Barack Obama is the first sitting President to be on the Tonight Show, the first to bravely show off his abs, and the first to hold a live Internet video chat. For the chat, held yesterday, The White House opened itself to questions from the general public and more than 100,000 were received. People then voted on which questions they wanted to hear Obama answer, and wouldn’t you know, one of the top inquiries they got was about legalizing pot.

The question posed asked whether legalizing marijuana might stimulate the economy by allowing the government to regulate and tax it. After realizing that that was one of the top questions on people’s minds, Obama joked, “I don’t know what this says about the online audience.” It says they cared enough to pause Pineapple Express for a half a second to send you a message, Barry! Take it as a compliment.

But Obama got stern when he firmly responded: “No, I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow the economy.” Later, the White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said he thought maybe marijuana advocates had stuffed the online voting boxes to get their question heard, and Norml, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (we love a good acronym), admits that they did tell their supporters to “let the president know that millions of American voters believe that the time has come to tax and regulate marijuana.” Hey, maybe they just want to be taxed in advance because they know they won’t pay them in the future, like Method Man. [Source: NYTimes; Photo: AFP]

We always laugh at those PSA’s that show a pothead melting into their couch or running over a small child (sorry, but that’s just comedy). Those never seemed like real dangers of weed. What they should do is make a commercial about how pot will make you forget to pay your taxes. We all remember the huge trouble Willie Nelson got in with the IRS a few years ago, and now Method Man is admitting that the number one reason the New York State Department of Taxation knocked on his door to literally collect everything he owned is because of his pot smoking. Method Man told the NY Daily News:

“Myself, I’m a pothead. It’s no secret. Everyone knows that. I go on the road and forget everything else. Sure, [the tax department] sent letters to my house saying, ‘We need this money.’ They started sending them in 2002. Here it is, 2009, and I never paid this sh*t because I don’t think like that!”

If that wasn’t entertaining enough, he continued:

“I could have easily just written them a check for whatever amount, but no — I waited until they knocked on this door and were like, ‘We got your truck and we outta here.’ Now I’m thinking we’ve gotta get our truck back, which means I have to get all my paperwork together. That means days of going through mail, ’cause I got mail like woah. I’ve found checks from 2005 that have never been opened yet. And we’re talking a significant amount of money! But I never opened [the tax department's] letters … so this is how the tax man came.”

Let that be a lesson to all of you users of the gateway drug. Not only will pot make you forget to pay taxes, but you will probably also tell a large media outlet way more information than they asked you for. [Photo: WireImage]