Politicians who smoked and grew Marijuana Pre-Prohibition By Brettski [9 more lists]

Smoking pot may lead to tragedy, but it can also lead to the White House. That's right, even Barack Obama and Sarah Palin have smoked weed. Many also point to America's history with cannabis, which continues to be one of the US's largest cash crops. Some even point to the Founding Fathers, who were hemp farmers, and even suggest the American Eagle on the seal of the United States should be a clutching a pot leaf within its talons. To be fair though, while many of our early politicians definitely grew hemp, there is sparse evidence to suggest they actually smoked it or even knew of its medicinal/psychoactive properties (unlike our modern politicians). With efforts on the rise to further legalize marijuana, it might not be long before we see cannabis trees growing within the White House garden.

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Rank Name

1

Benjamin Franklin

Franklin owned a mill that made hemp paper. Both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were written on hemp paper.

As a cash crop, cannabis was used for making clothes, sails and rope among other things. Hemp was also easy to grow because it requires little water or fertilizer and does not need replanting year after year.
2

Andrew Jackson

Jackson smoked with his troops.
3

Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson grew hemp and smuggled Chinese hemp seeds to America. He was also believed to have given out special smoking blends as personal gifts to friends.
4

Abraham Lincoln
5

James Madison

He supposedly credited hemp for inspiring him to create a new and democratic nation.
6

James Monroe

Monroe smoked marijuana from the time he was ambassador to France until he was 73.
7

Franklin Pierce

General Pierce smoked with his soldiers in the Mexican American War. He wrote that cannabis was "the only good thing in war" in a letter to his family.
8

Zachary Taylor

As a General in many wars, Taylor smoked marijuana with his troops.
9

George Washington

Washington grew hemp at Mount Vernon and he smoked it to alleviate his toothaches. In an agricultural journal he kept in 1765, he wrote that he was late to separate the male and female plants. The reason for separating them was most likely to ripen the female one for smoking.

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