President Barack Obama speaks during a bilateral meeting with Uruguay President Jose Mujica Cordano in the Oval Office on May 12, 2014 in Washington. (Andrew Harrer, Pool/Getty Images)

Obama, Uruguayan leader Mujica meet in DC — but don’t talk weed?

When Uruguay President José Mujica goes all the way to Washington DC to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House to talk about expanding trade and commodities exports, surely they would also talk about their feelings and experiences with legal marijuana?

Actually, no.

As Obama keeps an eye on pot markets in Colorado and Washington state, and as Mujica implements the world’s first legal marijuana laws on a federal level, the two world leaders did not talk about weed when they met in DC on May 12, according to a New York Times report.

The Times piece noted toward the end of its brief on the meeting: “Curiously, the two leaders did not publicly refer to Uruguay’s pioneering legalization of marijuana, a sweeping measure that went into effect last week.”


“I’m smoking weed with the president of Uruguay” (video): See that video and the rest of our reporting on Uruguay’s newsworthy, cannabis-friendly president