A forthcoming biography on President Obama is making headlines, with new details about the president smoking marijuana with his teenage friends in Hawaii.
David Maraniss' book, Barack Obama: The Story, describes Obama as a marijuana enthusiast: "When a joint was making the rounds, he often elbowed his way in, out of turn, shouted 'Intercepted!' and took an extra hit," Maraniss writes. Maraniss also describes Obama's technique of "roof hits" while hot-boxing cars. "When the pot was gone, they tilted their heads back and sucked in the last bit of smoke from the ceiling," he writes. Obama has been less than shy about his drug use in the past, writing about the topic in Dreams from My Father, "Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it," he writes in the memoir.
While Obama's term began with great promise for drug policy reformers, in the past two years it has been difficult to distinÂguish Obama's drug policies from those of his White House predecessors. Although President Obama has acknowledged that legalization is "an entirely legitimate topic for debate" -- the first time a sitting president has made such a statement -- his administraÂtion has made a string of increasingly disappointing moves over the last year. Half of all U.S. drug arrests are for marijuana -- more than 850,000 Americans were arrested for marijuana in 2010 alone, 88 percent for mere possession.
Barack Obama won a lot of hearts and minds some years ago when he talked so openly and frankly about his youthful marijuana use. That contrasted refreshingly with Bill Clinton's hemming and hawing about not having inhaled, much less George Bush's refusal to even acknowledge what old friends revealed about his marijuana use.
But the president has been losing lots of hearts and minds, especially those of young voters, with his striking silence on marijuana issues since he became president -- apart from providing lame excuses for the federal government's aggressive undermining of state medical marijuana laws.
Most disappointing is his failure to say a word as president about the fact that half of all drug arrests each year are for nothing more than possessing a small amount of marijuana, which is something Barack Obama did lots of in his younger days, or to offer any critical comments about the stunning racial disproportionality in marijuana arrests around the country.
Roughly twice as many people are arrested for marijuana possession now as were arrested in the early 1980s, even though the number of people consuming marijuana is no greater now than then. If police had been as keen on making marijuana arrests back then, it's quite possible that a young man named Barry Obama would have landed up with a criminal record -- and even more likely that he would not have his current job.
With 50 percent of Americans -- and 57 percent of Democrats -- now in favor of legalizing marijuana use, according to Gallup's most recent poll, President Obama needs to come clean once again about marijuana -- but this time he needs to speak not of his own youthful use but rather of the harmful consequences of today's punitive marijuana policies for young Americans today.
Ethan Nadelmann is the executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance (www.drugpolicy.org)
Follow Ethan Nadelmann on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EthanNadelmann
Scott Morgan: A Big Mistake In Obama's War on Medical Marijuana
Scott Morgan: If You Think Marijuana Isn't an Important Issue, You're Dead Wrong
Govm't control sucks!
You had to scour years worth of news to come up with a couple of accidents that MIGHT be (no proof) due to marijuana consumption - in 2010!
No such scouring of the news (with such nebulous results) is necessary to find thousands of accidents caused by alcohol use. In fact, they are so numerous, they are usually not even reported in the news, or else they wouldn't have room for any other stories.
Marijuana is NOT alcohol, and is not a significant cause of auto accidents - as your desperate, fruitless search confirms.
I don't want my kids to grow up in a world where they could be put in jail and have a record for having a small amount of marijuana on them. Politicians cry all day and night we have to keep it illegal for the sake of the children. Kids can get it any time they feel like it and it's much easier to get than alcohol or tobacco. Let's not forget the guy that sells them weed will also be trying to get them to buy some coke or some pills or whatever else it is he's selling that is far far worse than some harmless marijuana. Gangs will lose their source of revenue. People will begin to trust law enforcement again, jobs will be created. The money we save on enforcement can be used for any number of things that we need money to do. How about pay off some of that national debt that keeps piling up, or how about national education improvements or improving our aging infrastructure. Hemp can be harnessed as an easily renewable a source of paper and building materials( and fuel !). If you've ever seen how much paper can be made from one tree it's pathetic and a practice that needs to end. There can be a bright future for this nation and it all starts with marijuana policy reform. That's some change and hope I'd be willing to get behind.
