Posted on 01/19/2014 8:56:32 PM PST by EinNYC
In a profile published on The New Yorker's website, the President admits he smoked marijuana when he was younger and is pretty sure a lot of other politicians did, too, but that some demographics are more harshly punished for the offense. He says if it is legalized, it could lead to a slippery slope, with supporters possibly wanting to legalize recreational use of other drugs, such as meth or cocaine.
President Obama thinks marijuana is no more dangerous than booze — and even less harmful "in terms of its impact on the individual consumer." "As has been well-documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol," Obama said to New Yorker editor David Remnick in a lengthy profile published Sunday.
The commander-in-chief still wouldn't recommend any sort of dance with Mary Jane for his daughters — or anyone for that matter — but does seem to think that the country's historical aversion to the drug was blown out of proportion and that our current anti-drug laws disproportionately punish poorer people.
"Middle-class kids don't get locked up for smoking pot and poor kids do," he told Remnick. "And African-American kids and Latino kids are more likely to be poor, and less likely to have the resources and the support to avoid unduly harsh penalties."
Mason Tvert, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, said he shares Obama's concern that people from minority communities bear the brunt of pot prohibition and is thrilled that the President is "catching up" with "most Americans" who think marijuana should be legal. "For more than 80 years, our federal government has been exaggerating the harms of marijuana in order to keep it illegal," Tvert told the Daily News. "For one of the first times ever, one of our national leaders is acknowledging that marijuana is actually less harmful than alcohol for the consumer."
In the Remnick interview, Obama pointed out that the nation's lawmakers should not be hypocritical enough to throw pot smokers behind bars for long stretches of time when they probably experimented with cannabis themselves.
It is important for marijuana legislation to go forward in Colorado and Washington state, he said, because we should not "have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished."
But Obama also took a moment to entertain the opposing side, saying marijuana legalization leads to slippery-slope arguments concerning harder, more harmful drugs and difficult line drawing.
"If marijuana is fully legalized and at some point folks say, 'Well, we can come up with a negotiated dose of cocaine that we can show is not any more harmful than vodka,' are we open to that? If somebody says, 'We've got a finely calibrated dose of meth, it isn't going to kill you or rot your teeth,' are we OK with that?" Recreational use of marijuana has been legalized in Colorado and Washington. It is permitted for medicinal purposes in 18 more states and the District of Columbia.
Beat me to it!
Don’t you people recognize a trial balloon when you hear it.
Mexicans, Libertarians, Independents, etc.
(Yes, I have my broad brush out)
Hes Looking at gaining votes and TAX Revenue!
There is no way he cannot stop thinking about that Revenue.
Hes testing the waters for a change in federal law.
How can he resist.
Does anyone think this warped bastard does not “Bong Out” in the ovel orfice?
Freedumb for the masses.
Freedumb keeps the peasants at bay.
Republicans will jump on it too.
He wasn’t referring to actually smoking it. He was attesting to the fact that alcohol is a flammable liquid and therefore could be dangerous and pot is some leafy green stuff that might, at its worst, get moldy.
"Middle-class kids don't get locked up for smoking pot and poor kids do," he told Remnick. "And African-American kids and Latino kids are more likely to be poor, and less likely to have the resources and the support to avoid unduly harsh penalties."
Had the same thought. I think it was designed to put the issue in play for the 2014 election season. They apparently think it's a winning strategy.
Watch the repubs glom on to it too.
Just like the immigration issue.
True, all dat!
- …maybe a little blow… - Barack Hussein Obama II
The brain damage caused by his heavy drug use while young is becoming more and more obvious.
He’s already sided with the illegals. Why not join up with the drug dealers as well. Actually, there’s a lot of overlap between the two groups.
This is meant to distract from Benghazi and other Obama scandals.
Perhaps not after they’re high. But lots of violence on the supply side of pot.
King Barry is more dangerous than pot or alcohol combined.
He already has. He sent them hundreds of weapons that they are using every day in their business.
I can't argue with him on that point, we know who has brain damage from their habits!
“Or if they are involved in some medical care for me.”
In the late 70’s I returned to work after a maternity leave to find the entire second shift of the lab was populated with pot heads. At 9pm every night they would congregate in the parking lot and “smoke” One guy would come to work stoned and spend the first hour of work leaning against the sink for support. Tried to let the supervisor know what was going on but she wasn’t interested. In over 45 years I don’t know of anyone that was ever drunk in the lab although there were many that came in on a Saturday morning hung over.
I wonder how many anti-"What Really Happened in Benghazi" flak pieces of distraction the lying Imbecile-in-Chief intends to drop, one by one, from his bag of "This isn't the thing you want to look closely at" tricks. Slavering brain-dead people like Obamaphone Woman will eagerly snap them up and look away. As Abe Lincoln said (some say P.T. Barnum), "You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time." Especially you can't fool FReepers.
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