Ganja Greats: 10 Americans Who Shaped the Pot Landscape

2. GEORGE WASHINGTON

Represents: The birth of America, Planting hemp in America

With our next entry, there is no disputing the central argument that Washington, the “father of our country” and the first President of the United States (POTUS), not only grew hemp, he even promoted it in his writings. 

Further, Washington was sophisticated enough in his growing to know that the sex of the cannabis plant determined its fate. Per LC Web, a document exists online that confirms on August 7, 1765, in his pre-Revolutionary War days as a Virginia farmer, (line 7) Washington wrote that he “began to separate the male from the female hemp.”

This entry indicates Washington may have been well aware of the intoxicating effects of the flowers created by female cannabis plants, and while there’s no evidence that he did smoke weed to get stoned or possibly inspired the revolt against British tyranny, there’s no evidence that Washington did not smoke pot, either.

Regardless, it’s highly fitting that both the U.S. state and the nation’s capital named in his honor have legalized recreational weed. Speaking to the power of cannabis in early American history, Washington was not the last POTUS to grow and promote hemp…