Many people think marijuana consumption causes accidents like alcohol. It doesn't, for various reasons. Research has shown marijuana is not as intoxicating as alcohol. More importantly, while alcohol drinkers think they are better drivers and so drive faster and more aggressively, marijuana consumers are very aware of their altered consciousness and correctly judge when they are too impaired to drive - refraining from doing so. If they must, they correctly compensate for their altered state by driving slower and more cautiously.
The point is, judgement is not affected like it is with alcohol. Marijuana consumers simply don't put themselves or others in harm's way. This is why the preponderance of the research shows marijuana is NOT a significant cause of auto accidents.　
　
Marijuana and Driving: A Review of the Scientific Evidence
http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5450
When an issue becomes one that more than 50% of American voters have an interest in, I think its time to address the issue head on and get something done. Obama and Romney are both off the track.
Obama doesn't need rehab. He needs a wake up call.
>>>"The parallels between drug policy today and Prohibition in the 1920’s are obvious, as are the lessons our nation learned. Prohibition was repealed because it made matters worse. Today, no one is trying to sell our kids bathtub gin in the schoolyard and micro-breweries aren’t protecting their turf with machine guns. It’s time to apply that thinking to marijuana. By making it a legal, regulated product, availability can be restricted, under-age use curtailed, enforcement/court/incarceration costs reduced, and the profit removed from a massive underground and criminal economy.
By managing marijuana like alcohol and tobacco – regulating, taxing and enforcing its lawful use – America will be better off. The billions saved on marijuana interdiction, along with the billions captured as legal revenue, can be redirected against the individuals committing real crimes against society."
Polls show public support for ending the fraudulent marijuana prohibition has now passed 50 percent nationwide, so he doesn't have the "political" excuse anymore. He is simply obeying the one percent who he has shown every sign are his masters.
He will not do anything different in his second term. Vote for Gary Johnson for a REAL change you can believe in!
this Act is that led to the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 !!!!!! each Act is lidted in the top right hand corner of the page !!!!!!
The Prohibition of Cannabis only means that it's shut out of the legal economy, making Cannabis exclusive to the illegal economy. THIS LAW PROMOTES CRIME.
If you don't care about the Freedom and Liberty concerns raised by calling something a crime when it isn't; If you have no personal interest in smoking Pot; If you don't care about the million and one useful uses for Cannabis or Hemp; You should care about the crime. You should care about the murder. You should care about the destabilization of countries throughout the Western Hemisphere, including our own. You should care, because these things are fallout from this unjust Prohibition law, a law promulgated by your Government.
We are all citizens of a Nation that is Constitutionally pledged to the Liberty of its citizens. Part of how that works is, something isn't a crime simply because the Government says it is.
This law needs to be changed. It calls something a crime that isn't, directly affecting the lives of at least a tenth of the American population. It illegitimately interferes with Liberty, promotes rather than decreases crime, gets people killed, and it isn't even keeping drugs out of the hands of your kids (That last resort of the Prohibitonist argument).
My fellow Americans, it's not down to you to make other people's decisions for them.
It will be a century before we can accurately assess all the damage to our country done by this hugely evil witch hunt!
Thirty years ago, drug-testing people, whether by government or by businesses, raised serious questions and serious objections: 'Is it Unconstitutional? Does it violate privacy?' People quit asking those questions, people quit worrying about that stuff; People HAD personal objections to the proliferation of reasons why cops can pull you over, and then said 'Well, I don't like it, but that IS how they catch a lot of people with drugs...'
