"Well, I think the answer is yes. I mean it's been a long time," Yellen said. She then explained that in order to learn how to inhale she had to go out and buy a pack of cigarettes and practice.

"The first time I smoked these cigarettes, it was awful. I was coughing. It was terrible. I couldn’t imagine how anybody could inhale," she said.

How Was The Cannabis?

"It was okay, Yellen replied. "Neither here nor there. I didn’t really do it again for the rest of my life. But within six months, I was smoking three packs a day." She added that she quit smoking, with difficulty, after a decade.

Colbert also Yellen about her much-reported experience in China when she unwittingly indulged in a hallucinogenic magic mushroom dish during an August 2023 trip to Beijing.

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Colbert began the psychedelics segment with a question."Secretary, legally I’m required to ask you, are you high right now? Do I have a wolf head and a spider body?"

"Well, I asked for some hallucinogenic mushrooms before coming on, but I haven't had them so you're safe," Yellen replied with a laugh then began the story.

"We landed in Beijing for very high-stakes meetings," she said, then went out to dinner with her Chinese hosts.

No Idea Until It Was Too Late

"What I later discovered after having some very delicious mushrooms is that … these particular mushrooms, if they’re not cooked correctly, are hallucinogenic," Yellen told Colbert.

"We had no idea that there was anything about these mushrooms until we realized this had become a media frenzy. But they were delicious and I recommend it."

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Photo: Courtesy of the Federal Reserve