Over the 240 year course of this nation’s history, United States Presidents have had a shifting (and sometimes hypocritical) stance on marijuana. In fact, there’s a good chance you won’t believe which United States Presidents have smoked weed. And that’s surprising, considering the hysteria around cannabis for much the nation’s history. Here is a list of the United States Presidents that smoked weed.
1. George Washington
During the colonial period and in the decades after independence, hemp production was big business.
George Washington was himself a hemp farmer.
Furthermore, we know from Washington’s personal diaries that he studied the differences between male and female cannabis plants, taking care to cultivate the latter for personal amusement.
Sometime in the 1760s, Washington briefly considered whether hemp could generate more profits than tobacco.
Washington sold the hemp he cultivated to industrial rope and sail manufacturers.
2. Thomas Jefferson
Like Washington, Jefferson also farmed and sold hemp on the industrial market.
In 2008, an internet rumor began circulating that Jefferson had once opined that his finest hours were “spent of my back veranda, smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye can see.”
But there’s no evidence in any of Jefferson’s writings that he ever made such a statement.
There also isn’t anything to show that Jefferson made a habit of smoking hemp, or even tobacco.
Unlike Washington, no references exist in Jefferson’s farm book about male and female cannabis plants.
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