Myra MacPherson: Reefer Madness and Hypocrisy
Posted at 7:12 pm, February 11th, 2008
Google Obama and drugs and you will find more than half a million references — and now comes the New York Times on Saturday with what will certainly not be the last mention of Barrack Obama’s admitted teenage dabbling with marijuana and. although more nebulous, possible cocaine use.
A Clinton aide has made much out of this as has the inaccurately named Fox “news”, with one of their bloviators going so far to call Obama an “addict.” While the New York Times headline, on a non-story that garnered page one nonetheless, is positive: “Friends Say Drugs Played Only Bit Part for Obama” — and the piece is billed as part of a series of articles “about the lives and careers” of the Presidential candidates –the article itself is almost 100 percent about drugs, which played a small part in his passage to becoming a twenty year old. (That was the last time Obama said he used drugs.) In this article, Obama’s passage into caring about issues and social justices was treated as an aside — with few examples. (He “took classes and books seriously” is one such vague quote with no details.) Is this what can be called investigative journalism? A piece that says little yet infers much that is negative and even posits the ridiculous question that perhaps — if his teenage buddies remember it so differently — that Obama “added some writerly touches in his memoir to make the challenges he overcame seem more dramatic.” To what possible end for someone striving for a role in national politics?
This is conjecture in the absurd. A far more intriguing look into his past than all of this commentary comes from Obama himself in his lyrical 1995 autobiography. He explains his disaffection and occasional use of “reefer” — such an old fashioned word for pot — and “maybe a little blow [cocaine] when you could afford it.”: In part getting high was “something that could push questions of who I was out of my mind, something that could flatten out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory.” Participants in pot smoking were many — his white elite college colleagues, Hawaiian drop outs on the beach, “everyone was welcome into the club of disaffection.” That “everyone” included vast numbers of a generation, including the privileged Wall Street brokers who freely and easily could afford cocaine and voted their Republican pocket books.
Obama’s admitting such vulnerabilities and confusion will unfortunately be used against him in a political world where candor is not the coin of the realm. But the question of hypocrisy in the past answers of other politicians creates a strong after taste. Bill Clinton’s “I didn’t inhale” was risible at the time and Obama, of a younger generation, was able to tell the truth with a touch of humor: he inhaled. “That was the point.” As for human frailties, President Bush was a falling down lush before he stopped drinking at a much older age than when Obama smoked pot, and has been long trailed by rumors of cocaine use, which he denies.
Let’s face it: If McCain and Huckabee or Hillary try to exploit what seems to be a truthful admission of his past “confused” (Obama’s word) adolescence, they may get the backing of the Christian right — who might not be in Obama’s camp no matter — but I would predict not too many others. After all, there are a lot of voters out there who can also remember – honestly — their own youthful past.
February 11th, 2008 at 10:25 pm |
The story from the Times was, at best, shoddy journalism. It’s pathetic that a major metro newspaper in this nation could resort to these tactics against anyone.
February 12th, 2008 at 2:45 am |
No one under 60 would possibly care if he smoked pot.
February 12th, 2008 at 6:05 am |
I’d respect the man far more if he’d admit that he learned something from those days. Namely, that pot is harmless and even if otherwise the government shouldn’t be policing what adults do with and to their bodies and minds. I’d have to be pretty baked/drunk to believe that’ll happen anytime soon, but here’s to hoping.
February 12th, 2008 at 12:31 pm |
The true “hypocrisy” here is that adult Americans are still jailed for mere possession and/or use of a plant that at its WORST cannot begin to approach the dangers of alcohol abuse!
Even if all of the overblown, hyperbole of the “reefer madness”type anti-Cannabis propoganda were completely true, Cannabis would still not even come CLOSE to being as dangerous a drug as alcohol…..in terms of memory impairment, personality changes/violent tendencies, organ damage (including, but certainly not limited to permanent brain damage) and even DEATH (Cannabis simply cannot cause an overdose death!) In the end, what is more “dangerous” than death?
