Pubdate: Wed, 23 Jan 2008
Source: News-Journal (Mansfield, OH)
Copyright: 2008 Tribune-Review Publishing Co.
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Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2413
Author: Bill Steigerwald

STEP UP BARACK AND OPPOSE THE DRUG WAR

Too bad young Barack Obama wasn't as deeply into the drug trade as 
the Clintons' smear artists would like America's Democrat voters to believe.

Too bad he hadn't been a serious teenage drug dealer on the mean 
middle-class streets of Honolulu, where he was raised by his 
grandparents and attended an elite high school.

Better yet, too bad Obama hadn't been arrested for selling pot or 
possessing cocaine as a teenager but had still grown up to be what he 
is today -- a political rock star just one Clinton away from becoming 
America's second black president.

If Obama had suffered serious legal pain for his youthful dalliance 
in illegal drugs -- as hundreds of thousands of Americans do every 
year -- he might not be the hardened drug warrior he is today.

Obama has gotten props for being the first electable presidential 
candidate to fess up to his youthful interest in illegal drugs 
without pretending he didn't enjoy the experience.

"When I was a kid, I inhaled frequently -- that was the point," Obama 
can be seen admitting on YouTube. More famously, in his 1995 
bestseller "Dreams from My Father," he said he used marijuana and 
cocaine as a teen but never heroin.

Obama's candor is refreshing in the morally challenged land of 
big-time politics, where invertebrates, hypocrites and liars rule. 
But when it comes to the mindless prosecution of the war on (some) 
drugs, he's as spineless as the next politician.

Though he's way too smart, sophisticated and street-wise to be 
unaware of the arguments against drug prohibition, he's made nary a 
public peep about what the drug war has done to our liberties and wallets.

Nor has he railed about the decades of socioeconomic damage it's done 
to black communities. Nor about the young black males who've died in 
disproportionately high numbers in shootouts over drug turf.

No one expects Obama to wreck his White House chances by challenging 
the puritanical premises behind the drug war. But except for 
methamphetamine, which is ravaging many (white) communities in 
Illinois, Sen. Obama virtually ignores the issue of illegal drugs.

A search for the word "marijuana" on his official Web site, 
obama.senate.gov (which archives his Senate speeches), brings not one 
hit. Ditto for "cocaine." "Heroin" comes up three times -- in 
connection with Afghanistan and Burma.

Obama is not even in favor of legalizing medical marijuana. And he 
was the last potential president to promise he'd call off federal 
drug raids on medical marijuana clinics.

If his past is vetted by the media the way the Clintonistas are 
praying it will be, Obama's drug experiences may turn out to be not 
as innocent as he's portrayed. But for now it seems that -- like 
umpteen millions of his fellow law-breaking Americans -- he did his 
pot and coke and didn't get caught.

Too bad. If his life had been spoiled even a little by the evil drug 
war, he might have more sympathy for the 1.6 million Americans who 
get busted each year for nonviolent drug offenses.

Then, instead of merely being the most charismatic of three 
indistinguishable liberals competing to see who can use Big 
Government to "change" America the most, he could become a real 
American political hero -- by using his famed oratorical skills to 
end America's most senseless war.

EDITOR'S NOTE -- Bill Steigerwald is a columnist at the Pittsburgh 
Tribune-Review.
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