Apparently this is happening because the file /wp-includes/pluggable which contains the function doesn’t get loaded until after the plugins are loaded.
Indeed it is. So wrap whichever thing you’re doing in a function, and hook it onto the plugins_loaded or init hook. (see the wp-settings.php file)
Example:
add_action('init','do_stuff');
function do_stuff(){
$current_user = wp_get_current_user();
// ...
}