Microsoft founder Bill Gates shared with actor and acclaimed stoner Seth Rogen that he, too, has a history with cannabis (although we can assume Gate’s tolerance is much lower than Rogen’s). Gates appeared on an episode of Rogen’s new podcast Unconfuse Me, which was released last week. Rogen and his wife, Lauren Miller, talked all things cannabis with the billionaire and philanthropist, such as research barriers, cannabis potency, and Gates’ attempts to be a popular kid.
Although considering the tech pioneer is worth $117.6 billion, it’s safe to say it was advantageous for him to embrace his true nerd form.
Gates said that in high school, he said yass to puff puff pass, confessing that he smoked weed “to be cool.”
“It wasn’t so much smoking pot for pot’s sake as it was being part of the crowd,” Gates said. Gates elaborated, sharing that while his high school indulgence was to fit in, he’s very much on board with the changes in cannabis policy. “It’s amazing how it’s changed. You know, when I grew up, it was just kind of a rebellion thing.”
He added that the continuing division between state and federal law has “got to be resolved.”
“When it first came up in what Colorado [and] Washington State—you know, so my state was one of the first to have that—I thought, ‘wow, things really are changing,’” Gates, who was born in Seattle, said. “And the fact that you can have the federal level still have one set of rules and the state rules, there’s definitely a paradox there that got to be resolved at some point.”
The conversation shifted to edibles, which, while beloved by so many in the cannabis community, are too strong for Gates’ liking. Like so many older men before him, the multi-billionaire shared concern that weed has gotten much stronger since his high school days. “A lot of us who were smoking when it was illegal, the dosage was actually pretty modest,” Gates said.“So at least as you move into this legal pot world, you can be getting like really extreme doses, particularly on the edibles,” he said. “I mean, I think I know, ‘okay, if I puff five times’ what that means, whereas if you ingest I have no clue.”
Hey, there, Gates. Some of us don’t have heaps of billions of dollars and need 100mg of THC infused into the comfort of a gummy, so don’t be hating.
Of course, everyone’s tolerance is different, and edibles should be appropriately labeled, so whether you want something low-dose or the I’ve-been-a-medical-patient-for-ten-years dose, you know what you’re getting. Even Rogen, who owns the cannabis lifestyle company Houseplant, agreed that edibles can be a (literal) trip. Rogen continued to say that this is an area where he’d appreciate federal regulations to standardize product potency safely. According to Rogen, even cannabis legends like Snoop Dogg “doesn’t eat edibles.”
“That’s how wild the variation on edibles is,” Rogen said. “You really don’t know what you’re gonna get.” Earlier this year, on his GGN with Snoop Dogg show, Snoop did tell Rogen that “I don’t like edibles because they don’t have an on and off button.” However, if you’re someone who could eat a bowl of edibles for breakfast, don’t feel weird. It’s rumored that Snoop Dogg’s professional joint roller makes him up to 150 a day, and the legendary rapper does have his own edible line, including cannabis-infused onion rings.
Finally, Gates, while supporting cannabis deregulation, also expressed concern regarding carcinogenic effects if “you smoke enough weed.” Standing by his intake method of choice, Rogen said there was no scientific consensus on that and that he and his wife’s doctors haven’t told them to stop enjoying smoke sessions.
