Stephen Colbert, host of CBS’ “The Late Show,” asked outgoing U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday whether she had ever inhaled when she smoked marijuana just after graduating college.  

"Well, I think the answer is yes. I mean it's been a long time," Yellen said. She then explained that in order to learn how to inhale she had to go out and buy a pack of cigarettes and practice.

"The first time I smoked these cigarettes, it was awful. I was coughing. It was terrible. I couldn’t imagine how anybody could inhale," she said.

How Was The Cannabis?

"It was okay, Yellen replied. "Neither here nor there. I didn’t really do it again for the rest of my life. But within six months, I was smoking three packs a day." She added that she quit smoking, with difficulty, after a decade.

Colbert also Yellen about her much-reported experience in China when she unwittingly indulged in a hallucinogenic magic mushroom dish during an August 2023 trip to Beijing.

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Colbert began the psychedelics segment with a question."Secretary, legally I’m required to ask you, are you high right now? Do I have a wolf head and a spider body?"

"Well, I asked for some hallucinogenic mushrooms before coming on, but I haven't had them so you're safe," Yellen replied with a laugh then began the story.

"We landed in Beijing for very high-stakes meetings," she said, then went out to dinner with her Chinese hosts.

No Idea Until It Was Too Late

"What I later discovered after having some very delicious mushrooms is that … these particular mushrooms, if they’re not cooked correctly, are hallucinogenic," Yellen told Colbert.

"We had no idea that there was anything about these mushrooms until we realized this had become a media frenzy. But they were delicious and I recommend it."

In related Yellen-China news and along a more serious vein, Chinese state-sponsored hackers reportedly breached Yellen’s computer and made off with at least 50 unclassified files. The overall impact of the hack was extensive because hackers reportedly broke into over 400 computers and got their hands on sensitive law enforcement data pertaining to investigations by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.

Read More

• Janet Yellen’s Computer Hacked By Chinese Hackers, Attackers Obtain ‘Law Enforcement Sensitive’ Data By Targeting US Treasury Department

Photo: Courtesy of the Federal Reserve