Throughout history, a handful of presidents have admitted to smoking a little bit of recreational pot here and there. But few have openly discussed their views on the drug -- particularly if their ideas about it fall more in line with what a college student might think than that of your average conservative politician. Barack Obama kind of just went for it when he revealed in an interview with the New Yorker that he considers marijuana less dangerous than alcohol. Depending on how you feel about the drug, this is either one of the most dangerous statements a president has made in a long while, or the most obvious one ever.
If you are either a pot smoker yourself (don't worry, I won't tell) or simply support the growing movement to legalize marijuana, don't get too excited. The president made it perfectly clear that he wouldn't encourage his daughters to smoke pot and that he considers it a "bad habit" and a "vice." He also called it a "waste of time" and "not very healthy."
With that said, he thinks marijuana is less harmful than alcohol and believes it's important to keep going forward with the legalization of pot in more states because penalizing users takes up a lot of law enforcement's resources and only a few people actually get punished for what several people do.
I couldn't agree more. I've been in the presence of plenty of people who had both been drinking alcohol or smoking pot, and it always seems like those who had smoked were able to make far better decisions than those who had been drinking. Likewise, we can link tons of health problems to alcohol consumption. Marijuana -- not so much.
Since he was approaching the issue in terms of what it means for law enforcement and justice, I feel Obama had every right to voice his opinion on pot -- no matter how odd or out of place it might seem.
What do you think about Obama's statement on marijuana?
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