'I'll eat it, drink it, smoke it, snort it!' Morgan Freeman speaks out about his decades-long marijuana habit and calls for legalization of cannabis

Morgan at the Ted 2 premiere in June this year

Hollywood legend Morgan Freeman has long been a staunch supporter of decriminalizing recreational drugs - declaring in a recent interview that he has been using marijuana on a regular basis for five decades.

On Sunday, the Million Dollar Baby star's step-granddaughter E'Dena Hines, 33, was killed in what has been described as a cocaine-fueled exorcism stabbing, allegedly carried out by her rapper boyfriend Lamar Davenport, on a Manhattan sidewalk.

The 30-year-old suspect has a criminal record that includes past arrests for marijuana possession.   

In an interview with The Daily Beast in May this year, Morgan, 78, openly declared his affinity for marijuana and called for its legalization.

'How do I take it? However it comes! the Academy Award winner said. 'I'll eat it, drink it, smoke it, snort it!’

The Shawshank Redemption star said in the interview that it was his first wife, Jeanette Adair Bradshaw - E'Dena Hines' grandmother - who introduced him to cannabis in the 1960s. The couple went their separate ways in 1979 and he went on to marry Myrna Colley-Lee. That marriage ended in acrimonious divorce in 2010.

The legendary Hollywood narrator, who suffered serious injuries in a car crash in 2008, was effusive in his praise for marijuana's 'many useful uses'.

'I have fibromyalgia pain in this arm, and the only thing that offers any relief is marijuana,’ he declared.

'They're talking about kids who have grand mal seizures, and they've discovered that marijuana eases that down to where these children can have a life. That right there, to me, says, "Legalize it across the board!"

Freeman, who most recently appeared on the big screen In the R-rated comedy Ted 2 - about a pot-smoking talking teddy bear - dismissed claims that marijuana use can lead to anti-social or criminal behavior.

‘And what negative effects does it have?’ Morgan asked in the interview. ‘Look at Woodstock 1969. They said, "We're not going to bother them or say anything about smoking marijuana," and not one problem or fight.

'Then look at what happened in '99,' he says, referencing the less marijuana-friendly 30th-anniversary event, which resulted in riots and arrests.'

Freeman also touched on the subject of pot decriminalization in a 2012 Newsweek article, saying that outlawing marijuana won't stop people from using it.

'You're just making criminals out of people who aren’t engaged in criminal activity,’ he stated. 'And we're spending zillions of dollars trying to fight a war we can’t win!

‘We could make zillions, just legalize it and tax it like we do liquor. It's stupid.’