--- title: Jeb Bush Opens Up on Pot Use in His Youth description: The potential 2016 presidential candidate's high school years were tumultuous, reports the Boston Globe canonical: https://time.com/3690686/jeb-bush-andover-marijuana/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-30T22:16:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:47:26.197Z article:section: Politics og:title: Jeb Bush Opens Up on Pot Use in His Youth og:description: "It was pretty common." og:url: https://time.com/3690686/jeb-bush-andover-marijuana/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea47b607a3dff27e/69877d07cd68489674099769/ap680891911617.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Jeb Bush og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jeb Bush Opens Up on Pot Use in His Youth twitter:description: "It was pretty common." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea47b607a3dff27e/69877d07cd68489674099769/ap680891911617.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jeb Bush Opens Up on Pot Use in His Youth > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Jan 30, 2015 10:16 PM UTC  Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush speaks at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in San Francisco, Jan. 23, 2015. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush speaks at the National Automobile Dealers Association convention in San Francisco, Jan. 23, 2015. Jeff Chiu—AP by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Jan 30, 2015 10:16 PM UTC Jeb Bush has dipped in and out of politics his whole life, serving as a two-term governor and more recently announcing a possible presidential bid in 2016\. But as a student at an elite boarding school in Massachusetts, he was decidedly apolitical. In an in-depth report in the [Boston Globe](https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2015/02/01/tumultuous-four-years-phillips-academy-helped-shape-jeb-bush/q6ccyHNOtP1n6kqDokMBfK/story.html), classmates remember the son of Congressman George Bush Sr. as indifferent and detached. Jeb Bush refused to join the Progressive Andover Republicans club at Phillips Academy in Andover, and declined to discuss politics, reports the Boston Globe. He also indulged in drugs and drinking. “I drank alcohol and I smoked marijuana when I was at Andover,” Bush said of his high school years, both of which could have led to expulsion. “It was pretty common.” Bush’s grades were so poor that he was nearly expelled, and the possible 2016 presidential candidate remembers his boarding school experience as one of the most difficult times of his life, the Globe reports. While other students “were constantly arguing about politics and particularly Vietnam, he just wasn’t interested, he didn’t participate, he didn’t care,” said Phil Sylvester, who said he was a Bush roommate for the early part of 10th grade. Still, Bush, who went on to the University of Texas and was later named Florida’s Secretary of Commerce calls Andover Academy the place where “I learned how to think.” Read more at [the Boston Globe](https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2015/02/01/tumultuous-four-years-phillips-academy-helped-shape-jeb-bush/q6ccyHNOtP1n6kqDokMBfK/story.html). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3690686/jeb-bush-andover-marijuana/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3690686/jeb-bush-andover-marijuana/"},"headline":"Jeb Bush Opens Up on Pot Use in His Youth","datePublished":"2015-01-30T22:16:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:47:26.197Z","description":"The potential 2016 presidential candidate's high school years were tumultuous, reports the Boston Globe","url":"https://time.com/3690686/jeb-bush-andover-marijuana/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","jeb bush"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea47b607a3dff27e/69877d07cd68489674099769/ap680891911617.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltea47b607a3dff27e/69877d07cd68489674099769/ap680891911617.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Jeb Bush","caption":"Jeb Bush","creditText":"Jeff Chiu—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3690686/jeb-bush-andover-marijuana/","name":"Jeb Bush Opens Up on Pot Use in His Youth"}}]}] ```