# Did any of the founding fathers smoke pot? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 7, 2008, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145 "2008-06-07T17:39:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2008, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/1 "2008-06-07T17:39:29Z")
Hemp was a mainstream crop in the late 18th century in America, but the earliest references I can find to people smoking marijuana date in the 20th century. I was once going through old Harper’s Magazine archives, and I did find a late 19th centry article on pot smoking, but it was discussed as a foreign novelty, unknown to Americans. Did the founders of this country not know of the effects of smoking pot? Am I mistaken as to the nature of hemp, such that it is not grown in conjunction with pot plants (I realize that you can’t get high off of hemp, but I assume that there is some relationship between hemp and pot). Clearly, the founders were aware of tobacco; it was a major cash crop. Are there any references, then, to “wacky” tobacco in their era - perjorative or otherwise? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2008, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/2 "2008-06-07T18:33:31Z")
Hemp is a very harsh smoke, dude. 😉 Modern Pot bears little resemblence to Hemp. ---
**Author:** ![coffeecat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coffeecat/32/3405_2.png) [@coffeecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffeecat)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2008, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/3 "2008-06-07T18:47:43Z")
Washington mentioned in his diary separating the male and female hemp plants–not something you do when you just want fiber. He was growing sinsemilla! ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/4 "2008-06-07T19:02:16Z")
[QUOTE=DrDeth] Hemp is a very harsh smoke, dude. 😉 Modern Pot bears little resemblence to Hemp. [/QUOTE] This, I’m aware of. But can you grow hemp without growing buds? How are those plants related? [QUOTE=coffecat] Washington mentioned in his diary separating the male and female hemp plants–not something you do when you just want fiber. He was growing sinsemilla! [/QUOTE] This is what I meant! Thanks. Is there any discussion of imbibing the weed, or is it just a discussion of growing it? I ask because lots of pot smokers I’ve known like to discuss their thoughts while high; the founders were such a philosophical bunch to begin with, I have a hard time imagining that none of them would get high and then not be writing about their ideas. Similarly, I wonder what the perception of pot smoking was among these men. Did they view it as a vice, or as a virtue? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2008, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/5 "2008-06-07T19:05:30Z")
[QUOTE=coffeecat] Washington mentioned in his diary separating the male and female hemp plants–not something you do when you just want fiber. He was growing sinsemilla! [/QUOTE] > **[Cannabis - Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cannabis)** \*Some assert his interest in separating the male and female plants is an indication that he may have used Indian hemp medicinally to treat his chronic tooth aches. Others note that fiber of the male and female hemp plants have a different optimum harvest times. \* ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2008, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/6 "2008-06-07T19:39:49Z")
If Franklin wasn’t a pot head, then I’ve never met one. Anyone who could write a [book on farting](http://www.amazon.com/Fart-Proudly-Writings-Benjamin-Franklin/dp/1583940790) is the spiritual heir to Cheech & Chong and Harold & Kumar. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/7 "2008-06-08T01:17:03Z")
I found [this](http://www.marijuanalibrary.org/7_presidents.html) cite, which says… > [@](#): > > Did the Founding Fathers of the United States of America smoke cannabis? Some researchers think so. Dr. Burke, president of the American Historical Reference Society and a consultant for the Smithsonian Institute, counted seven early presidents as cannabis smokers: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Zachary Taylor and Franklin Pierce. Is there any other source that would substantiate this claim? ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/8 "2008-06-08T01:24:59Z")
Absolutely George toked weed. Are you kidding me man. He grew fields of fields of that stuff man. That’s what I’m talking about. Fields. The whole country back then was getting high. Let me tell you man, 'cos, 'cos, 'cos he knew. He was on to something man. He knew that it would be a good cash crop for the southern states man. So he grew fields of it man. But you know what? Behind every good man there’s a woman. And that woman was Martha Washington man. And every day George would come home. She’d have a big fat bowl waiting for him man when he’d come in the door man. She was hip, hip, hip lady man. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/9 "2008-06-08T02:43:42Z")
