The Evolution of the Pot-Smoking Politician: What’s in Store for 2020?

This article originally appeared on The Green Fund — Australia’s preeminent source of cannabis information.

It wasn’t always easy to come out as having smoked weed if you were a politician.

Many political leaders once feared that if they admitted to having “inhaled” marijuana, their political careers would similarly end up in smoke.

And in the occasions where politicians did admit to having smoked the plant, it was often followed by the phrases “I only tried it once or twice.” Or “It was infrequent and rare.”

At least that’s what Al Gore said about his smoking habits in 1987.

Though the times, they are a-changin’.

Drugs have always been a tricky subject for many politicians, who have historically tried to evade the subject.

And while the shift has been slow, we’re finally starting to see more openness around the drug itself, and its legislation.

Nearly every Democratic candidate for the US 2020 election has either admitted to lighting up the occasional doobie, or now publicly supports ending prohibition.

As a result we’ve decided to chronicle some of these changes in the political debate around pot.