Buddhas Hand Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Latest Blogs Obama’s Marijuana Hypocrisy Is No Laughing Matter By: Jon Walker Friday May 25, 2012 2:45 pm The consequences - for others. (photo: :Dar./flickr) Details from a new book Barack Obama: The Story contains in-depth details about his frequent marijuana use as a young man. Although Obama admitted to using marijuana in his memoir Dreams From My Father, we now learn for example that Obama was a frequently indulging aficionado who was a big fan of hot boxing in cars. While Obama’s past marijuana use is treated as merely a funny anecdote, his hypocrisy on the issue of marijuana and the destruction his continued support for prohibition causes is no laughing matter. In 2010 roughly 850,000 Americans were arrested for marijuana related offenses of which the vast majority was for possession. That means since Obama took office it is likely well over 2.5 million Americans have been arrested for marijuana. Millions arrested for committing the same basic “crime” our President often committed during his youth. While Obama was lucky enough not to get a criminal record for his mostly harmless marijuana use, hundreds of thousands of other Americans this year were not as fortunate, especially young African American and Latino males who are disproportionally arrested at much higher rates for marijuana. Many of these young people will be burdened with a records that could permanently hurt their employment prospects and they will lose the federal support they need to attend college. If Obama were a young man today and got arrested for his marijuana use under our currently policy, the negative consequences from such an arrest could easily have stopped him from ever becoming President. Clearly, the actual use of marijuana didn’t hurt Obama by making him less successful, but the consequences of our prohibition easily could have. But not only does Obama support maintaining this current drug policy, which is more damaging to people than the drug itself, but his administration has taken the federal war against medical marijuana to new heights. While most of the media treats learning that Obama liked to hog the joint as a humorous but meaningless little story, it should be a huge scandal that Obama continues supporting a policy which ruins the lives of so many for doing something Obama did frequently. With public opinion moving against marijuana prohibition so quickly, Obama should be forced to give a better explanation for why he thinks it is okay to waste billions every year punishing so many for doing exactly what he once did this is an article i got from a website called firedoglake . and it seems to indicate there is one law for some that does not apply equally to others . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyzer Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 So sad. Million times more harmless than Alcohol yet it's still illegal. On the brightside, many Latin American countries are thinking of legalizing them so that's always good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustJokinen! Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Wow that is a biased article. I'm not surprised it's coming from a legalization site. What do they want Obama to do? Put forth a law that will get rejected by the Republican congress and then lose him a bunch of votes in the election? Edit: Just read one of the sources of the article, I didn't realize they were being so strict on medical marijuana policy. I may be uninformed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted May 25, 2012 Author Share Posted May 25, 2012 Wow that is a biased article. I'm not surprised it's coming from a legalization site. What do they want Obama to do? Put forth a law that will get rejected by the Republican congress and then lose him a bunch of votes in the election? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbbyNucksFan Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 came in expecting to see Cheech and Chong movie ... was sadly disapointed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustJokinen! Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 what we want our leaders to do is the RIGHT THING . were this article comes from does not matter , it points out that millions of americans have been arrested and charged for doing something that their political leader did., and it seems it is the minority groups that bear the brunt of this injustice . if you cannot see the double standard here then it is no wonder we are doomed to make the same mistakes over and over again . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Armada Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 Its ridiculous how an innocent man who's never commited a crime smokes marijuana and suddenly he's in jail for 15 years compared to a man who molests children and gets less. Society On top of that its such a massive waste of money to keep them all there. No wonder their economy is in the toilet. Probation doesn't work and its not working again but for some reason they keep clinging on to it wasting resources while losing tones of money. I agree it's the right thing, check my edit. I don't know if the USA is ready for full legalization though. I think it's too divisive of an issue for any politician to take it on at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted May 25, 2012 Author Share Posted May 25, 2012 I agree it's the right thing, check my edit. I don't know if the USA is ready for full legalization though. I think it's too divisive of an issue for any politician to take it on at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goalie13 Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 