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Sunday's discovery of cocaine in the West Wing recalls other presidential administrations reckoning with illicit drug use by either the commander in chief or his staff — and even, on at least one occasion, on the Executive Mansion’s grounds.

Tevi Troy, director of the Presidential Leadership Center at the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center, told The Post Wednesday that a look back through the tenures of recent chief executives shows how “attitudes toward drugs have changed significantly over the last 75 years."

“In the 1950s, for example, Dwight Eisenhower was so anti-marijuana that he would not allow the White House projectionist to show Robert Mitchum movies because of Mitchum’s conviction on marijuana possession,” Troy said.

“After the Sixties happened, drug culture began to leak into many areas where it had previously been verboten, including the White House.”

Gerald Ford became the first modern commander in chief to confront the dope revolution after his 23-year-old son Jack admitted in an October 1975 interview that he had smoked pot.

Former President Gerald Ford became the first commander in chief in modern memory to confront the dope revolution after his son admitted in an October 1975 interview that he had smoked pot.

“I’ve smoked marijuana before and I don't think that's so exceptional for people growing up in the 1960s,” the younger Ford told the Portland-based Oregonian newspaper, attempting to air out the news early to blunt any effect it could have on his father’s 1976 campaign. 

Things lit up quickly after Jimmy Carter defeated Ford, as several members of the Democrat's staff openly boasted about smoking grass.

“Carter press secretary Jody Powell was briefing his team on White House policies on drug use when he learned that aide David Kaplan had never smoked pot,” Troy recounted. “Powell joked that ‘You’ve never smoked pot? You should be fired for that reason!’”

“I’ve smoked marijuana before and I don't think that's so exceptional for people growing up in the 1960s,” Gerald Ford's 23-year-old son Jack told the Portland-based Oregonian.

Both Powell and White House adviser Hamilton Jordan were also investigated in 1979 by the FBI for allegedly snorting coke at New York City’s famous (and notorious) Studio 54. They denied any wrongdoing and were never indicted.

More famously, country legend Willie Nelson bragged about firing up “a big, fat Austin torpedo” on the White House roof late in Carter’s tenure.

In the 2020 documentary, “Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President,” the former president added the surprising detail that Nelson had shared that joint with one of his own sons.

“Carter press secretary Jody Powell was briefing his team on White House policies on drug use when he learned that aide David Kaplan had never smoked pot,” presidential historian Tevi Troy told The Post. “Powell joked that ‘You’ve never smoked pot? You should be fired for that reason!’”

After Ronald Reagan defeated Carter in 1980 to usher in more than a decade of Republican control at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, drug use was taken far more seriously -- with first lady Nancy Reagan spearheading the "Just Say No" campaign.

In the fall of 1987, Reagan's Supreme Court nomination of DC Appeals Court Judge Douglas Ginsburg fell apart after reports emerged that Ginsburg had smoked weed a decade earlier while an assistant law professor at Harvard. Ginsburg withdrew his name from consideration and Reagan tapped Anthony Kennedy for the coveted seat.

George H.W. Bush took an equally hard line after ascending to the presidency, holding up a clear plastic bag of crack cocaine during a televised Oval Office address meant to drive home its dangers to the American public.

“In the 1980s, President Reagan withdrew the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Douglas Ginsburg because of reports that Ginsburg had smoked marijuana during his time as a Harvard faculty member,” according to Troy.

“This is crack cocaine, seized a few days ago by drug enforcement agents in a park just across the street from the White House,” Bush said in the Sept. 5, 1989, speech on his administration’s drug policy. “It’s as innocent-looking as candy, but it’s turning our cities into battle zones.”

On the campaign trail in 1992, then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton admitted in a TV interview to having puffed reefer while on a Rhodes scholarship at Oxford University.

“When I was in England, I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn’t like it, and didn’t inhale and never tried it again,” he told CBS correspondent Marcia Kramer, to the giggles of a largely disbelieving public.

Reagan's vice president was equally severe after ascending to the presidency in a televised address from the Oval Office, holding up a clear plastic bag of crack cocaine to speak of its dangers to the American public.

Like Biden, Slick Willie also had a family member in trouble with the law over drugs. Clinton's younger half-brother Roger pleaded guilty to cocaine possession and drug trafficking in 1985 after his arrest in a sting operation. He served more than a year in jail, and got a pardon from his powerful relative on Bill's last day in office.

“The Clinton administration was softer on drugs than its predecessors,” Troy said. “Former FBI agent Gary Aldrich maintained in his [1996] book ‘Unlimited Access’ that as much as 25% of the Clinton White House staff was ineligible for security clearances because of what he called ‘serious experience with significant illegal drugs.’”

Clinton's successor, George W. Bush, was more discreet about his drug history.

Former President Barack Obama freely admitted to an affinity for ganja, as he and his high school smoking buddies nicknamed themselves the “Choom Gang,” according to a 2012 biography.

“It is widely believed that he smoked pot and may have even used harder substances,” Troy said. “According to a book by a Bush family friend — the aptly named Doug Wead — Bush has privately admitted to having smoked pot. Publicly, however, he has refused to discuss the subject, coming up with the formulation that ‘When I was young and stupid, I was young and stupid.’”

Barack Obama freely admitted to an affinity for ganja, as he and his high school smoking buddies nicknamed themselves the “Choom Gang,” according to the 2012 biography “Barack Obama: The Story” by Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter David Maraniss.

Obama’s own memoir, “Dreams of My Father,” also includes a discussion about having used “maybe a little blow” in his younger years, making him the only president to confess to having used cocaine, according to Troy.

Hunter Biden visited his father's White House days before cocaine was found Sunday in a dime-size bag inside a cubby that staff and guests use in the West Wing, according to the Secret Service.

“Many Obama staffers were open about their previous usage as well,” Troy added. “National security staffer Ben Rhodes initially did not get a security clearance because of his marijuana usage, and Alyssa Mastromonaco [who went on to become deputy White House chief of staff] got rid of all of her pot after filling out the White House security clearance form.”

That latitude may have haunted some Obama alums who went on to join the Biden administration, which fired at least five staffers for their former marijuana use two months after the 46th president took office.

“I find it absurd that, in 2021, marijuana use is still part of a security clearance background check,” Tommy Vietor, a former Obama administration spokesperson, said of the fiasco.  

Vice President Kamala Harris caught flak over the ousters, since she had admitted during the 2020 campaign to past marijuana use.

The president’s son, Hunter Biden, entered into a plea agreement last month with the Justice Department, which with a judge’s approval will allow him to avoid jail time after he lied about being addicted to crack cocaine on a federal gun purchasing form.

Hunter visited his father's White House days before cocaine was found Sunday in a dime-size bag inside a cubby that staff and guests use in the West Wing, according to the Secret Service.

Troy, who served as former deputy secretary of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush, is also the author of several books on the presidency, including “Fight House: Rivalries in the White House from Truman to Trump 2020” and “What Jefferson Read, Ike Watched, and Obama Tweeted: 200 Years of Popular Culture in the White House.”