American actress and comedian, Whoopi Goldberg has claimed cannabis is ‘probably the greatest medicine on the planet’ as she revealed she used it medicinally in the past to help with painful menstrual cramps.

The 68-year-old actor, who is launching her own line in July including edibles and pre-rolls, explained that ‘medicine should be in the hands of people,’ and said using cannabis for medicinal purposes was ‘not taboo anymore.’

In an interview with Forbes, Whoopi explained why she thinks that medicating shouldn’t feel uncomfortable: ‘We know that’s wrong. And people say, “Well, that’s just anecdotal,” but it’s not anecdotal.

‘Everybody you talk to would tell you that medicine doesn’t have to be horrifying. Especially when it’s herbal, when it’s growing out of the ground and doesn’t need an additive, which means it can stay reasonably priced for people to go pick it up.’

Referring to her own reasons for using cannabis, the Sister Act star explained: ‘For people like me, it was always used to stop the [menstrual] cramps – and the side hustle of that is that it was fun, it made you laugh and stuff.

‘They’re not taboo anymore because we all know women get a period. We know. So you can either make it hard, which they’ve done in terms of creating something that helps women… But this [cannabis] we know works.’

The mother-of-one added that her primary reason for using it was to make sure she ‘could stop the pain,’ because products such as Midol ‘didn’t work’ for her. 

‘Medicine should be in the hands of people,’ Whoopi said, before describing it as an ‘honour’ to launch her own brand – which will be available in stores on July 20.