Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen joked that smoking marijuana “all the time helps” whenever you “get caught” on a troublesome degree of the cellular recreation Sweet Crush—however in actuality, she stated she hasn’t used hashish because the summer time earlier than attending Yale College, when she educated for her first session by smoking cigarettes.
Throughout an look on the NPR recreation present “Wait Wait… Don’t Inform Me” that aired on Sunday, the Biden Cupboard official—who additionally ventured to China final yr the place she inadvertently ate a “scrumptious” meal that includes a mushroom with hallucinogenic properties—talked about how she likes “to be ready” in all features of her life, and that prolonged to her first time making an attempt marijuana.
“You already know, I had by no means smoked marijuana earlier than. It was the summer time earlier than I used to be going to varsity,” she stated. “My roommate stated she hid some marijuana and we must always have a celebration and smoke marijuana.”
“I all the time tried to organize after I can, and I stated, ‘How can I put together for this expertise? Properly, why don’t I purchase a pack of cigarettes and attempt to smoke them and see if I can inhale,’ as a result of I used to be advised you possibly can’t actually get pleasure from marijuana except you inhale,” Yellen stated. “So I purchased a pack the cigarettes. I began smoking them. Horrible, it was a horrible expertise. I used to be coughing. I believed, ‘Properly, I’m not ready. I’ve to work more durable at this.’”
“So I purchased some extra cigarettes and, all week getting ready for this occasion, I smoked cigarettes. Then I went to the occasion, smoked a few marijuana cigarettes. However I by no means did that once more,” she stated. “However , what occurred to me was inside a few months, I used to be as much as three packs [of cigarettes] a day.”
Take heed to the secretary talk about her hashish expertise round 20:15 into the audio under:
Yellen stated she finally stop, however she’s extra lately discovered herself hooked on a unique form of excessive: enjoying cellular puzzle video games, particularly Sweet Crush. She stated that, on the time of the interview, she’d reached degree 6,180.
“Do you have got a secret for Sweet Crush?” host Peter Sagal requested.
One other panelist quipped, “Yeah, marijuana cigarettes.”
“If you happen to get caught, it all the time helps,” Yellen affirmed.
The treasury secretary may not have really smoked marijuana since her first expertise, however final yr she laughed about an official journey to China, the place she ate a mushroom-based made from the psychoactive Lanmaoa asiatica, a species of fungi native to Asia. She stated she didn’t eat sufficient of it to expertise the hallucinogenic results, and she or he discovered about its psychedelic properties solely after indulging.
“I learn that if the mushrooms are cooked correctly—which I’m positive they had been at this superb restaurant—that they haven’t any influence,” Yellen stated on the time. “All of us loved the mushrooms, the restaurant, and none of us felt any unwell results.”
When it comes to critical drug coverage points, the official has expressed frustration about ongoing boundaries to conventional monetary companies for the marijuana business beneath federal prohibition, saying final yr that it’s “sadly” the case that banks stay reluctant to work with state-licensed hashish companies, and it’s one thing regulators “have been on the lookout for options to.”
In 2022, she stated that it’s “extraordinarily irritating” that Congress has to date been unable to go laws just like the Safe and Honest Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act and that Treasury is “supportive” of the proposal.