The President’s home is known as the White House – but occasionally there has been a bit of green there.
It is pretty clear the US presidents are not big public champions of marijuana use. And while the Biden/Harris administration has clearly made it known they are not a fan, what about recent past presidents and their families? Who has had weed in the White House. The west and east wings are full of people helping run the government, especially the younger crowd, but what about the residence part with the commander-in-chief and his family.
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In recent memory, the first president to use marijuana in the White House was John F. Kennedy (JFK). According to Michael O’Brien, JFK’s biographer, the president used to smoke cannabis with Mary Meyer, one of his mistresses. JFK suffered chronic back pain beginning in his early 20s. He underwent a total of 4 back operations and pain plagued him for life. Cannabis is known to help chronic pain and he looked for relief in a variety of places. In fact, the hunt for to numb the pain included Max Jacobson, the first Dr. Feelgood.
Lyndon B Johnson drank but didn’t use and while Gerald Ford didn’t consume weed, his wife drank and use opiates. Ford’s son Jack did confess to using marijuana and most likely consumed while they were in residence. He was the first adult son to live in the White House since F.D.R.’s days, and the pressure was immense. His desire is understandable.
Jimmy Carter confirmed the rumors about marijuana’s most famous moment in the White House, the time Willie Nelson smoked a joint with the President’s son atop the White House roof.
“When Willie Nelson wrote his autobiography, he confessed he smoked pot in the White House,” Carter says. “He says that his companion was one of the servants in the White House. Actually, it was one of my sons.”
Savvy individuals started putting two and two together and realized exactly which Carter boy smoked a joint with Nelson — Chip Carter, Jimmy’s middle son. Chip had developed a personal friendship with NORML founder Keith Stroup and was “a marijuana smoker himself”.
The Reagans amped up the reefer madness with the Say No To Drugs campaign. First Lady Nancy become a huge advocate against all drugs. Despite the campaign and Nancy’s aversion to drugs (and apparently) drinking, Ronald Reagan was a big fan of wine. Their successors, who they were notoriously not close to the Reagan, the George H.W. Bushes, were old school drinker with vodka martinis and bourbon. But not green or gummies.
Clinton’s famous “I didn’t inhale” caused a buzz about his trying marijuana. He was the first president to come clean about it, but by the time he was president, he didn’t consume. George W. Bush had reformed by his election and nether used drug or drank after an unfortunate period in his life.
The next president shared he consumed cannabis in college and as a young adult seeing it more as a rite of passage. President Barack Obama said smoking marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol, but seems have to stopped as his political career took off. His successor does not drink or consume any drugs.
Biden, who is famously old school, does not use marijuana at all, but could be the first to take large step toward legalization.
