Michael Douglas, 78, spotted shopping at marijuana dispensary in his former hometown of Santa Barbara
SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA: Michael Douglas was spotted making a quick trip to a marijuana store in his former hometown of Santa Barbara, California, on January 18, indicating that he hasn't given up marijuana despite admitting he might be having memory problems due to it.
The 78-year-old left the Coastal Premium Cannabis Dispensary with a tiny black bag containing his purchases. The actor, who didn't appear to be accompanied by his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones for the pit stop, appeared inconspicuous in a bland dark outfit.
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The actor was sporting an Aviator Nation sweatshirt, which retails for about $165 and features a black lightning bolt over the chest. Douglas wore the shirt with a pair of loose-fitting black pants and subdued black-and-gray sneakers. The 'Ant Man' star wore a black baseball cap over his shaggy white hair, and his angular dark sunglasses were perched atop the hat's bill.
Before leaving with his supplies, he spent around 20 minutes at the dispensary in Santa Barbara's downtown, Daily Mail reports. As he disclosed in a 2018 interview with his lifelong friend and frequent co-star Danny DeVito for Cigar Aficionado, Douglas' fondness of marijuana dates back decades. They were roommates early in their careers before working on a number of projects together in the 1970s and 1980s and the two grew closer over their common love of marijuana. "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," Douglas recalled. "He says, 'You get high?' We were both 1967 potheads, so we smoked a joint and that was a beginning of a long, long friendship."
Douglas revealed that he had been experiencing issues with his short-term memory throughout the coronavirus pandemic in 2021 when chatting with AARP Magazine. "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," he said.
Douglas had resided in Santa Barbara, a coastal California city, for a sizable portion of his life; but the reason for his most recent visit remained unclear. Kirk Douglas, his late father, and a legendary actor, spent a good deal of his time in Santa Barbara, and Michael lived there with his first wife Diandra Luker Douglas. He also received his bachelor's degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Michael donated $600,000 out of a total of $3.6 million in 1996, in order to assist the city in purchasing a 70-acre coastal property that was later dubbed the Douglas Family Preserve. Despite having Californian roots, Michael now resides in New York City with his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones.