20 Mind-Blowing Facts About American Presidents

9. And He Loved The Ganja

Cannabis can be used for all sorts of things, as you'll find by visiting any head shop in a country where marijuana smoking is illegal. There are clothes made from cannabis, you can technically buy seeds and it's kosher, plus it can be used industrially as hemp. Which is presumably what George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison all kept crops of the stuff in their back garden whilst they were in residence at the White House. Apparently most 1700s farmers cultivated marijuana on the regular, mainly for its industrial value as hemp. Years later it became used as something to smoke, but it's believed that Washington €“ who grew large quantities of it at his home €“ might've imbibed it along with tobacco, or by making it into beer, perhaps without realising the effects it would have. Or he was a total 4/20 blaze it guy.
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Bill Clinton
 
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Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/