So... because someone does one thing in their youth means they can never campaign against it later on? Does it really mean he's a hypocrite, or does it mean he has just changed his view over the years? To be a hypocrite, I would think you would have to be saying one thing while doing the opposite at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GodzillaDeuce Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 So... because someone does one thing in their youth means they can never campaign against it later on? Does it really mean he's a hypocrite, or does it mean he has just changed his view over the years? To be a hypocrite, I would think you would have to be saying one thing while doing the opposite at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Offensive Threat Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 what we want our leaders to do is the RIGHT THING . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canucks since 77 Posted May 25, 2012 Share Posted May 25, 2012 I'd like to see Obama take a drug test. Maybe have his whole staff tested. At the very least, the secret service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted May 25, 2012 Author Share Posted May 25, 2012 exactly this come down off that high horse OP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canuckerbird Posted May 26, 2012 Share Posted May 26, 2012 i did not make any judgement on obama in regards too him running for political office , what i am calling to people's attention to is the fact that millions of americans are branded criminals for doing the exact same thing he did as a young man , and many of these are young men from minority groups and it saddens me you cannot see that this is an injustice . i am not on any high horse brother , i would just like to believe that all laws apply equally to everyone . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted May 26, 2012 Author Share Posted May 26, 2012 So... because someone does one thing in their youth means they can never campaign against it later on? Does it really mean he's a hypocrite, or does it mean he has just changed his view over the years? To be a hypocrite, I would think you would have to be saying one thing while doing the opposite at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted May 26, 2012 Author Share Posted May 26, 2012 The laws you speak of regarding marijuana applies to Obama just as much as it does to Joe Sixpack. Just because he didn't get caught when he was a pothead doesn't mean there was a double standard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted May 26, 2012 Author Share Posted May 26, 2012 Wow. Is trying to push through a bill that has 0 chance of passing and will divide and alienate voters the "right thing" to do? Political suicide with no chance of a positive outcome seems pointless. After he gets re-elected (if he gets re-elected) maybe. In regards to Marijuana possession I dislike the laws in the US. I really like the laws here in Canada. I smoked a lot of pot when I was a teen and into my early twenties. its what everybody did. We hot boxed cars and dorm rooms and anyplace small enough. I dont count that against Obama. We are lucky to live in a country where when cops found our weed they just threw it out. In the US we could have gotten a criminal record and maybe even jail time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ccc44 Posted May 26, 2012 Share Posted May 26, 2012 what we want our leaders to do is the RIGHT THING . were this article comes from does not matter , it points out that millions of americans have been arrested and charged for doing something that their political leader did., and it seems it is the minority groups that bear the brunt of this injustice . if you cannot see the double standard here then it is no wonder we are doomed to make the same mistakes over and over again . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostViking Posted May 26, 2012 Share Posted May 26, 2012 The OP is out to lunch on this one. There is definitely a double standard with marijuana in regards to minority arrests in the US, what that has to do with Obama I have no idea. To compare how Obama gets away with something, and here's the key part, at a different time with different laws, to how people are treated now is not a double standard, it simply means the laws have changed over time. Whether they have gotten better or worse is another matter. Just because the law applied to one person (or a whole number of people) in one way at some point in the past, does not mean any future laws must continually be applied to everyone from that point on in the same way. Society has to be able to adapt and change. We can take your argument and throw it against you, if you think the law needs to be applied equally into the future, then I guess that means that the current way marijuana users are treated will always have to remain the same. If we start relaxing the marijuana prohibition then it would be applying the law in different ways to different generations, and according to the OP that is a bad thing. I do agree the laws are silly, that part makes sense to me. Decriminalization should be a serious option to consider at the least. However all this talk about Obama is just dumb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buddhas Hand Posted May 26, 2012 Author Share Posted May 26, 2012 Im a houndred percent behind pot being legal but the argument of our president did it so we should to is stupid , If that was the case we should all be able to drink and drive while being in Hawaii because Gordon Campbell did and got away with it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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