Most parents tend to spend their lives discouraging their kids from taking drugs, but for Charlize Theron, it's her mother that keeps her supplied. It's far from a recreational activity however; the actress takes marijuana as a sedative and buys it legally in Los Angeles. Still, way to go, mom!

Charlize Theron at the premiere of 'Gringo'Charlize Theron at the premiere of 'Gringo'

The 42-year-old was talking about her new film 'Gringo' on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live', a forthcoming comedy about a new medical marijuana pill, when she opened up about her experiences with the drug - both in the past and in the present. She confesed that she used to use it regularly, but no longer enjoyed it after a while.

'I had like a good solid eight years on the marijuana and then my chemistry just changed one day', she explained. 'I found myself frozen in front of my fridge for like eight hours and I couldn't speak and it just wasn't fun anymore. So I kind of had to stop.'

Regardless, when the issue of poor sleep came up in a conversation with her mother one day, they decided that medical marijuana might be worth a try seeing as it was now available legally.

'I have really bad sleep and so does my mom and so we were talking about it because we do take sleep medication and I was saying to her, 'Maybe we should figure out a way to try a sleeping strain', something that could help us with sleep, and she was like, 'Yes, yes!'' Charlize explained. 'I really thought I would be the responsible one to have to go and get that, and last week she showed up at my house... and brought me a little container and just left it on my kitchen table.'

Her mother went on to give her all sorts of suggestions about consumption, while Charlize was left trying to figure out where she was scoring the marijuana from, thinking it was perhaps one of her young tennis club pals.

'Last night we were on our way to the premiere and I said, 'You know, it's funny, I was thinking - who is this person at the tennis club that you're getting the marijuana from?' And she goes, 'I went to the store by myself'', she said. 'I have this image of her in the store - she's just not this kind of person - and like buying marijuana.'

More: Charlize Theron has a weird dance-off with Jimmy Fallon 

Apparently, she had the 'full experience' when she went to pick up the drugs, and as baffled as Charlize was by the whole situation, she confessed that it 'totally worked' and she's been having 'incredible' sleep recently.