I wonder if this thread might go better if I had named it differently. I’m not disparaging the posts so far (thanks for responding), but I’m not looking for stoner validation, either. It just seems curious that something that seems to me should have been commonplace in an agrarian, hemp-growing nation like America completely seemed to lose any public awareness at some point before the 20th century. When the first federal pot laws were passed, the lawmakers were promoting it as a foreign threat (what with Mexicans and their marijuana, or Blacks and their reefer), and nobody seemed to have any concern with outlawing hemp, too. If there were farmer founders smoking pot, how/why did it disappear from the nation until the early 20th century? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/10 "2008-06-08T03:50:05Z")
[QUOTE=Atomicktom] If there were farmer founders smoking pot, how/why did it disappear from the nation until the early 20th century? [/QUOTE] The obvious answer is that there were not farmer founders smoking pot. Think about it: How many historical books have you read? How much Twain, Melville, and other early American writers? How many civil war novels and historical accounts? Any reference to pot? I don’t recall ever seeing one in sources like that. (Admittedly, that’s not something I’d have been seeking, but still…) If pot smoking were part of this country’s early culture, we’d see it referenced in novels, history books, poetry, early laws, and so forth. It follows that Mary Juanna use must be a 20th century phenomenon. ---
**Author:** ![greatshakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@greatshakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greatshakes)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/11 "2008-06-08T15:59:42Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Absolutely George toked weed. Are you kidding me man. He grew fields of fields of that stuff man. That’s what I’m talking about. Fields. The whole country back then was getting high. Let me tell you man, 'cos, 'cos, 'cos he knew. He was on to something man. He knew that it would be a good cash crop for the southern states man. So he grew fields of it man. But you know what? Behind every good man there’s a woman. And that woman was Martha Washington man. And every day George would come home. She’d have a big fat bowl waiting for him man when he’d come in the door man. She was hip, hip, hip lady man. [/QUOTE] Wow, man! ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/12 "2008-06-08T16:23:06Z")
According to the 1972 report by The National Commission on Marihuana And Drug Abuse called “Marihuana, A Signal of Misunderstanding”: > [@](#): > > The hemp plant was cultivated in the United States for centuries, apparently without general knowledge of its intoxicating properties (Grinspoon, 1971: 10). > > Cannabis was an often used medicine in the United States in the 19th century. It was easily available without a prescription and was also widely prescribed by physicians (Snyder, 1970: 26). . . . > > Marijuana use as an intoxicant in the United States began slowly in the early part of this century. Puerto Rican soldiers, and then Americans who were stationed in the Panama Canal Zone, are reported to have been using it by 1916. > > American soldiers fighting Pancho Villa circa 1916 also learned to use it. This follows the first reported use in Mexico in the 1880’s (Blum and Associates, 1969, 1: 69-70). > > Intoxicant use in the United States is also traced to the large influx of Mexican laborers in the 1910’s and 1920’s (Geller and Boas, 1969: 14). ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2008, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/13 "2008-06-08T18:00:33Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Amazing] : American soldiers fighting Pancho Villa circa 1916 also learned to use it. [/QUOTE] My grandfather (Pedro) grew and sold weed in the late 40’s. The family story is that my mom chopped some down and fed it to the hogs and those hogs went hog wild over it (and grandpa was pissed). Makes me wonder if those colonial farmers weren’t aware of it’s effects due to similar circumstances. I could easily see it as being used as a oral home remedy type medicene back then but wouldn’t think that anyone would have thought to smoke in when they had fine tobacco available. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2008, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/14 "2008-06-10T06:38:59Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Absolutely George toked weed. Are you kidding me man. He grew fields of fields of that stuff man. That’s what I’m talking about. Fields. The whole country back then was getting high. Let me tell you man, 'cos, 'cos, 'cos he knew. He was on to something man. He knew that it would be a good cash crop for the southern states man. So he grew fields of it man. But you know what? Behind every good man there’s a woman. And that woman was Martha Washington man. And every day George would come home. She’d have a big fat bowl waiting for him man when he’d come in the door man. She was hip, hip, hip lady man. [/QUOTE] I love this movie. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2008, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/15 "2008-06-10T11:54:20Z")
