Willie Nelson, Jimmy Carter, and the Notorious White House Pot Incident

History


Former American President Jimmy Carter has passed away at 100. And though there might be something nearing universal consensus that he was one of America’s most disappointing Presidents in modern history, there is also nearly universal consensus that he was one of the greatest Americans who ever lived. Nobody’s post-Presidency record of citizenship, volunteerism, his work with Habitat for Humanity, and leading by example is as exemplary as Jimmy’s.

As a peanut farmer from Georgia with a strong Southern accent, he fit the profile of a country music fan more than most. Jimmy Carter happened to be a close personal friend to many country legends, including Johnny Cash, who through his wife June Carter, was actually a distant cousin of Jimmy’s. Yes, there’s a few bloodlines you have to trace down, but Jimmy Carter was related to country music’s first family, The Carter Family.

Jimmy Carter was also friends with Jimmy Buffett, and Gregg Allman of The Allman Brothers. He also understood the power of music to reshape the world, and how that power was perhaps even greater than that of politics. Jimmy Carter once said about his friend Bob Dylan that Bob probably had a greater impact on the world than he did. That’s a big dose of humility coming from a former American President.

Then of course there was Carter’s friendship with Willie Nelson, and one of the most notorious Willie Nelson stories in his long line of them: the time Willie Nelson smoked pot on top of the White House. In fact, it might be this story that officially crowned Willie as one of America’s most famous weed smokers.

But the part of the story that’s rarely told is the cautionary tale portion. While Willie was puffing away on the roof of the White House, he had a cast on his foot. It happens to be that his weed consumption had something to do with it.

“Sitting on the roof of the White House in Washington, D.C., late at night with a beer in one hand and a fat Austin Torpedo in the other, I drifted into a reflective mood,” Willie says in his autobiography. “Nobody from the Secret Service was watching us—or if they were, it was with the intention of keeping us out of trouble instead of getting us into it.”

Willie Nelson was there with an unnamed accomplice, of who he says, “It couldn’t do him any good to use his name, except I should say President Carter knew nothing about this and would not have condoned it.”

Willie Nelson was there after performing in the Rose Garden earlier that evening, and was staying in the White House with his wife at the time, Connie, and their daughters Paula and Amy.

“I let the weed cover me with a pleasing cloud and reflected on what a long, strange trip it had been from smoking cedar bark and grapevine at the age of four or five … to sitting on the roof of the White House sharing a number in the warm humid night,” Willie recalls.

But the story rarely told about the moment is how another incident involving marijuana intertwines with it. Right before the planned trip and performance at the White House, Willie had been in the Bahamas with legendary country songwriter Hank Cochran. After a week-long tour together, Willie and Hank headed to the islands to do some fishing. It happened to be that Willie forgot about a small bag of weed in the pocket of a pair of jeans he packed in his suitcase.

When Willie Nelson arrived at the airport in the Bahamas, his suitcase didn’t, which isn’t completely out of the ordinary. The next day, Willie got a call and was told his luggage had arrived, and he could come pick it up. When he did, a Customs agent was waiting there for him. Sure enough, Willie was arrested, and thrown in a bare, concrete cell. Hank Cochran heard, and somehow smuggled a 6 pack of beer into the cell for Willie while the $700 bail was processed.

“When they opened the door and let me out of jail, I was about half ripped from drinking the six pack, and I was so happy to be free that I cut loose a big Indian war whoop and leaped off the front porch of the jail,” Willie recalls. “I broke my left foot. I hobbled before the judge on crutches. The judge said, ‘We’re going to release you on the condition that you never come back to the Bahamas again.’ So there I was, on bond, deported from the Bahamas, and flying straight to the White House to see President Carter. A few hours later I was on the White House roof smoking dope.”

Another part of Willie’s recollection that is rarely or ever intimated is what Willie Nelson says next about marijuana in the autobiography. Though it’s true that Willie Nelson has been a strong marijuana advocate his entire life, he also understood and preached that it’s not right for everyone, and for some, it can be downright harmful.

“I think marijuana should be recognized for what it is, as a medicine, an herb that grows in the ground. If you need it, use it. People who smoke it and get real paranoid don’t need it. People who smoke it and become brain dead, it’s the wrong medicine for them. For me smoking marijuana is like eating a couple of Valium for somebody else. I have a tremendous amount of natural energy, and I need to take the edge off.”

Willie goes on to say, “There’s been a lot of talk about marijuana being harmless, but I think it’s a lot more dangerous to the lungs than dope smokers really realize. Especially the strong marijuana that’s around these days. Each year it seems to get a little stronger. The wise course is to not abuse it.”

Appreciate that Willie Nelson said this back in 1988. In 2024, many of the marijuana strains people smoke are like a completely different plant.

Willie Nelson’s legacy benefits from is the same thing that Jimmy Carter’s does. Both men were men of peace, men of restraint, men who believed in leading by example, and men who’ve gone on to be measured as something much greater than their primary occupation, in part due to their authentic nature and honesty.

“Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn are like people I grew up with in Abbott (TX),” Willie says. “They’re so down-to-earth and so nice that they were too good to be politicians. You have to lie a lot to be a politician, and I don’t think the Carters are capable of lying anywhere near as much as their high station seemed to require.”

As Willie Nelson points out, Jimmy Carter’s mediocre Presidency might have been the greatest mark on his personal character.



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