I have much more respect for a politician that will admit to such “youthful indescretions”, than for those who obviously partook, but will not admit it…..but would certainly have more respect for Obama if he would openly support decrim for all American ADULTS, as well as medical Cannabis (as suggested in the U.S. Government’s Schaffer Commission, as well as DEA administrative judge Francis L Young, as well as many other knowledgable people and both governmental/independent studies).
If we are indeed a Country “of the People, for the People and by the People” then Cannabis use obviously should not be considered a crime!
The “War on SOME Drugs” is not only a dismal failure, it is also a war against the American people.
February 12th, 2008 at 4:22 pm |
Well done, Myra. But the nut-case, frothing right is sure to use drugs — and worse — in the coming campaign. The newest assurance, in addition to death and taxes, is that the neo-cons and their fellow attack dogs will surely have even more ammunition to fire against Hilary.
February 12th, 2008 at 6:03 pm |
WELCOME ABOARD MYRA. YOU ARE ON THE MARK. THE FACT OF THE MATTER IS THAT OBAMA/POT EXPERIENCE HAS BEEB AND IS A REAL PART OF THE TEXTURE OF STUDENT LIFE AND ILLUMINATION. WITHOUT TOUCHING THE INFLUENCE THAT TOUCHES SO MANY, HOW CAN YOU RESPOND TO THE NEEDS OF THE CONSTITUANCY?
ALSO YOU ARE MOST WELCOME . ANY ONE WHO EMBRACES :”BLOVIATE ” DESERVES FOCUSED ATTENTION.
February 12th, 2008 at 8:54 pm |
how much did he pay?
February 13th, 2008 at 12:41 pm |
Hell, if you toked, you toked. Who cares? That these idiots need to lie about toking is bothersome for me, though. What else do they feel they need to lie to us about?
I commend Obama for ‘fessing up. I personally don’t trust these dishonest politicians who will admit puffing, but not inhaling, or those who just flat out lie about a past overrun with serial criminal, inethical, and/or amoral vices they will spend more time covering up than they will spend representing my interests once elected. Most of these crooked liars have ‘experimented’ with pretty much every substance by every means but pure sunshine by osmosis. Of course, to bamboozle voters, these career politicians will categorically disavow their past lives of devoted satan-worship to politically correctly cloak themselves in the puritanical sanctimony of their new affiliation with some spiritual sect of Mennonite Quakers.
At least Obama was honest: “I toked some reefer and sniffed some blow, and it wasn’t all that.” In this country, in these times, not too many folks can say they haven’t done the same thing, arriving at the same conclusion. It serves to make Obama more identifiable with the progressive masses than Hillary, who is married to Bill, whom folks claim still sniffs blow, whose brother Roger may have died as the consequence of his coke abuses.
In the spirit of keeping politics real, Bill was governor of Arkansas when Mena was a regular drop point for crazy tonnage of Central and South America’s finest exported gross domestic product. Hillary’s Rose Law Firm stands accused of all but laundering the resulting drug money, which may explain why she has been reluctant about sharing her tax info with the voters. A lot of that joined them in the White House.
The truth is none of these high-profile career politicians have reached their current heights unblemished by the stain of some past activity they wish they had exercised the good sense to avoid back in the day.
March 1st, 2008 at 12:23 pm |
For those of us that have never used drugs and tell the truth when asked – Obama is a terrible let down. His words have held great promise from the start – but they are as empty as the heads of the people who don’t see past them. Snap out of it America. THINK for yourself. The promise of a better tomorrow is a Disney theme park line. The promise is up to US to fulfill – and not one man or woman. I’ll vote integrity over plastic promises when the time comes.
Having gotten past the euphoria of the fist glance at Obama – his self service speeches now just make me angry.
May 5th, 2010 at 5:56 pm |
The difference amid recreational consumption and medical use of marijuana begs to be noticed. While I believe that a responsible adult should have the right to use marijuana recreationally, I do think, without doubt, allowing for an ill person use of a plant with a long history of medical value ought to be accepted and legal. Cannabis has a enormous potential as a medication and more awareness and tolerance is necessary. In Summary, legalize it!