Green Presidential Traditions

s cultural attitudes about cannabis have evolved, the presidential interaction with the substance has too. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, there was a hashish boom in France, and it seems that some of the U.S. Founding Fathers, influenced by French Enlightenment philosophy, were also influenced by other French social trends like cannabis use. The mid-1800s saw more cannabis medicines being used in Europe and the U.S., as influenced by the pioneering research of doctors like Dr. W. B. O’Shaughnessy bringing the medicinal use of cannabis over from India. Additionally, the Mexican-American War from 1846-1848, also helped spread the popularity of smoking the herb. 

By the early 1900s, we saw U.S. law begin to crack down on substances of all sorts, of which cannabis was included. The cultural attitudes behind prohibition were reflected in presidential interactions, or lack thereof, with cannabis during this era. That is, until the 1960s, when youth culture brought it back into the cultural forefront. Culturally, it makes sense that by today, with so much movement towards the legalization of cannabis, our current President Obama is the most vocally open about his cannabis use among the presidents in office since its prohibition. 

Presidential Pot Use

To begin with our first president, George Washington was a known advocate for the growing of hemp as a cash crop. While he was growing hemp for the use of its fiber for various purposes like rope and paper, it is believed he smoked cannabis to relieve his tooth pain. In his writing, Washington referenced the hemp that comes from India, cannabis indica: “His August 7, 1765 diary entry, ‘began to separate the male from the female (hemp) plants,’ describes a harvesting technique favored to enhance the potency of smoking cannabis, among other reasons,” (Conrad). Washington “was heard to bemoan that he could not be at home to harvest his hemp crop” during his military campaign for the American Revolution (Robinson).

Contemporaries of Washington, both Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were ambassadors to France during this era and may have partook in the hashish trend while abroad: “Their celebrity status and progressive revolutionary image afforded them ample opportunities to try new experiences,” (Conrad). Like Washington, Thomas Jefferson also grew hemp on his farm and, while we do not know for sure if he used hemp for smoking, Jefferson’s Farm Book contains references to growing the plant that could imply recreational smoking use. It is also known that Jefferson “smuggled Chinese hemp seeds to America.” 

James Madison and James Monroe were both exposed to smoking hemp during this era. Madison “was once heard to say that smoking hemp inspired him to found a new nation on democratic principles.” James Monroe, like Jefferson and Franklin, was exposed to hashish use when he was the ambassador to France, and it is said he continued smoking it “until his death at the age of seventy-three,” (Robinson).

John Quincy Adams, who lived in Russia when he was young, wrote a report in 1810 called On the Culture and Preparing of Hemp in Russia. It is not known whether he smoked any of his crop, though some believe it is likely. 

Military men Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor and Franklin Pierce are known to have smoked cannabis with their troops. In one of his personal letters, Pierce “wrote to his family that it was ‘about the only good thing’ about that war.” An interesting historical note on the Mexican American War, from 1846-1848, author Chris Conrad states that during this conflict “cannabis was twice as popular among American soldiers in the Mexican War as in Vietnam.”

The next presidents that anything is known about their cannabis use, begin with John F. Kennedy, perhaps reflecting the youth counter-culture trends of the 1960s growing in popularity. It is described in John F. Kennedy: A Biography that while smoking cannabis with friends, Kennedy said “Suppose the Russians did something now.” 

While it is not known whether Jimmy Carter smoked cannabis or not, he was perhaps the most progressive president in regards to his attitudes about laws about the substance. He supported an amendment to federal law that would “eliminate all federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana.” Famously, it is alleged that Carter’s son smoked cannabis with Willie Nelson on the roof of the White House. 

Bill Clinton is famous for saying he “didn’t inhale,” when he described trying the herb in his college years at Oxford. Although, perhaps Clinton was really telling the truth about his cannabis use in that simple statement: “His fellow Oxford attendee, the late Christopher Hitchens, noted Mr. Clinton’s preference for space brownies rather than smoking.” 

George W. Bush is known for having a “wilder” lifestyle during his youth prior to 1974, admitting to having indulged in cocaine, though his use of cannabis is possible but not confirmed. 

Perhaps the most candid of our presidents about his use of cannabis, President Barack Obama admitted to smoking cannabis when he was in high school in his 1995 autobiography Dreams From My Father. Famously referring to Clinton’s remark about the substance, Obama stated during his 2008 campaign that “when I was a kid, I inhaled, frequently. That was the point.”

Works Cited: 

The Online Cannabis Encyclopedia, http://www.cannabis.info/usa/library/4711-pro-pot-presidents/

Chris Conrad, Hemp: Lifeline to the Future, 1994 (Chapter 16, A World of Cannabis Cultures) 

Thomas Jefferson, Farm Book, [manuscript], 1774-1824
From the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.

Barack Obama, Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, New York: Random House, 1996. 

Michael O’Brien, John F. Kennedy: A Biography, New York: Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press, 2006. 

Rowan Robinson, The Great Book of Hemp: The Complete Guide to the Environmental, Commercial, and Medicinal Uses of the World’s Most Extraordinary Plant, Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press, 1996.