You probably don't equate drug use with success, but some of America's most successful stars have indeed puffed, inhaled, sniffed and more. Here's a tribute to those rich and famous icons who have admitted (or been widely rumored) to have dabbled in the wide world of drugs:
The Most Successful People To Have Used Drugs
Barack Obama(01 of21)
President Barack Obama has admitted to smoking marijuana and using cocaine during his high school and college days. "When I was a kid, I inhaled often," he once told magazine editors, according to The New York Times. "That was the point." (credit:AP)
Steve Jobs(02 of21)
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' use of LSD in his younger days is well-documented. He once called the experience "one of the most important things in my life." His use of the drug was even noted in an FBI background check, according to Wired. (credit:AP)
Bill Clinton(03 of21)
President Bill Clinton famously admitted to trying marijuana while completing his Rhodes scholarship at Oxford. "When I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn’t like it," The New York Times reported in 1992. "I didn’t inhale it, and never tried it again.” (credit:AP)
Richard Branson(04 of21)
Virgin Group chairman and founder Richard Branson is an outspoken advocate of marijuana legilization, once writing an op-ed for CNN that called for an end to the war on drugs. He reportedly asked President Obama during a White House visit if he could "have a spliff" in 2012. "They didn't have any," he added. (credit:AP)
Michael Bloomberg(05 of21)
New York City Mayor and Bloomberg L.P. founder Michael Bloomberg found himself in hot water when he admitted to smoking marijuana back in 2002, The New York Times reports. When asked by a reporter if he had ever tried pot, he responded: "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it." (credit:Getty Images)
Hugh Hefner(06 of21)
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner credits his use of marijuana later in life with changing his perspective on sex. "I didn't know what making love was all about for all those years," Hefner who supports legalization is quoted as saying in High In America: The True Story Behind NORML. "Smoking helped put me in touch with the realm of the senses." (credit:Getty Images)
George Soros(07 of21)
Billionaire investor George Soros is a known supporter of marijuana legalization and even wrote a 2010 Wall Street Journal op-ed rather straight-forwardly entitled "Why I Support Legal Marijuana." His use of the drug may be far less proflific, however. He told Reuters in 1997 that while he had "enjoyed" trying marijuana, "it did not become a habit and I have not tasted it in many years." (credit:Getty Images)
Jimmy Cayne(08 of21)
Jimmy Cayne, former CEO of Bear Stearns, kept an antacid bottle full of cocaine in his desk, according to the book The Sellout. (credit:AP)
Sarah Palin(09 of21)
The former vice presidential candidate and reality TV star told Anchorage Daily News back in 2006 that she couldn't "claim a Bill Clinton and say that I never inhaled,” CBS News reports. (credit:AP)
Bill Gates(10 of21)
Bill Gates, chairman and co-founder of Microsoft, hinted at once using LSD and marijuana in a 1994 interview with Playboy. Likewise, biographer Stephen Manes wrote that "Gates was certainly not unusual there [around drugs]. Marijuana was the pharmaceutical of choice…” (credit:Getty Images)
Larry Kudlow(11 of21)
Former Ronald Reagan economic adviser and current CNBC host Larry Kudlow is reported to have both smoked marijuana and used cocaine frequently at periods in his life. After being fired from Bear Sterns in the mid-1990s, Kudlow entered a rehabilitation program to deal with his cocaine addiction, according to New York Magazine. (credit:AP)
Naomi Campbell(12 of21)
Super model Naomi Campbell admitted in 2005 to abusing cocaine during her career. "I have admitted using illegal drugs and some years ago I recognised that I had a problem" she was quoted as saying in The Daily Mail. "I knew that it was wrong and had damaged me and I decided to try and sort myself out." (credit:Getty Images)
Peter Lewis(13 of21)
Peter Lewis, former CEO of Progressive Insurance, has both smoked marijuana and lobbied heavily for its legalization. After smoking weed recreationally in his youth, he started using it medicinally after his leg was amputated. “I was very glad I had marijuana," he told Boston Magazine. "It didn’t exactly eliminate the pain, but it made the pain tolerable — and it let me avoid those heavy-duty narcotic pain relievers that leave you incapacitated.” (credit:AP)
Arnold Schwarzenegger(14 of21)
Former California Governor and all around legend Arnold Schwarzenegger can be seen smoking marijuana in the 1977 documentary "Pumping Iron." He later said that he "did smoke a joint and I did inhale," CBS News reports. (credit:Getty Images)
Bernie Madoff(15 of21)
In a 2009 lawsuit, it was alleged that Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff frequently sent messengers to buy cocaine for "himself and the company." Actually, before Madoff's $60 billion Ponzi scheme fell apart, his office was known as "the North Pole" because of the allegedly excessive cocaine use during work hours, according to CNN. (credit:AP)
Aldous Huxley(16 of21)
Essayist and author Aldous Huxley is said to have experimented with hallucinogenics, even writing an account of his use of mescaline in "The Doors Of Perception." (credit:Alamy)
Al Gore(17 of21)
Former Vice President and climate change activist Al Gore is rumored to have smoked marijuana often in college. However, Gore characterized his marijuana use as "infrequent and rare," according to The Guardian. (credit:AP)
Maya Angelou(18 of21)
Best-selling author Maya Angelou reportedly "settled into a job as a waitress and began smoking marijuana with abandon" early in her life, according to a biography by Harold Bloom and Cindy Dyson. (credit:Alamy)
Ted Turner(19 of21)
CNN founder and Atlanta Braves owner Ted Turner is rumored to have grown pot in his college dorm room, according to COED Magazine (he's reportedly also a major donor to the Kentucky Hemp Museum). After banning cigarette smoking at CNN in the early '90s, a memo emerged that claimed it "was common knowledge that Turner sits in his office and smokes marijuana." (credit:Getty Images)
Clarence Thomas(20 of21)
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas smoked marijuana "several times" in college, White House spokesman Judy Smith said back in 1991. (credit:AP)
Kary Mullis(21 of21)
Nobel Prize-winning chemist Kary Mullis credited much of his success to his use of LSD, according to Wired. (credit:WikiMedia:)
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