Photos: Top ten politicians who've smoked pot

By Michael Roberts Mon., Jan. 28 2013 at 7:56 AM

Number 8: Al Gore

The question surrounding Al Gore's marijuana use isn't so much "Did he?" as "How much did he?" The following is from a 2000 Guardian piece about a Gore biography that argues the onetime veep turned environmental activist was an "avid" pot smoker:

Previously, Mr Gore had said his cannabis consumption was "infrequent and rare." But Mr Turque's book also quotes another Gore friend, Andy Schlesinger -- like Mr Warnecke and the vice-president, a former reporter on the Nashville Tennessean -- as saying he smoked with him "at least a dozen times." This was in the months after Mr Gore returned from the Vietnam war in 1971.

Number 7: Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich.

As noted in this 2012Republican-Candidates.org roundup, Gingrich initially treated his youthful experimentation with drugs as no big deal. He was quoted as saying, "That was a sign we were alive and in graduate school in that era." And earlier in his career, he advocated on behalf of medical marijuana, writing a letter to the Journal of the American Medical Association on the topic way back in 1982.

However, Gingrich subsequently became an ultra-hawk on all illegal drugs, which marijuana continues to be at the federal level. In 1995, for instance, he boosted his proposed introduction of a bill mandating the death penalty for convicted drug smugglers with the following statement: "If you import a commercial quantity of illegal drugs...it is because you have made the personal decision that you are prepared to get rich by destroying our children. I have made the decision that I love our children enough that we will kill you if you do this."

Continue to keep counting down our list of the top ten politicians who've smoked pot.

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LadyLiberal

2 Like

Malcolm,

Try spelling "Barack" correctly if you want people to listen to what you have to say.

DonkeyHotay topcommenter

2 Like

Yet none of them were pig-ignorant bong-sucking semi-literate stoners ...

... with the possible exception of G aWol Bu$h.

Now how about that list of Politicians who did cocaine ?

Juan_Leg topcommenter

Wouldn't it be easier to list those who haven't ?

Who in office didn't attend college ?

malcolmkyle16 topcommenter

"My fellow citizens, I may belong to the Choom Gang but I literally don't care about your welfare. I have a military/pharmaceutical/prison industrial complex–and it's various components–to support. So regardless of how you may feel or what you may wish, my problems will always trump your problems. I trust you will allow me to remain untainted and untouched by the unconscionable acts that I have committed on your behalf."

Sincerely yours,

President Barak Obama