# What presidents, if any were drug addicts, alcoholics or mentally ill while in office **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 6, 2012, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037 "2012-05-06T01:03:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/21 "2012-05-06T14:27:27Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > Wasn’t he about 3/4ths of the way shitfaced when he grabbed Merkel by her shoulders at the meeting in Germany? IIRC, there was a beer in front of him at the table. I have never seen any indication that he drank anything after the age of 40. I can’t say for certain he has never touched a drop in private (though I would doubt it) but I can say that due to his well publicized past there is no way he would drink alcohol in public. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/22 "2012-05-06T15:42:58Z")
Not conclusive proof by any means but the pictures of GWB at the Olympics, being helped into or out of his seat by Secret Service agents sure look like he’s hammered. Google Image search Bush drunk at olympics. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/23 "2012-05-06T17:41:50Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Keep in mind that 200 years ago drinking was far more prevalent than it is today. People, or many of them, thought alcohol was healthy, keep you warm, improved your digestion and other benefits. John Quincy Adams started every day with a draft of hard cider. I don’t think anyone seriously regards him as a hard drinker but what would we say if Obama or Romney did the same. Also water was not always healthy, it was often polluted and germ theory wasn’t well understood. People drank more because experience had taught them that the fermentation of alcohol killed germs. > [http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/holiday07/drink.cfm](http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/holiday07/drink.cfm) > > My understanding is that James Monroe had some problems with alcohol although he got a grip on the problem. Grant was certainly forced out of the Army before the civil war, he was stationed in an isolated outpost, hated his commanding officer and was separated from his wife. He had some binges during the civil war during moments when there was nothing going on and he was separated from his wife. Doesn’t mean they weren’t alcoholics. ---
**Author:** ![VOW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vow/32/3043_2.png) [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/24 "2012-05-06T17:43:02Z")
Didn’t Bush Sr puke in the Japanese Prime Minister’s lap? ~VOW ---
**Author:** ![from\_a\_to\_z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5fc32e/32.png) [@from\_a\_to\_z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/from_a_to_z)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/25 "2012-05-06T17:55:14Z")
> [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](#): > > All three of his sons died in childhood. The oldest survived to age 11 when he was decapitated in a train derailment while Pierce and his wife watched. There is obviously much speculation that this event sent him into a downward spiral. It clearly ruined his wife’s mental health. Pierce biographer Peter Wallner has a different account of the accident: > [@](#): > > It tumbled down the embankment, onto a rocky embankment, about 15, 20 feet, rolled over, landed on its roof on a rocky ground. And nobody knows even exactly what killed Benny. All they know is something hit his head, and Franklin Pierce, when he shook himself – the cobwebs out after the accident, he looked around for Benny and found him lying on the ground, and he thought he looked fine. He went over, thought he was stunned or unconscious. He went over and picked him up and found that the back of his head had been crushed, and he had been killed instantly. See [http://booknotes.org/Watch/184075-1/Peter+Wallner.aspx](http://booknotes.org/Watch/184075-1/Peter+Wallner.aspx) in the transcript or the video. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/26 "2012-05-06T17:55:56Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > …I think we all know about Jimmy Carter and his addiction to whippets, so lets not even go into that one. What? I’ve never heard anything like that, what is the source? ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/27 "2012-05-06T18:45:47Z")
Recovered alcoholics are still alcoholics, therefor George W. Bush was and still is an alcoholic. Whether he still ever drinks alcohol is beside the point. Bill Clinton, his “didn’t inhale” dodge aside, smoked marijuana. Barack Obama used cocaine. So did George W. Bush. Both probably used marijuana as well. Obama is a heavy smoker. Kennedy was addicted to painkillers. Reagan was most likely in the very, very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease when he left office. Most presidents are probably addicted to caffeine, as well. Does it matter? Not really, unless it impairs their judgement while in office. ---
