I was turned onto this question after reading a TIL.
Is it true that Jefferson and Washington preferred smoking cannabis to alcohol? Was it likely their absolute preferred drug of choice? (Ie maybe even over caffeine?)
Who else smoked cannabis from this time period in U.S. history?
Thanks!
The Jefferson Monticello Estate has no record of any mention to smoking cannabis or hemp in his letters, memoirs, or other assorted writings. The authors of the page also cite that while Washington may have grown hemp (it was an extremely popular crop- not uncommon by any means) it is unknown if he smoked it recreationally. The only evidence that supports Washington's hemp smoking would be his harvest notes referencing separation of male and female hemp plants, which according to people with more knowledge than I possess in the field of horticulture, claim would only be done to create hemp more suited to smoking.
If I understand correctly, cultivation of cannabis for its psychadelic properties and personal pleasure was not known in Europe until the Napoleonic era. At the same time that French troops were returning from Egypt with knowledge of their use, a mass migration of subcontinental Indians was occurring, bringing a lot of strains of cannabis indica to Europe. The literary movement of the 1840-1860 period in France (Gautier, Baudelaire, Dumas, etc.) is generally credited with making it popular knowledge. I just don't think the Framers would have had the resources or know-how to have developed something significantly intoxicating at the time