Over the weekend, a highly tantalizing and highly suspicious picture circulated Facebook, depicting astronaut Chris Hadfield holding a hefty bag of cannabis flower aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The photograph, originally posted from the “Pictures In History” account, carried a provocative quotation: “Astronaut Chris Hadfield testing marijuana in space, 2012.”
But according to Snopes, a website that debunks rumors and images coursing through the internet, the Hadfield photo is certainly fake. “Although followers might expect to see genuine historical images being posted by a social media page named ‘Pictures in History,’ that account frequently shares manipulated or miscaptioned images,” writes the site.
The picture of Hadfield holding the bag of weed was photoshopped from an image Hadfield posted on Twitter several years back of him holding a bag filled with Easter eggs as a surprise for the crew.
Don't tell my crew, but I brought them Easter Eggs 🙂 pic.twitter.com/0gKpk9xWHi
— Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) March 31, 2013
Sorry to report that NASA isn’t testing marijuana’s effects in space just yet. This is an organization, after all, that launched an investigation probe into SpaceX and Boeing, following SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk was recorded smoking a joint for a Joe Rogan podcast episode. NASA, as it likes to remind everyone, has been a drug-free workplace since 1980.
Plus, as famed astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson said when responding to the Elon Musk drama months ago, smoking cannabis aboard the ISS isn’t advisable.
“Well, the problem is, in space now, many things will kill you,” he said. “So if you do anything to alter your understanding of what is reality, that’s not in the interest of your health. So if you want to get high in space, like lock yourself in your cabin and don’t come out because you could break stuff inadvertently. OK? That’s how that goes.”
Though that edible may have made you feel like you’d just blasted off the planet, we’re not in an era where astronauts get blasted while off the planet. For now, maybe that’s a good thing.
