Almost-octogenarian Michael Douglas apparently still enjoys a bit of bud

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There was likely no age-gating required for two-time Academy Award winner Michael Douglas, who was spotted this week coming out of a pot shop in Santa Barbara, Calif.

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The 78-year-old star of iconic films like The China Syndrome, Fatal Attraction, Wall Street and Romancing the Stone was seen leaving the Coastal Premium Cannabis Dispensary packing a small black bag of presumed goodies, according to The Daily Mail.

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Understated in relaxed black jeans, black and grey trainers, a sweatshirt and a baseball cap, the Oscar-winning producer of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest appeared to be flying solo, with wife of 21 years, Catherine Zeta-Jones, herself winner of the best supporting actress for Chicago, nowhere in sight.

Douglas is no stranger to either Santa Barbara, having earned a bachelor’s degree in dramatic art from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1968, or cannabis. Douglas told Cigar Aficionado back in 2018 he met and later roomed with Danny DeVito in Connecticut during the summer of 1967.

“I was on the beach, looking out at the Long Island Sound and this guy walks up to me, with this long head of hair, if you can imagine,” he says. As he recalls, DeVito said, “‘You get high?’ We were both 1967 potheads, so we smoked a joint and that was a beginning of a long, long friendship.”

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Years later, in 2021, Douglas backtracked on his earlier stance pointing his finger at his prodigious pot use for being linked to his not-so-great, short-term memory.

Asked by AARP about his feeling on growing older, the actor said he hadn’t done much during COVID-19 and his stamina had really taken a hit. “My long-term memory is fine, but my short-term memory is not. I used to blame it on pot. But I’ve got some friends who’ve been smoking as long as I have and have fabulous memories, so I don’t think that’s the issue. I’m researching it.”

His thoughts about memory have been the subject of scientific studies. Research involving rats exposed to THC before birth, soon after birth or during adolescence show notable problems with specific learning and memory tasks later in life, per the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

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A newly released Canadian study, using a rodent model, “suggest adolescent cannabis use may affect cognitive and emotional functions through different brain pathways.”

“There’s no question that marijuana can produce short-term problems with thinking, working memory, executive function and psychomotor function (physical actions that require conscious thought,” Harvard Health reports. That said, “the extent to which long-term use of marijuana (either for medical or recreational purposes) produces persistent cognitive problems is not known.”

Perhaps Douglas’ personal research has been completed, given his recent visit to the California dispensary, where the Daily Mail reports he shopped for about 20 minutes.

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