Obama, Drugs and Everyone Else

[Karmadillo]

http://www.creators.com/opinion/froma-harrop.html?columnsName=fha

Obama, Drugs and Everyone Else
Froma Harrop

And so Barack Obama tells high school kids in New Hampshire that he "made some bad decisions" at their age. He "experimented" with pot and cocaine. This is old news — but even if it were new news, it would be ho-hum in today's politics.

After all, drug use has proven no bar to high office — at least for those who evaded arrest. Vice President Al Gore, ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas have all admitted to smoking pot. President Bush refuses to deny that he snorted cocaine. And no one believes that Bill Clinton "didn't inhale" on that joint.

I would second the ho-hum, except for this: More than half a million Americans now rot in jail for nonviolent drug offenses, some not as bad as Obama's.

Out of humility and humanity, you'd think that the Illinois senator would use this teaching moment to say: "What we politicians call our 'youthful discretions' should not become life-destroying crimes for everyone else. Let's stop arresting drug users."

I don't wish to pile onto Obama, because most presidential candidates support this crashing hypocrisy called the "War on Drugs." The honorable exceptions are two Democrats, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich and former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, and Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

"You can get over an addiction, but you can never get over a conviction," Jack A. Cole, who spent 14 years as an undercover narcotics officer for the New Jersey State Police, told me. Cole now heads a group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), ex-cops who oppose current drug policy.

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