Pubdate: Sun, 23 Jan 2000
Source: The Observer, UK
Copyright: Guardian Media Group plc. 2000
Contact:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Section: Leaders

DRUG BUDDIES

The American Presidential race is in danger of becoming a bore before
it has properly started. The wild cards, John McCain and Bill Bradley,
are expected to bow out, leaving Al Gore and George Bush to slug it
out between them. One outcome seems certain. Whichever of them secures
the White House, America will have a President who has admitted
experimenting with drugs and who has unequivocally 'inhaled'.

A historic opportunity presents itself. An honest account by a
Presidential candidate of his experience of drugs can but throw light
onto a debate that has been closed for far too long at the highest
levels - the search for alternatives to criminalising users. To avoid
this reckoning would be hypocrisy of the worst kind.
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