AP Photo DEBATE NIGHT Jeb: I smoked marijuana

Jeb Bush copped to smoking marijuana in high school during an exchange with Rand Paul on Wednesday night after the Kentucky senator implicitly called certain candidates out for being hypocritical on enforcing federal drug laws.

Which candidate are you referring to?, moderator Jake Tapper asked.


"I think if we left it open, we could see how many people smoked pot in high school," Paul cracked.

Bush immediately interjected: “Me. He was talking about me."

"So 40 years ago, I smoked marijuana, and I admit it," Bush said, remarking that "my mom’s not happy that I just did" in front of 25 million people, referring to former first lady Barbara Bush.

Sorry Mom — Jeb Bush (@JebBush) September 17, 2015

The light-hearted exchange set off a serious discussion of the war on drugs, illuminating some sharp differences between the candidates.

Paul said that the drug war, a prominent initiative of former first lady Nancy Reagan, has had a disproportionately "racial outcome."

Carly Fiorina discussed her daughter, who struggled with alcohol and drug addiction until her death at the age of 35 in 2009. The drugs that are going around in 2015, she suggested, are more potent than they used to be.

"The marijuana that kids are smoking today is not the same Jeb Bush smoked 40 years ago," she said.