Rand Paul: Bush and Obama 'lucky' not to be in jail for drug use

POLITICO ^ | KEVIN CIRILLI

[JohnPDuncan]

Sen. Rand Paul said Sunday that President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush could have "conceivably been put in jail” for their drug use, ruining their lives and impacting their getting elected to office.

"Look, the last two presidents could have conceivably been put in jail for their drug use and I really think - look what would've happened, it would've ruined their lives. They got lucky. But a lot of poor kids, particularly in the inner city, don't get lucky and they don't have good attorneys and they go to jail for some of these things and I think it's a big mistake,” the Kentucky Republican said on Fox’s “Fox News Sunday.”

"Actually, I think it would be the last three presidents, but who's counting?" host Chris Wallace said with a laugh, referring to former President Bill Clinton.

"There you go," Paul said.

"But he didn't inhale," Wallace quipped.

Paul said that he doesn’t support people using marijuana but said he also doesn’t necessarily support putting them in jail for extended periods of time.

[dforest]

There is a possiblity there could be a certain genius by attaching Bush and Obama. Most of our side could never see it though.

[JohnPDuncan]

No, i’m not a disruptor. I’m a conservative who supports Rand Paul’s position on most things (not everything) big deal.

You support Bush. I do not.

Is that allowed?

[JohnPDuncan]

Rand Paul is a US senator and he’s a Republican.

So am I not allowed to talk about one of my favorite Republicans on a conservative site?

[trisham]

Anything that you’d like to say is allowed. Please say what you will.

[JohnPDuncan]

I’m very proud to have made the sidebar and gain some recognition for the useful posts.

I wear it as a badge of honor!

[freekitty]

Thanks.

[Texas Eagle]

I’m already sick of Rand Paul. Would somebody just give the man a joint and a hooker already.

All we need is a nation of effed up potheads sitting home collecting welfare and unemployment checks their whole lives.

[Stepan12]

I wasn’t aware Bush(43) admitted to drug use either. Is Rand Paul doing some pandering to the media and Leftists?

[trisham]

Amen.

[JohnPDuncan]

I dont think Rand supports welfare so they’d have to get a job :)

[JohnPDuncan]

Yes, he has admitted to drug use on tape to Doug Wead. This is a matter of public record. See the numerous posts in this thread.

[Texas Eagle]

I dont think Rand supports welfare so they’d have to get a job :)

HA! Yeah. The 'RATS will just roll over and go along with that.

Sheesh. The things people will deceive themselves into believing.

[SSDecontrol]

Rand is correct. A puff of some pot is on par with a swig of alcohol. One is morally acceptable in our society and one isn’t.. why the difference? Because Harry J. Anslinger wanted to increase the size of the Bureau of Narcotics in 1937, he used weed as a scare issue to increase his own prestige and the power of the Bureau... as conservatives, we should realize that a lot of this drug war stuff is just a bunch of statist propaganda to give reason for bigger bureaus. Meth heroin, the hard stuff.. I’m not for legalizing.. but pot?? We are making a black market out of a harmless substance.

[SSDecontrol]

I have no problem with legal prostitution. We aren’t children after all and don’t need big brother to go about moralizing telling us what two consenting adults can and cant do. Government ought to be out of peoples hair.. this is the conservative position afterall.

[Brown Deer]

Barack 0bama:

"We were always playing on the white man's court ... by the white man's rules. Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though.

I spent the last two years of high school in a daze, locking away the questions that life seemed insistent on posing. I kept playing basketball, attended classes sparingly, drank beer heavily and tried drugs enthusiastically. I discovered that it didn't make any difference whether you smoked reefer in the white classmate's sparkling new van or in the dorm room with some brother you've met down at the gym, or on the beach with a couple of Hawaiian kids who had dropped out of school and spent most of their time looking for an excuse to brawl.

I will confess to you that I was kind of a goof off in high school as my mom reminded me. I went to high school in Hawaii, so there's a lot of opportunity to goof off because the weather is really good all the time …You know, I made some bad decisions …. You know, got into drinking and experimenting with drugs. There was a whole stretch of time where I didn't apply myself. It wasn't until I got out of … high school, and went to college that I started realizing, man, I wasted a lot of time.”

Photo from college years:

[Stepan12]

First I heard of it, but, yeah.... I did some checking and see what you mean. If it comes to that, even I used some mary jane in my youth. I didn’t like the effects so I didn’t use it again. Not everyone enjoys the stuff.

[JohnPDuncan]

The hard stuff is also subjected to black markets and has terrible consequences. Doctors should prescribe the heroin to the addicts in the morning and in a controlled manner. Then they can do something else with their day rather than thieve and cause problems.

[Aglooka]

To the GOP: Become the party of liberty or become irrelevant.

[highball]

Here’s a question for you: why would someone who doesn’t use drugs be working this hard to make them legal? Simply because he’s concerned about poor “kids” in the “inner city”?

I don't know, maybe he actually cares about the size of the government?

If your belief in liberty starts and ends with your own personal preferences, then that's not much of a belief in liberty at all.

I do not take illegal drugs, I have no interest in taking illegal drugs. I've never so much as smoked a joint in my life. But I see what a disaster the "War on Drugs" has been, how police powers have been abused and State control over once-free citizens has increased, and I can't see how anyone calling himself a conservative can possibly support it anymore.

Real freedom means you have the right to make choices I wouldn't make.

[GlockThe Vote]

Bush helped destroy the GOP and some here still worship him.