Politicians On Pot


by Robert Kane - Date: 2008-10-24 - Word Count: 986 Share This!

A politician with a marijuana fuelled past is nothing new - but actually coming out and admitting it is still something of a rarity. Despite this, there's still been a fair few who have bitten a potentially damaging bullet and admitted their past use of drugs. Of them, none have had it ruining their careers which perhaps means that the electorate are less concerned about drug abuse than traditional thought would suggest!

Norman Lamont

The former Conservative Chancellor Norman Lamont is the first cannabis MP on our list and sets a familiar tone of "Yeah, I did but I didn't enjoy it, so I can still be in favour of a ban." He revealed that he had once eaten marijuana in a "space cake" - "I have not smoked cannabis, but I did eat a tiny bit of cannabis cake and all I can say is I enjoyed the cake but that is all."

John Hutton

John Hutton, the business, enterprise and regulatory reform secretary is the next MP with cannabis in the closet. According to a spokesman "he now regrets doing it, having seen the damage that cannabis can cause among some of the young people in his constituency."

Al Gore

Al Gore had previously admitted to smoking cannabis on an "infrequent and rare" basis in his youth, but if the 2000 book "Inventing Al Gore: A Biography" is to be believed this is a huge understatement. The former politician's marijuana usage is highlighted in a section which reads "Warnecke and two other friends from Gore's Nashville days say Gore was an enthusiastic recreational user, smoking sometimes as often as three or four times a week; after hours at Warnecke's house, on weekends at the Gore farm or canoeing on the Caney Fork River."

Bill Clinton

Former president Bill Clinton was the first high profile politician to announce he had tried Marijuana all the way back in 1992 when he was still a presidential hopeful. The former politician's marijuana history was famously played down: "I didn't like it and I didn't inhale and I never tried it again."

Jacquie Smith

The Home Secretary wins an award for bad timing for admitting her cannabis use - the day after it was announced that she would head up a review of UK drugs strategy, including a review of the laws relating to cannabis. The MP's admission went: "I did break the law… I was wrong… drugs are wrong." Following the pattern of playing down her usage, she said she had taken it "just a few times" and had "not particularly" enjoyed it.

Michael Bloomberg

You really have to admire the gusto with which New York mayor Michael Bloomberg answered the question when put to him during his 2001 mayoral campaign. Instead of dodging the issue or playing it down, the future politician's cannabis fuelled past was confirmed emphatically: "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it." He has since said he regretted it coming out, after it was used in a full page newspaper advertisement.

Alistair Darling

On a 2007 day when 5 Labour MPs' cannabis history came to light, Chancellor Alistair Darling was the most senior to own up. Mr Darling said that he had taken the drug "occasionally, in my youth."

Barack Obama

The Democratic nominee for the 2008 presidential election wrote in his 1995 memoirs "Dreams from my Father" that he used "pot… and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it." He reverses a trend in this list by possibly exaggerating his drug use rather than trying to deny it, as more than three dozen friends, classmates and mentors of his say they have no recollection of him as heavy drug user.

His Republican opponent for the presidency by contrast says he has never smoked marijuana. When asked directly in the 2000 presidential nomination he said "No. Also remember my age: 63." Now 71, McCain was apparently referring to the fact that marijuana usage only became common with Vietnam soldiers after he was taken prisoner.

Boris Johnson

London's new mayor is rumoured to have taken both cocaine and marijuana in his time, but has a habit of contradicting himself when questioned directly. Nonetheless, The Guardian quotes him as saying he had smoked "quite a few spliffs" before he went to university. "It was jolly nice. But apparently it is very different these days. Much stronger. I've become very illiberal about it. I don't want my kids to take drugs."

George W Bush

President George W Bush has consistently refused to confirm or deny abusing cocaine and cannabis in his younger days, but a taped conversation with his appropriately named (presumably former!) friend Doug Wead appeared to prove the current leader did indeed once smoke cannabis.

When Mr Wead asked Bush over why he didn't answer any questions on drugs he said "I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."
He also took the opportunity to mock then opponat Al Gore's more open stance on marijuana saying "Baby boomers have got to grow up and say, yeah, I may have done drugs, but instead of admitting it, say to kids, 'don't do them'". Personally I think politicians' cannabis usage is a sure fire way to get impressionable children to swear off marijuana seeds for life, but whatever you say Mr President!
Bonus "Refused to Comment": David Cameron

There are also a number of UK politicians whose cannabis use is open to speculation thanks to their refusal to comment, most prominently Conservative leader David Cameron, despite being outed in a biography about him. The book - "Cameron, The Rise Of The New Conservative" - was serialised in the Mail on Sunday, and discusses how he was in trouble at Eton at the age of 15 for cannabis usage - an incident the police were called in for. The book claims Mr Cameron was not expelled like several other boys because he was not dealing - instead he was set the school's traditional punishment: copying out hundreds of lines of Latin poetry.

Related Tags: marijuana, cannabis, marijuana seeds

Robert Kane works for Sensible Seeds. Based in the UK, the company sells souvenir marijuana seeds and informational books on cannabis to customers all over the world.

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