Bolt, who stormed to three sprint gold medals in record times at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, told Germany's Bild tabloid: "When you're a child in Jamaica, you learn how to roll a joint.

"Everyone tried marijuana, including me, but I was really young."

But Bolt added that the recreational drug was no longer part of his lifestyle.

"Nobody in my family or those close to me smoke and I don't hang out with people who smoke."

The 22-year-old again rubbished suspicions of doping as he took Beijing by storm last summer.

"People can say what they want, I know I'm clean. That's the only thing that counts, not what other people say," he said.

"I was subject of so many anti-doping tests during the Olympic year, between 30 and 40."

Bolt will try to repeat his triple gold-winning performance at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin in August.

"I want to become a legend. I want to propel athletics to a new dimension," he said.