Amy Poehler Writes About Experiences With Cocaine, Ecstasy and Marijuana in Yes Please Memoir

Parks and Recreation star also ate mushrooms during her twenties

By Zach Johnson Oct 14, 2014 5:30 PMTags
Amy Poehler, Yes PleaseDey Street Books

When Amy Poehler was offered drugs in her twenties, her answer was, "Yes, please!"

Well, that may be an exaggeration. In all seriousness, as the Parks and Recreation actress reveals in her forthcoming memoir Yes Please, she experimented with illegal substances during her younger years. In a chapter entitled "Obligatory Drug Stories," Poehler, 44, writes, "I tried cocaine, which I instantly loved but eventually hated. Cocaine is terrific if you want to hang out with people you don't know very well and play Ping-Pong all night. It's bad for almost everything else...The day after cocaine is rough."

That wasn't the only drug Poehler tried, however. She also cops to once taking Ecstasy. "I remember a wonderful UCB [Upright Citizens Brigade] New Year's Eve party where we all danced and drank water and loved each other," the former Saturday Night Live standout recalls (via Radar Online). "I also remember the next day when I thought I had no friends and I was so sad I wanted to sink into the carpet and permanently live there."

Although Poehler didn't enjoy the after-effects of her cocaine and ecstasy trials, the TV star did have an epiphany after taking mushrooms: "Everyone needs love, never hurt a living thing [and] don't worry about the choices you make because everything will be fun because life is a closet filled with pool toys."

Poehler still smokes marijuana on occasion, though it happens less frequently now that she's a mom to sons Archie Arnett, 5, and Abel Arnett, 4. Motherhood isn't the only reason she scaled back, though. "I can't perform, drive or write stoned, and therefore I smoke pot a lot less than I used to," Poehler writes.

Suffice to say, Poehler's days with hard drugs are over. As the Golden Globe winner says, "The next day is the thing I can't pull off anymore. How do you explain to [your kids] that you can't play Rescue Bots because you have to spend all day in bed eating Cape Cod potato chips and watching The Bicycle Thief?"

Yes Please is available Oct. 28.