Marijuana’s a pretty amazing, wonderful plant, and you can smoke it too!

Cannabis actually had a crucial role in shaping our country in the beginning, says former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura.

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would have been criminals, according to today’s laws on marijauna, Ventura says.

“It was the backbone of our economy for the first 160 years of our country,” he says. Hemp was used to make sails and ropes for the British navy, and farmers were compelled by law to grow it and trade it instead of money.

“Constitution, the Bill of Rights and Betsy Ross’ flag are all made out of marijuana,” Ventura says of the original paper of our country’s most important symbols.

But “The Body” also believes the sweet leaf has an important role to play in the future of America’s economy, the way our country runs and how it treats chronic injuries and diseases, even cancer.

“I personally…wrote the book because someone very close to me got late-in-life epileptic seizures and was seizing three or four times a week,” says Ventura.

This person was put on a number of expensive pharmaceuticals with “horrible side-effects,” until Ventura finally took he or she to Colorado to get medicinal marijuana.

Now that person is completely off the pharmaceutical drugs and has been seizure free.

“And the only thing that did it was marijuana.”

Watch the full interview below: