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George Washington
We can’t tell a lie. George Washington didn’t puff the plant, but he did farm it. According to his presidential diaries, Washington not only grew hemp but promoted its growth. In 1791 George Washington wrote a letter to then Secretary of Finance Alexander Hamilton discussing the economic benefits of hemp. Perhaps one of his most famous quotes, Washington said, “Make the most of the Indian hemp seed… and sow it everywhere!”

Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson is another framer who saw multiple benefits of hemp. Jefferson grew hemp and debated the best ways to process it for clothing and rope. In 1815, Jefferson invented a threshing machine to help assist in the manufacturing of hemp. Jefferson said, “Hemp is abundantly productive and will grow forever in the same spot, but the breaking and beating… is so slow, so laborious... a method of removing the difficultly of preparing hemp occurred to me, so simple and so cheap, that I return to its culture and manufacture.”

Franklin Pierce
President Franklin Pierce is one of three former-military presidents who enjoyed smoking weed. While fighting the Mexican-American war, Pierce wrote a letter to his family. He said smoking marijuana with his troops was “about the only good thing” in the war.

John F. Kennedy
When JFK wasn’t macking on mistresses or issuing executive orders to strip the Fed of its power, he used marijuana to deal with severe back pain. According to Washington Post executive Jim Truitt, Kennedy and his mistress Mary Meyer smoked marijuana together. On the evening of July 16, 1962 the president smoked three of the six joints Mary brought to him. At first he felt no effects. Then he closed his eyes and refused a fourth joint. “Suppose the Russians did something now,” he said.

Barck Obama
America’s first black president is also the most forthcoming about his previous cannabis use. In his memoir Dreams From My Father Obama said, “Pot had helped, and booze” when referring to extra curricular activities. Unlike Clinton, Obama also admitted to inhaling frequently because “that was the point.”