On Weed

by
Robert Wenzel
Economic
Policy Journal

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by Robert Wenzel: The
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The Prez
appears to have been quite the Hawaii pot head.

Buzzfeed has
what at first seems a hilarious take on the President and his serious
weed smoking days. It’s a must read:
A User’s Guide to Smoking Pot with Barack Obama.

But there is
another side to the story, the Prez as serious hypocrite. Firedoglake
has that side of the
story
:

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 disproportionately
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.

Contrast this
with Ron Paul, who I seriously doubt has ever taken one puff of
weed in his life. (He
told me that it was only recently that he started drinking red wine
.).
Yet, it is Ron Paul who wants to eliminate federal drug laws. If
he were president, he would pardon those in jail for federal drug
offenses and disband the DEA.

That’s the
difference between a man of principle who favors liberty for all
and a scheming elitist like President Obama. Dr. Paul. just wouldn’t
touch weed, but as a man in favor liberty, he wouldn’t bother with
anyone else who chose to use it. President Obama, on the other hand,
as an elitist, views himself above the law. For him to be a Hawaii
pot head was just fine, but now, in power, he uses the power of
federal government to crush those who now do what he did.

Reprinted
with permission from Economic
Policy Journal
.

May
28, 2012

©2012
Economic Policy Journal

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