Totalitarianism was never going to announce itself. The government wasn't going to come right out and say 'We have assumed control.' People had to be convinced, frightened into going to the government and asking for greater control. For thirty years now, The War On Drugs has been the best catalyst for that.
To be clear, we're not at Totalitarianism now, but we used to be more resistant to submission to control than we are today. Freedom used to be about personal Freedom, not just something reserved for business.
It used to be 'Power To The People,' nowadays it's 'Power To The Power.'
But it does feel like people are starting to wise up.
Marijuana is no better than neither.
We don't have the same alcohol policy, as we do tobacco policy, as we do caffiene policy. Each drug is a different story, with different levels of harm, and requires a different regulatory system. - When we were ending alcohol prohibition, nobody thought it was necessary to discuss opium.
The lie of this post is clearly found in the last line, when you say marijuana is the same as cocaine and meth! Shame on you! Science, and widespread experience have shown marijuana has NO signficant harms.
Beware of this dishonest poster!
You can learn alot about political convictions reading Huffpost. Another example: Bill Maher. Maher will heap ridicule on the anti-science propaganda of religious fundamentalists pointing out that everyone really can trust the scientific community and that they're not conspiring against us. Then in the next breath he will promote anti-vaccine anti-science propaganda citing "incontrovertible proof" that the scientific community is conspiring against us.
I expect a liberalism to stick to convictions of compassion, social good, and evidence based policies. Anyone calling themselves a liberal that deviates from these principles in favor of social policies that feel good at the expense of others is a hypocrite.
We should probably give it another 41 years just to confirm the idiocy of our strategy right? Forty-ones year should have been long enough for us to scratch our collective heads, come to an informed decision and all cry out in unison -- d'oh!
Prohibition wasn't successful against alcohol use and trafficking and it is not successful against illegal drug use or trafficking...d'oh! Oh no, yet another failed government policy.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist or Bill Maher to figure this one out.
Legalize it, regulate it and tax it. Don't do it for me; do it for those who have served and are still serving time for the possession, use or dealing of illegal drugs. And do it for that "sane" politician you're going to vote for. If he had been arrested for his pot or cocaine possession back in the day you would not have the choice of voting for your "sane" President.
Just think if Ronald Reagan had been a better Commander-in-Chief in the "War on Drugs" Obama would be probably be chooming and snorting with his convicted buds somewhere on the islands.
Red herring appreciated only by someone who's high. We've had a "war" on punching out our neighbor for several millenia. Maybe we should legalize that too.
Nixon of course completely disregarded the findings and started the "war on drugs" which as most of us agree has been a dismal failure. Over half the adult population has admitted to smoking cannabis at one point during their lives; we've spent over $1 trillion since the "war" started; we lock up 850,000 Americans every year, 750,000 for possession alone, how can anyone defend this as a success?
The war on drugs was supposed to reduce demand and supply, neither goal has been accomplished. And if they're trying to keep drugs away from kids they're doing a piss poor job as well considering high school students report they can find marijuana easier than alcohol or tobacco, often within an hour.
Shafer Commission -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Commission_on_Marihuana_and_Drug_Abuse
And how can you state Obama's believing in decriminalizing marijuana all his life until AT LEAST 2004, then suddenly becoming close-minded on marijuana reform with becoming president, is NOT hypocrisy.
Sometimes being an apologist is an impossible job.
Perhaps he's a prison guard...
http://www.republicreport.org/2012/marijuana-lobby-illegal/
And how can you state Obama's believing in decriminalizing marijuana all his life until AT LEAST 2004, then suddenly becoming close-minded on marijuana reform with becoming president, is NOT hypocrisy. "Because that's not what's happening out here in the real world. Obama swore an oath to uphold the nation's law's. It's what he wants to do. As a lawyer he has a pretty firm grasp of what that entails, and he's been doing a pretty good job of it. The other factually bizarre fallacy being bandied about here is that Obama can wave his hand and make marijuana a medicine. That's the job of the medical community and the FDA.