Since launching his campaign for—and then winning—the presidency, Donald Trump has permeated just about every facet of life in America. That is true even for the street-level drug trade, it turns out: A new study from Addictions.com has found that his name is the most popular celebrity code word for methamphetamine.
Related: Almost half of Trump's Twitter followers are fake
For the study, titled "Drugs Decoded," the treatment and recovery site surveyed 2,000 current or former users of illicit drugs about words that are employed when discussing and buying drugs. "According to our survey, more than a third of participants between the ages of 18 and 29 told us they'd been denied drugs because they didn't use the proper code words to describe them," the study read.
Often, a celebrity's name will be used to refer to a specific drug, and—wouldn't you know it?—Donald Trump is now tied to methamphetamine, possibly because the president has said that he sleeps only four or five hours a night.
Other popular celebrity drug nicknames include Nixon (marijuana), Lady Gaga (cocaine), Kim Jong Il (crack), Chuck Norris (heroin), Chris Farley (opiates), Nancy Pelosi (LSD), Mario (mushrooms), Benjamin Franklin (benzos) and Malcolm X (ecstasy).
The study also detailed the most common food-related nicknames for drugs—sugar (cocaine), coffee (meth), candy bar (ecstasy) and others—as well as the most commonly used code words, such as green, grass and bud (marijuana), molly (ecstasy), and snow and blow (cocaine).
Though Trump has demonstrated an obsession with placing his name wherever he possibly can, we're not sure he's a fan of people using it to score meth. His attorney general, Jeff Sessions, in May reinvigorated the war on drugs by releasing a memo calling for federal prosecutors to seek the strongest sentences possible. (This would effectively undo President Barack Obama's guidelines for scaling back harsh sentences for low-level drug offenses.)
Trump has issued strong words about drug offenses as well. Most recently, he called Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to praise his work on the country's drug problem. Many others have criticized Duterte, however, because his brand of drug control has included thousands of government-sanctioned, extrajudicial killings. "I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem," Trump said. "Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing, and I just wanted to call and tell you that."
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ryan Bort is a staff writer covering culture for Newsweek. Previously, he was a freelance writer and editor, and his ... Read more
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