2012 Top 50 Most Influential Marijuana Users
Thank you for checking out MPP's first annual "Top 50 Most Influential Marijuana Users" list. In order to come up with the final ranking, we asked our supporters to choose from nearly 200 influential people to help us narrow down the list to the final 50 you see here. We took the 37 individuals who received the most votes from our supporters and added them to MPP's top 13 automatic qualifiers (including people like Clarence Thomas). Then all 50 were ranked using the criteria below.
In order to have qualified for the list, each individual must (1) have tried marijuana at least once, (2) be alive, and (3) be living in the U.S. or be a U.S. citizen. We also asked our supporters to adhere to the definition for the "Power 50" list that's used by "Out" magazine, which employs the following criteria: "the power to influence cultural and social attitudes, political clout, individual wealth, and a person's media profile."
In sum, we're not concerned with an individual's popularity, or even whether he or she supports marijuana policy reform. Rather, the 2012 "Top 50 Most Influential Marijuana Users" list is meant to identify people who have used marijuana and achieved high levels of success or influence.
We hope you enjoy this list. We're excited to see how the most influential marijuana users change from year to year. (Prediction: Newt Gingrich will drop off the list.)
1. President Barack Obama
"When I was a kid, I inhaled frequently. That was the point."
(Source: YouTube)
2. Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas
"The White House said today that Judge Clarence Thomas, President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, had smoked marijuana while in college."
(Source: New York Times)
3. President Bill Clinton
"I experimented with marijuana a time or two."
(Source: YouTube)
4. President George W. Bush
"I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."
(Source: New York Times)
5. Michael Phelps
“[Phelps] firmly denies that he takes drugs, suggesting that the notorious photo of him smoking from a bong was a one-time lapse of judgment.”
(Source: Huffington Post)
7. Jon Stewart
“Do you know how many movies I wrote when I was high?”
(Source: The Daily Show)
8. George Soros
"He said he had tried marijuana, enjoyed it, 'but it did not become a habit and I have not tasted it in many years.'"
(Source: Reuters, 2/6/97)
10. George Clooney
“The owner of a local cannabis café told reporters George Clooney was no stranger there.”
(Source: The Weed Blog)
