Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
President Obama has admitted that while in school he was a frequent marijuana smoker. George W. Bush also alluded to smoking marijuana and possibly to using cocaine. Bill Clinton claimed to have smoked it but not inhaled it, which is the type of ridiculous statement Clinton is capable of asserting for political gain. Thus the last three Presidents of the United States have admitted that one time or another they have broken the law and used a banned substance. While each of those Presidents presided over the continued witch hunt and prosecution of the “War On Drugs” I believe that Barack Obama has been the most hypocritical.
Had either G.W. Bush, or Bill Clinton been arrested for smoking marijuana there is no doubt in my mind that they would have neither served jail time, nor would they have had their careers stained by a criminal record. Bush, as the scion of a great political family would have had his record expunged, or possibly have had the police back off when they discovered who he was. Bill Clinton was a student at a prestigious University and while not rich, came from a politically connected family in Arkansas. What they also had in common was that they were White men. Barack Obama on the other hand would have likely been arrested, despite his status as a Harvard student and while he probably would have escaped jail time he would have been forced to take a plea which would remain on his record. If such a thing had occurred it is highly probable that Barack Obama would never have been elected Senator, much less President. There is a likelihood that he might never even have been allowed to enter the Bar as an attorney, since that entrance requires extensive background checks. Whatever you might think of him Barack Obama is a very intelligent man. Surely he must realize how fortunate he was to not get caught smoking grass and yet as President he has stepped up the War On Drugs and has allowed egregious prosecutions in States that have passed medical marijuana laws. To my mind this is blatant hypocrisy, but beyond that political position lies a destructiveness that can only rationally be seen as the continuance of the oppression of Americans of color, particularly Blacks, by our Federal Government. I will deal with our President’s hypocrisy and use it as the basis of my condemnation of the War On Drugs.
Recent years have seen ballot initiatives in many States such as California’s approval of Medical Marijuana and Colorado’s decriminalization of marijuana use. At the same time Attorney General Holder has reiterated that despite these States’ initiatives, the Federal Government will continue to arrest and prosecute for the sale and possession of marijuana. President Obama has backed the position of his Attorney General and we have seen raids and arrests in Medical Marijuana facilities and shutting them down. This is only a small portion of why our President is a hypocrite on this subject. The figures I am about to use and the arguments I will make can be backed up by evidence, which will be provided as links at the end of this piece. My hubris, if you will, is this is an issue that I know so well that I don’t have to make my case by quoting others. Indeed as can be read in many of my comments here through the years and in some of my guest blogs, I think this is a critical issue for our country.
To me hypocrites are people who assert positions and carries out actions that they know are false and ineffective, possibly in this case quite harmful. President Obama is a hypocrite because he must know that marijuana is a relatively benign substance, which studies have shown is much less destructive than alcohol, since he has smoked weed and no doubt drunk alcohol. His friends all got high and few if any of them suffered bad consequences or were unable to become productive members of society. The evidence is overwhelming, yet the Drug Enforcement Complex (DEC) continues to carry on a crusade against those who use marijuana and continue to imprison people and destroy their lives through prosecution. When I speak of the DEC, I include the now interlocked web of the DEA, FBI, ATF, the Prison System, and State and local police forces who receive benefit from participating in this phony War On Drugs.
Since as you can tell the tone of my writing this is scathing I must admit to why I have a personal bias. From the age of 17 until the age of 37, I regularly smoked marijuana daily. During that time I worked my way through college, maintained continuous employment where I was promoted regularly, won a full tuition work study scholarship for my Masters at a prestigious school and successfully completed a 5 year training course as a psychotherapist. In graduate school my “cum” was 3.9 and I wrote all of my required papers, which consistently were graded A to A+, while smoking grass. The confession continues with the fact that I was a hyper-active, anxious child, with more than a touch of OCD and that smoking grass allowed me to “chill out” so to speak and focus myself. I had also since a baby suffered from insomnia, since I couldn’t shut my mind off and when I started smoking pot I was able to get to sleep. My driving record showed no moving violations for 50 years and no automobile accidents. When grass was unavailable, I didn’t smoke it, but it was rarely unavailable. I stopped at age 37 since I became a father and didn’t want my children growing up with contact highs. Stopping was easy since one day I smoked and the next day I didn’t. I didn’t replace smoking grass with the Legal Drug alcohol, because I have always been a drinker in strictly social situations and never drink at home. Not out of caution but out of the fact that I don’t particularly care for the alcohol high. My sleeping was affected by giving up grass, but being young I learned to be able to function on about four hours of sleep per night. As for my anxiety, hyper activity and OCD they were brought under control via years of psychotherapy, but until then marijuana was a helpful part of my life and why shouldn’t it be?
