boy george was early morning smoker of "huge" spliffs

The Scotsman has an historical item about Boy George's 'guest star' appearance as a member of the 'A Team', involving the consumption of a "huge marjuana spliff" EVERY morning.

In an especially surreal episode of the popular 1980's TV series, entitled 'Cowboy George' ('A Team',1986), an ultra camped up 'Boy George' explains to lovable if macho hulk 'Mr T' how to kick a door down. As an ex South London squatter 'Boy George' may have known almost as much about this as 'Mr T', who was super cool, previously being a body guard for Muhammed Ali, and once saying unscripted "When I was growing up, my family was so poor we couldn't afford to pay attention".

Apparently however cool Mr T was, Boy George had mixed feelings about being a member of the 'A Team' which was full of gratuitous violence and bad jokes. The Scotsman quotes him saying; "I'd get up every morning, have a huge marijuana spliff and just get through it." What he does not mention is if he shared his "huge" spliffs' with anyone else on the 'A Team'.

Of course the chronic early morning consumption of 'huge spliffs' is not to be recommended, being the 'cannabis alcoholic' version of having whiskey every morning for breakfast, although not nearly as damaging. However most cannabis users have shared Boy Georges early morning 'huge spliff' experiences at some point, if not often. But, unlike alcohol drinkers with a hang over using the 'hair of the dog' recovery method, early morning cannabis users are not recovering from the previous nights abuse of a dangerous drug by taking more of the same. They just want to get high as early as possible.

For cannabis users the danger can come if they are starting the day as they intend to continue on a regular basis, which means they may end up not getting out of bed at all. This may be the safest place in these troubled times, but regular smokers of a strong type of skunk actually called 'Chronic' may be at particular risk of bed sores.

For those who do not remember the 'A Team', it was a 1980's TV series for kids featuring crazy 'don't do this at home' stunts and psychopathic violence by a 'likable' gang of mercenary killers cracking jokes. One of the side effects of watching the 'A Team' for some young people was almost certainly hearing voices. For parents however, the worst mental health effect was the 'A Team' reenactments all over the house, including 'armed' assaults on the front door, thanks to Boy George, much as we love him.

'Under the Influence' is a listing of people through the ages who have allegedly made an important contribution to the arts, politics, religion, science etc and have used cannabis, or advocated the ending of cannabis prohibition. Contributions (with evidence) always welcome.