> [@](#): > > If Franklin wasn’t a pot head, then I’ve never met one. Anyone who could write a book on farting is the spiritual heir to Cheech & Chong and Harold & Kumar. Actually, he didn’t – the editors of that book simply chose that one out of a list of recommendations he made, in order to make a somewhat shocking and memorable title. Franklin was unusual and off-the-wall (he wrote satires and even a book on swimming), but I’d call him a nerd rather than a pot head (although I must admit that it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that he did try the Evil Weed). Mark Twain, o the other hand, _did_ write a book on farting. > **[1601 (Mark Twain)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1601_(Mark_Twain))** > > \[Date: 1601.\] Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors. or simply 1601 is the title of a short risqué squib by Mark Twain, first published anonymously in 1880, and finally acknowledged by the author in 1906. > Written as an extract from the diary of an "old man", Queen Elizabeth I's "cup-bearer", the pamphlet purports to record a conversation between Elizabeth and several famous writers of the day. The topics discussed are scatological, notably flatulence, flatul... > **[1601: Conversation as it was by the Social Fireside in the Time of the Tudors](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3190)** > > Free eBook digitized and proofread by volunteers. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2008, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/16 "2008-06-10T12:15:58Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] Franklin was unusual and off-the-wall (he wrote satires and even a book on swimming), but I’d call him a nerd rather than a pot head (although I must admit that it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that he did try the Evil Weed). [/QUOTE] Franklin did, however, once write (I’m paraphrasing from memory): “Beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy” ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_Ogden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Daniel\_Ogden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel_Ogden)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/17 "2008-06-11T17:58:55Z")
[QUOTE=coffeecat] Washington mentioned in his diary separating the male and female hemp plants–not something you do when you just want fiber. He was growing sinsemilla! [/QUOTE] That’s not necessarilly true, and in fact, probably couldn’t be farther from the truth. Historically, farmers pulled up male plants on their plots separately from the female plants and used the male plant fibers for fine linens (bedding, hand towels, and clothing). The female plant fibers were used to make coarser fabrics (bags and tarp). As previously mentioned they had different harvest times as well as different growing periods. Being an avid marijuana fan myself I wish it were true, but, it isn’t. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Daniel\_Ogden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Daniel\_Ogden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel_Ogden)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2008, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/18 "2008-06-11T18:01:32Z")
Ooops, forgot to cite… [Innvista | A wealth of information on a variety of natural and holistic topics](http://www.innvista.com/health/foods/hemp/hempbiol.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Public\_Animal\_No.9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Public\_Animal\_No.9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Public_Animal_No.9)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/19 "2008-06-12T01:53:16Z")
As far as I can tell, there was no social or legal stigma associated with pot smoking until the 20th century, or perhaps the late 19th century. The founding fathers didn’t seem to be shy about writing about their experiences, so I would be very surprised if they had toked a bit of weed and nothing ever showed up in their writings about it. There was certainly a lot of writing about opium (not from the founders AFAIK) throughout the 1800s, but I’m not aware of much related to marijuana. ---
**Author:** ![GomiBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@GomiBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GomiBoy)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145/20 "2008-06-12T10:18:58Z")
There were no real laws against any ‘illegal’ drugs until the 20th century; cocaine and opium were totally legal and sold at most chemists / pharmacists / dentists until the 20s. I think perhaps that some people conflated tales of smoke - smoking tobacco or pot or both mixed together. Seems a lot of people smoked pipes back then; who knows what was in them? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-any-of-the-founding-fathers-smoke-pot/452145.md?page=2)