**Author:** ![SeldomSeen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/28 "2012-05-06T19:16:52Z")
> [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > Bill Clinton, his “didn’t inhale” dodge aside, smoked marijuana. Not a refutation, but interesting: At one point during the Clinton presidency I recall hearing an interview with someone who had been close to Bill Clinton during his college days. This person, whose name I cannot remember, was somewhat hostile toward Clinton, but said in effect; “When Bill Clinton said he tried Marijuana but didn’t inhale he was probably telling the truth. In those days he was so chronically plagued by allergies and borderline asthma that if he had taken an honest hit it probably would have choked him”. SS ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/29 "2012-05-06T19:34:44Z")
I’m pretty sure we can discount the possibility of George W. Bush drinking while in office. First, the evidence for any given “incident” is laughably thin. (A still photograph that seems to show Bush having lost his balance? Or, from the wiki cite above, we hear about the pretzel incident from a guy who claims to have been contacted by some unknown other guy who, in turn, talked to a group of other guys who allegedly gave him some information of unknown provenance.) That said, yes, it’s well within the realm of possibility that Bush drank alcohol more than zero times while in office (a recovering alcoholic who injures himself by collapsing to the ground raises eyebrows, sure), but the odds that Bush suffered a meaningful relapse, or drank alcohol regularly, are basically zero. The potential cost to him and his administration would be huge, and word would have gotten out eventually if it was true. I also don’t think it’s fair to call Bill Clinton “clearly unbalanced.” Incorrigible poon-hound? Yeah. Unreformed lecher? Sure. Possible sex addict? Maybe. But “unbalanced” has a rather different (and inappropriate) connotation. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/30 "2012-05-06T19:58:30Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Keep in mind that 200 years ago drinking was far more prevalent than it is today. People, or many of them, thought alcohol was healthy, keep you warm, improved your digestion and other benefits. Not so much for those reasons; people drank more because they didn’t have clean water. The boiling and fermentation process killed off germs, which is why light levels of alcohol (“small beer”, etc.) were so popular. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/31 "2012-05-06T21:34:11Z")
> [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > Recovered alcoholics are still alcoholics, therefor George W. Bush was and still is an alcoholic. Whether he still ever drinks alcohol is beside the point. Bill Clinton, his “didn’t inhale” dodge aside, smoked marijuana. Barack Obama used cocaine. So did George W. Bush. Both probably used marijuana as well. Obama is a heavy smoker. Kennedy was addicted to painkillers. Reagan was most likely in the very, very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease when he left office. Most presidents are probably addicted to caffeine, as well. Does it matter? Not really, unless it impairs their judgement while in office. I think FDR was noted for his habitual cigarette smoking. He was known for smoking with a cigarette holder. I also believe that Grant was known to be a heavy cigar smoker and that his death (cancer) is believed to have been caused by smoking. [QUOTE=Wikipedia] …U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant smoked cigars heavily, an estimated up to 12 a day. In late 1884, Grant was diagnosed with an oral cancer consisting of malignant squamous cell carcinoma. With his health failing, Grant devoted his time to his autobiography; five days after finishing it, he became the only U.S. president to die of cancer… [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/32 "2012-05-06T22:51:58Z")
> [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > Recovered alcoholics are still alcoholics, therefor George W. Bush was and still is an alcoholic. Whether he still ever drinks alcohol is beside the point. Bill Clinton, his “didn’t inhale” dodge aside, smoked marijuana. Barack Obama used cocaine. So did George W. Bush. Both probably used marijuana as well. Obama is a heavy smoker. Kennedy was addicted to painkillers. Reagan was most likely in the very, very early stages of Alzheimer’s disease when he left office. Most presidents are probably addicted to caffeine, as well. Does it matter? Not really, unless it impairs their judgement while in office. You’re comparing too many apples to oranges to kumquats. Just as one example, marijuana is not addictive. Smoking it once says nothing about any future behavior. Cocaine is potentially addictive, but it can be used without addiction. For that matter, alcohol can be used without addiction and the vast majority of presidents were drinkers and far more of them drank to the point of impaired judgment than ever used illicit drugs to the point of impaired judgment. Nixon certainly was known to be