A Question for Barack Obama

Mr. President: In your autobiography, you admit to having used both marijuana and cocaine as a student in college. Do you think you would be better off today had you been convicted of a felony and sentenced to prison? And if the answer's no, how can you support locking up young men and women for doing the same thing you did?

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Barack Obama

[tokinGLX]

cheers man, hopefully the hundreds(if not thousands) of mj based questions will finally get him to address the issue

[fullprof]

Great question. The issue of race and social class taint the administration of justice in this society. It is an issue we are avoiding. But as Michelle Alexander has written, our polices have created an under caste, so we cannot deny the problem much longer.

[prysmith37]

Recreational drug users keep our for-profit prisons full and our unemployment numbers down. No wonder the President and Wall Street really like the status quo.

[LeftyAintright]

Mr. Davis, Drug laws began in racism, Harry Anslinger confirms it with his own words. Unemployment hovers at 10%. If the US stopped it's wars, it's warriors would come home to a jobless vacuum. IF we released all those serving non violent drug sentences, unemployement would cause public discontent. The overwhelming number of those serving drug sentences are African Americans and poor whites who cant afford other than a public defender. It's a real world game of the rich vs the poor.

[DaUziel]

Because hard-drug use is a mistake. A mistake that hurts the user, their community, and their loved ones. It's not hypocritical for someone to have done this to support penalizing those that do. We can't lock up everyone who has used cocaine but doesn't anymore, but we can stop those that do.

That said, there are better alternatives to prison, but prevention and removal is still effective in fighting drugs.

[FrasSasQuatch]

yes! e-mail this to your friends and family! Get this the upBoats it deserves!!!

[coolioisafoolio]

This is the best mariuana/drug related question I've heard yet. I voted for it, and I hope everyone else does too. We need to get these issues addressed.