There are few things as synonymous with each other as Snoop Dogg and marijuana – he once said weed “makes me feel the way I need to feel”.

But it appears the fire has finally been put out on their relationship.

The music icon shocked the world on Friday morning by posting a blunt statement to his social media accounts announcing he is “giving up smoke”.

“After much consideration and conversation with my family, I’ve decided to give up smoke,” the 52-year-old said.

“Please respect my privacy at this time.”

It was not clear if Snoop meant he was giving up smoking in all its forms, and if he meant he was giving up weed altogether.

Initially many thought the rap legend’s accounts had been hacked. “Today isn’t April Fools’ Day, Snoop,” one fan wrote.

“This is probably just gonna be some viral campaign where he launches his own line of vapes or edibles or something,” wrote another.

But others believed it was legitimate – even if their minds were blown.

“Damn, the world is really really coming to an end,” one fan wrote.

“A Dogg’s gotta do what a Dogg’s gotta do,” tweeted High Times Magazine, which has been a resource for cannabis news since 1974.

“Snoop Dogg — we appreciate everything you’ve done for the plant, and you’ll always be welcome in the cannabis community whether you’re blazing or not. Respect.”

“Don’t worry Snoop, we your disciples will carry on your legacies,” another fan wrote. “We’ll smoke on your behalf. Stay strong for us.”

“Health above anything else,” wrote another. “Snoops setting a great example to everyone. Respect.”

Back in 2008, Snoop told Esquire he first tried marijuana in the 1970s with one of his uncles. He was born in 1971.

“They had these little roaches on the table, these part-way-smoked marijuana cigarettes, and there was some Schlitz Malt Liquor Bull,” Snoop said.

“I went in there and sipped the Schlitz, and my uncle asked me did I wanna hit that roach. And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ He put it on the roach clip for me and lit it up, and I hit that motherf***er. I was about eight or nine years old.”

Just last month Snoop appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live and detailed his wide range of drug connections across the globe.

“Well, last time I checked I was the plug to your plug,” Snoop said. “I’m the connect. It’s good to have friends that have friends that are international and global and able to get you medicated and dedicated no matter where you at.”

Pop megastar Ed Sheeran also recently detailed getting dangerously high with Snoop in a dressing room in Melbourne, Australia.

“We’d had a good amount of conversation, so I have a bit, and I’m like, ‘I don’t feel too bad, this is good’,” Sheeran recalled. “So I have a bit more, I have a bit more, I have a bit more.

“Oh my god, I just remember looking at him and being like, ‘I can’t see right now!’”

Snoop even had a “full-time blunt roller”, a woman named Renegade Piranha who the Drop It Like It’s Hot rapper said was paid about $50,000 a year to prepare his marijanua cigarettes.

But there were also signs he was re-evaluating his lifestyle.

In March he told the MailOnline he was moderating his weed consumption after becoming a grandfather.