New at Reason
How did Obama become a drug warrior when he's the first presidential candidate to exaggerate his past drug use? Jacob Sullum investigates.
Comments to "New at Reason":
poetryman69 | February 20, 2008, 7:44am | #
Energy Independence Now!No more Oil Wars!
Stop funding the terrorists!
Drill in Anwar.
Build more nuclear power plants
Use More coal.
Use more natural gas
Turn trash into energy
Double the efficiency of windmills and solar cells.
If France can do nuclear power so can we.
If Brazil can do biomass/ethanol power so can we.
If Australia can do LNG power so can we.
Mr. Nice Guy | February 20, 2008, 7:56am | #
"Obama explains that he got high not "to prove what a down brother I was" but to "push questions of who I was out of my mind." In marijuana, he says, he "sought something that could flatten out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory.""Pretty damning?" It seems the latest thing is to find something, something, to make Obama look like politics as usual (I should think the more likely areas should be his lack of experience and policies, but what do I know). I think the most probable, and pretty far from "damning" explanation is that it is quite possible to be a person who smokes pot and even snorts some coke when offered and still be seen by one's friends as "grounded, motivated and poised, someone who did not appear to be grappling with any drug problems and seemed to dabble only with marijuana." A college friend said Obama "was not even close to being a party animal."
In that context the only thing problemattic is Obama's phrase about becoming a "junkie" or "pothead." But given that he said he used the drug to clear his mind (a reason many people like drugs), perhaps what he meant is that he could, at that time, easily imagine a life in which he turned to pot or coke quite a bit to relieve his tension and clear his mind. And then he used the unfortunate terms used by the drug warriors in our society (junkie, pothead) to describe this situation.
This is another mountain constructed out of good old made in the U.S.A. molehills.
I wouldn't put him squarely in the "drug warrior" category. Seems to me he is just a guy trying to win a national election in today's America.
By the way, that woman in the "rational responders" ad is proof there is a God.
Abdul | February 20, 2008, 8:11am | #
Pothead, junkie, these are the types of men I could vote for. But a lightweight? Never!Too bad, because I really liked his policy on change and unity.
joe | February 20, 2008, 8:56am | #
Connecting his support for decriminalization with his own drug use would be political suicide, for himself and, if he were to become the most visible proponent of the effort, the decriminalization effort itself.Decriminalization's OPPONENTS try to tie it to its proponents' own drug use - you just want to smoke pot! There's a reason for that.
Fred | February 20, 2008, 9:30am | #
And until politicians admit that smoking marijuana, something at least half of American adults born after World War II have done, is not a harbinger of ruin but a generally harmless rite of passage, they will not be able to have an honest discussion about drug policy.That is BS. Probably nearly all junkies began with "harmless" pot. Todays pot is 400 X stronger than years ago. It is a dangerous drug, I saw a TV show where they interviewed DEA officers who said it is a dangerous drug, they are the experts, who are we to disagree? More people are in treatment for pot addiction than any other drug. It is possible to use beer wine and even liquer, but pot can lead to harder drugs. Treatment works best with the threat of severe punishment, a carrot and stick approach. We need to send a strong, consistant "no use" message to Americas children. Decriminalizing would send the message that drug abuse is OK. Drug use is wrong, immoral, illegal and unhealthy.
I can't tell if Fred is being satirical and that freaks me out. Oh well, I think I'll just go smoke a bowl and stop worrying.
LarryA | February 20, 2008, 9:35am | #
Obama would not be better off now if he had been arrested for marijuana possession in high school or college, and there's no reason to think that experience would improve the life prospects of potential presidents who today are sneaking a puff here and there.Actually, I don’t see how prison and a felony drug arrest record “improve the life prospects” of even the heaviest pot smokers. The only excuse for incarceration is “if we lock up enough users for enough time we might scare someone else into not using.” In the fist place that demonstrably doesn’t work, and in the second place it’s a terrible waste of human potential.
"Junkie. Pothead," he writes. "That's where I'd been headed: the final, fatal role of the would-be black man."
I.e. “See what I overcame?” Just like McCain’s “I was a POW” and Clinton’s “I put up with Bill.” Used to, all politicians were born in log cabins, but that doesn’t resonate so much today.
Mitt Romney said "it's just not a good idea for people running for president of the United States who potentially could be the role model for a lot of people to talk about their personal failings while they were kids because it opens the doorway to other kids thinking, 'Well, I can do that too and become president of the United States.'"
Because being a liar sets a much better example? Oh, wait. We're talking about politicians.
Someone Who Doesn't Want to Lose His Job | February 20, 2008, 9:36am | #
It's pretty damning stuff. But as the Times acknowledges, there are several possible explanations for the apparent inconsistency. Maybe Obama carefully concealed his drug problem; maybe his friends are trying to protect him by downplaying his drug use; or maybe Obama "added some writerly touches in his memoir to make the challenges he overcame seem more dramatic."There are other, and I think easier, explanations. If Obama really was this "grounded, motivated and poised" kind of young man, a serious guy, perhaps even a nerd, it's really possible that he overestimated the effects that the drugs were having on him. It's a natural reaction, especially when the airwaves are being pumped full of toxic lies about the dangers of marijuana (see Fred's comment above). This is especially true for people who are button-down types, as it sounds like Obama might have been. What we experience when we go through a series of events is often not at all what it looks like to an outside observer.
Someone Who Doesn't Want to Lose His Job | February 20, 2008, 9:40am | #
Note: I'm not taking a position on whether Fred's comment is meant ironically or not. In either case, it's illustrative of the kind of thing I'm talking about - government lies regarding marijuana, whether it was written by a true believer or someone just having a little fun with people.Elemenope | February 20, 2008, 9:42am | #
Can't tell if Fred is joking (who can ever, really, with the ridiculous rhetoric surrounding drugs these days) but 400x is a patently absurd exaggeration either way.More reasonable estimates, based on THC content, place the increase at 2 to 2.5x, at best. And anyway, all that means is that people smoke less quantity and get more bang for their buck.
In all honesty, I have no fucking clue why I'm typing in the third person about this. Must be the paranoia. ;)
x,y | February 20, 2008, 10:57am | #
A Million Little Pieces all over again.zig zag man | February 20, 2008, 12:12pm | #
"Obama explains that he got high not "to prove what a down brother I was" but to "push questions of who I was out of my mind." In marijuana, he says, he "sought something that could flatten out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory."If only Obama did heroin, then he could've became an artist.
i think the most likely scenario is posited by "someone who doesn't want to lose his job" (damn that's long): Obama has been a lifelong nerd. That's the real breakthrough here: nerd empowerment begins with the internet age enriching so many of them and arrives in full force with one of their own in the presidency!
J sub D | February 20, 2008, 1:53pm | #
Obama has been a lifelong nerd. That's the real breakthrough here: nerd empowerment begins with the internet age enriching so many of them and arrives in full force with one of their own in the presidency!A lifelong nerd. While I would probably not be characterized that way, there is no doubt a nerd component to my lifestyle, interests and personality. Maybe that's why I like Obama. He hasn't closed the deal with me as a candidate, but dammit, I do like the guy.
Someone Who Doesn't Want to Lose His Job | February 20, 2008, 7:52pm | #
Yeah, he's hard not to like. I'm not sure how much of it is the fact that he's such a good speaker and how much of it is that I don't get the impression that he's stupid (as I do with most politicians). I don't agree with him on too much, policy-wise, though I might agree with him more than any candidate likely to be the next president. His civil liberties stances (in regard to government police powers in general and the War on Drugs in specific) seem better than those of the remaining candidates with the exception of Paul, who is only sort of a remaining candidate.