"President Obama needs to think about where he would be right now had he been caught with drugs....

...as a young black man. It's probably not in the Oval Office."

From an "End the Drug War Now" column by usually right-leaning Debra Saunders, in the SF Chronicle:

<snip>

I'll go down the list.

Encouraged criminality: The Department of Justice reported that in 2009, "mid-level and retail drug distribution in the United States was dominated by more than 900,000 criminally active gang members" representing more than 20,000 U.S. gangs.

Institutional hypocrisy: President Obama has admitted to using illegal drugs, President George W. Bush coyly would not say and President Bill Clinton said he didn't inhale. A drug conviction could have curtailed their careers, yet all three presidents were drug warriors in the White House.

Deprived revenue: Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron estimated in 2008 that legalizing drugs could save federal, state and local governments $44 billion per year, while taxing drugs could yield an added $33 billion.

Limiting individual rights: Allow me to quote Neill Franklin, a former Baltimore narcotics cop and executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. "President Obama needs to think about where he would be right now had he been caught with drugs as a young black man. It's probably not in the Oval Office, so why does he insist on ramping up a drug war that needlessly churns other young black men through the criminal justice system?" LEAP will release a report this week that addresses Franklin's concerns.

<snip>

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/06/10/INRB1JQN0I.DTL#ixzz1P57o7wVJ

It's only wrong if you get caught.

Memo to the world: Fuck. all. narcs. They are not your friends.

as Noelle Bush's stint in public housing (the gov's mansion) showed, along with so many others, on both sides of the aisle, who were themselves drug users or dealers, or whose family members were, who never faced the consequences that someone without political connections does as a matter of course.

it's like the political class really does think they have special "blue blood" that the aristocrats in old europe claimed made a system that was totally rigged to favor them "natural."

Thanks for the thread, villager.

in his life - even if it was getting busted snorting coke in the officers lounge. My, wouldn't the article been SO MUCH BETTER if the author would have compared the two probable lives of Obama and Bush if caught with DRUGGGSSSS!!! MUAHAHAHAHA....DRUUUGGGSSSS....wait, are good for you if you need a 4 hour erection. So buy a lot of the legal drugs and NEVER do the illegal drugs (you don't pay taxes on it BASTARDS!) eva eva!!!!

to see how many of them admit to having used "illegal drugs" at some time in their lives.

but he is also a white guy who was attending a prestigious university so he got treated differently.

http://reason.com/blog/2011/02/25/mitch-daniels-disappearing-fel

Officers found enough marijuana in his room to fill two size 12 shoe boxes, reports of the incident say. He and the other inhabitants of the room were also charged with possession of LSD and prescription drugs without a prescription. Daniels and his two roommates in 111 Cuyler Hall, Marc Stuart '71 and Richard Stockton '71, were arrested and, after plea bargaining, Daniels eventually escaped with a $350 fine for "maintaining a common nuisance." The charges against Stockton were eventually dropped.

Daniels' assertion that "justice was served" obscures what a huge break he got. Under current New Jersey law, possessing more than 50 grams (about 1.8 ounces) of marijuana is a felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison. Given the amount of pot Daniels had (enough to fill two shoeboxes), he easily could have been charged with intent to distribute, which under current law triggers a penalty of three to five years (for less than five pounds). And at the time of Daniels' arrest in May 1970, New Jersey's marijuana penalties were even more severe. Six months after his arrest, the New Jersey Supreme Court decided a case involving an 18-year-old who was caught with a tiny amount of pot (clearly just for personal use) and got a sentence of two to three years in prison. Concluding that "the sentence was entirely too harsh," the court noted that state law set a minimum sentence of two years but allowed it to be suspended for a first offense. The court ruled that "a suspended sentence with an appropriate term of probation is sufficient penalty for a person who is convicted for the first time of possessing marihuana for his own use." Given the legal situation prior to this ruling, Daniels was incredibly lucky to get off with a $350 fine, and he was able to do so only because he did not actually plead guilty to marijuana possession—only to the lesser offense of "maintaining a common nuisance."

that these politicos can now maintain laws that are racist, wrong and stupid is just another example of the hypocrisy that is a staple of American life - most esp. among the political class.

Legalize it without adding onerous burdens for people of modest incomes.