Mike Gravel admits to eating marijuana brownies

Former Sen. Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) last week added yet another detail to his already colorful personal background.

In an interview with the political podcast Young Turks, the long-shot 2008 presidential candidate admitted to eating brownies "laced" with marijuana.

Asked by the host if he still smokes marijuana, Gravel responded:

No, not at all. I did when I was younger, but I’ll tell you the truth, I never got a high out of it. Never got a high. For some reason my metabolism did not respond.  Once I had some brownies that were laced, and those were pretty good.

Gravel served in the Senate from 1969-1981, and was known for his outspokenness against the Vietnam War. After his tenure in the Senate, he experienced some personal difficulties, floating in and out of bankruptcy.

A proponent of direct democracy and an advocate for marijuana legalization, Gravel launched a bid for president as a libertarian but lost the party's nomination to Bob Barr, a former Republican congressman from Georgia.