Alternative title: Obama's Betrayal Of The Choomers.
Let me just lay this out for you.
- Barack Obama smoked a lot of pot in high school and college. To the point of having a ‘Choom gang’ dedicated to smoking the stuff.
- I don’t particularly care about that.
- Obama has since become a
- I care somewhat about that, but it’s something that happens with a lot of politicians.
- Obama giggles and sneers about the whole thing. Including sneering at the people upset with the situation.
- I care a heck of a lot about THAT.
Look, if you want to be a drug warrior, be a drug warrior. Pot can do
a lot more damage to people than its boosters admit; calling it a drug
that’s no worse than alcohol (which I largely consider it to be) is not exactly a compliment. And if you think that medical marijuana laws are a back door to de facto pot legalization… well. Yes, they are. I note all of this to establish that I’m not an enthusiast
about legalizing pot; I just don’t see that we’re getting a good return
on our investment when it comes to suppressing it. In short, I can
easily concede that the people who really don’t like marijuana may have a point.The problem here is that President Obama only pretends to be one of those people – and that is offensive.
You see, I don’t actually think that the President cares about pot use
any more than I do. He’s letting people get arrested for this stuff –
many of them, for doing the things that Barack Obama enthusiastically did when he was a teenager – because it’s easier than actually doing
any of those wonderful-sounding things about education and treatment
that politicians like to trot out when the subject comes up. No. No,
Barack Obama had his Choom Time, he got away with it – something that
gets pointed out several times in this Hot Air link round-up
– and now the President’s supremely indifferent about whether somebody
less lucky than Obama was gets his or her life ruined by getting caught.I want to make sure that this is clear: I’m not complaining that the
President is hardcore on the War on Some Drugs. Many people are
hardcore. Many people think that they have excellent reason to be. I
don’t really agree with them, but I may end up being wrong. What I am complaining that the President is being a fake about being hardcore.It’s just not decent.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*Basic human politeness forces me to note the H/T to firedoglake’s Just Say Now blog. Well, character is what you show when nobody’s looking.
