsement.

That being said I can also see where one would think Reacher a straight laced guy being that so far there is no direct account of him using drugs, and there are also several places where he comments negatively about people who have wasted their lives due to drugs. He even infers a negative attitude about steroid use - in "Persuader" he is confronted with the only antagonist clearly physically stronger than himself...(though the Bulgarian suspect in "The Enemy" is presented as a contestant) - you will recall the gigantic Paul Masserella, the seven foot, four hundred plus pound gate guard working for Xavier? Reacher's strength is one of his central attributes (the reason I didn't bother seeing the movie with Tom Cruise), but here he meets a man admittedly stronger in most respects. Of course we quickly learn that Reacher's hands are stronger, etc...in an incident whereafter Reacher comments "I guess steroids only get you so far." And also "What little muscle I had compared to him was pure genetics, not out of some pharmacists bottle."

Anyway enough rambling, its just cool to discover a Reacher fan in this venue!

A pointless post, this, but hey - its a Reacher fan, so please lets make exceptions! Reacher rules!
 
Poledriver -

I too have read and reread every installment in this terrific series. Which are your faves? For me, the best is without a doubt "The Enemy", followed by "Persuader" and of course "Killing Floor", the very first installment.

It's hard for me to say now really, i'd have to look over the books quickly and recall which one was which. I've read some comments online that some people have been disappointed with his last few, but I didn't find that, each one I read I find hard to put down and want to just keep reading to find out what happens. For me he is a really easy author to read, I find with some books there are too many plot twists or characters and find them a bit hard to follow sometimes and I may get disinterested, but I think with Reacher the whole idea of his character and his roaming the country so freely is just great, I also enjoy reading about the places in America, some small towns, some big where Child goes into a fair bit of detail, places I will probably never visit.

I thought the movie with Tom Cruise was ok, but I was a bit disappointed that it was Tom Cruise playing Reacher, the way I imagined Reacher from the books he was much bigger and tougher and less pretty boy looks, and also I knew it wasn't going to be possible to fit hardly any of what was in all the books into 1 movie, I would have probably preferred it to be a show, like justified or Longmire for example where they could have done many examples of the books over many seasons. Oh well, the movie was still fun to watch.
 
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