sloppy drunk in office but he was far more dangerous when sober. Illnesses have occurred to many presidents and we have little idea exactly how they affected any of them, but almost certainly several had periods in which they were more incapacitated than Reagan. Depression (mentioned earlier) is so common that not being depressed at any point in one’s life may be the more abnormal condition. I agree with your comment that the only concern is impaired judgment while in office, but all the statements leading up to it are so loose and ill-informed that they undercut your conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/33 "2012-05-06T23:02:51Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Bill Clinton was clearly unbalanced (the Monica Lewinsky affair). Being a horndog often causes guys to do stupid things, but it is not a mental illness. > [@SeldomSeen](#): > > Not a refutation, but interesting: At one point during the Clinton presidency I recall hearing an interview with someone who had been close to Bill Clinton during his college days. This person, whose name I cannot remember, was somewhat hostile toward Clinton, but said in effect; “When Bill Clinton said he tried Marijuana but didn’t inhale he was probably telling the truth. In those days he was so chronically plagued by allergies and borderline asthma that if he had taken an honest hit it probably would have choked him”. > SS It might have been Christopher Hitchens. The two of them were at Oxford at the same time, although they weren’t close, and Hitchens wrote in his autobiography that Clinton rarely smoked but that he enjoyed pot brownies. > [@VOW](#): > > Didn’t Bush Sr puke in the Japanese Prime Minister’s lap? He had the flu. > [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > Obama used cocaine. So did George W. Bush. Both probably used marijuana as well. Obama wrote about using marijuana in his memoir. He described his cocaine use as only occasional, and it doesn’t sound like was ever a big-time user of either one. > [@](#): > > Obama is a heavy smoker. He quit a couple of years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/34 "2012-05-06T23:03:56Z")
I think G. Bush Sr. had food poisoning that day he puked on the guy? And I also thought Reagan was pretty far gone even before he left the presidency and that his wife was purportedly using astrologists to make his presidential decisions for him. Any of that true? ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/35 "2012-05-06T23:53:29Z")
Andrew Johnson was quite an alcoholic even showing up drunk in public. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2012, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/36 "2012-05-06T23:54:26Z")
Jefferson [purchased and stockpiled](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95087999) positively epic amounts of fortified wine. The amount of money he spent on wine both while President and afterwards was stupefying. There was a lengthy article on this once but I cannot recall where I saw it. There is no record of him being a drunkard. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/37 "2012-05-07T01:22:25Z")
> [@VarlosZ](#): > > I also don’t think it’s fair to call Bill Clinton “clearly unbalanced.” Incorrigible poon-hound? Yeah. Unreformed lecher? Sure. Possible sex addict? Maybe. But “unbalanced” has a rather different (and inappropriate) connotation. Now you’re just bragging. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/38 "2012-05-07T03:18:08Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > What? I’ve never heard anything like that, what is the source? I thought it was common knowledge. Maybe not. I have heard stories that when he was with habitat for humanity he would sometimes disappear into an unfinished bathroom and come out with blue lips laughing hysterically. ---
**Author:** ![IAmNotSpartacus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@IAmNotSpartacus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IAmNotSpartacus)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/39 "2012-05-07T03:28:15Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > I thought it was common knowledge. Maybe not. This thread is the second result for searching jimmy carter whippets on Google. Just sayin’ ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2012, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037/40 "2012-05-07T05:36:40Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > I think G. Bush Sr. had food poisoning that day he puked on the guy? Actually - at least according to the Wikipedia page about the incident, and yes, it does have its own entry - he said he had a 24-hour flu, and earlier the same day he’d perhaps overexerted himself playing tennis with some other diplomats. So it could be the flu plus dehydration, or either one individually. Please tell me you people are playing along and aren’t taking that whip-it joke seriously. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-presidents-if-any-were-drug-addicts-alcoholics-or-mentally-ill-while-in-office/621037.md?page=3)