That was my anecdotal experience, but what of those around me and of my generation. What has been covered up through the years is the realities that if you are above the age of forty you likely have smoked pot. I would guess that figure would be about 80% of the people of America over age 40 were at one time or another “pot smokers”. During the late 60’s and through the 1970’s in New York the smell of grass was ubiquitous in movie theaters, sports arenas, concert halls and on the streets. This was also true all across the country. Almost everybody “got high” and almost all suffered no ill consequences. I use 40 as a cutoff point based on the assumption that the leaders of government and business generally are over 40. What pushed smoking grass underground was the ascension of Ronald Reagan to the Presidency. His rise was assisted by the support of Right Wing Christian moralists and by the still racially divided South and Southwest. He was also supported those with placid childhood memories of the “golden era” 50’s, where the entire underside of America was swept under the rug so to speak. Some of these people were blatantly hypocritical given their private lives, but their attitude was that the masses needed control by their privileged insight. So Nancy Reagan said “just say no” and the DEA, which was formed under Nixon, received a massive influx of money and publicity. The “War On Drugs” escalated beyond control.
What was behind this sudden interest in the putative “drug problem” was not only the catering to a Right Wing base, but also in a sinister sense the “War On Drugs” was code for a war on people of color as it had always been since Harry J. Anslinger, with help from William R. Hearst for both economic and racial reasons had marijuana outlawed.
“Harry Jacob Anslinger (May 20, 1892 – November 14, 1975) held office as the Assistant Prohibition Commissioner in the Bureau of Prohibition, before being appointed as the first Commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department‘s Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) on August 12, 1930.
Anslinger held office an unprecedented 32 years in his role as Commissioner until 1962. He then held office two years as US Representative to the United Nations Narcotics Commission. The responsibilities once held by Anslinger are now largely under the jurisdiction of the U.S.” Office of National Drug Control Policy.
From 1930 to 1937 Anslinger, with extensive backing from Hearst in his newspapers campaigned to have marijuana made illegal. That Anslinger had been at the forefront of enforcing the laws of Prohibition, which proved abject failures and now was finding another fruitless crusade to keep himself gainfully employed as the handwriting was on the wall that Prohibition would soon end, was rarely questioned. Part of Anslinger’s success in having marijuana outlawed was that the outlawing had a decidedly racial component.
“Anslinger has been accused to be responsible for racial themes in articles against marijuana in the 1930s.
“By the tons it is coming into this country — the deadly, dreadful poison that racks and tears not only the body, but the very heart and soul of every human being who once becomes a slave to it in any of its cruel and devastating forms…. Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Smoke marihuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters. Hasheesh makes a murderer who kills for the love of killing out of the mildest mannered man who ever laughed at the idea that any habit could ever get him….”[16]
“Colored students at the Univ. of Minn. partying with (white) female students, smoking [marijuana] and getting their sympathy with stories of racial persecution. Result: pregnancy”[17][18]
“Two Negros took a girl fourteen years old and kept her for two days under the influence of hemp. Upon recovery she was found to be suffering from syphilis.”[18][19]
“The first Federal law-enforcement administrator to recognize the signs of a national criminal syndication and sound the alarm was Harry J. Anslinger, Commissioner of the Bureau of Narcotics in the Treasury” (Ronald Reagan 1986)[20]
When Anslinger was interviewed in 1954 about drug abuse (see below), he did not mention anything about race or sex. In his book The Protectors (1964) Anslinger has a chapter called “Jazz and Junk Don’t Mix” about the black jazz musicians Billie Holiday and Charlie Parker, who both died after years of heroin and alcohol abuse:
“Jazz entertainers are neither fish nor fowl. They do not get the million-dollar protection Hollywood and Broadway can afford for their stars who have become addicted – and there are many more than will ever be revealed. Perhaps this is because jazz, once considered a decadent kind of music, has only token respectability. Jazz grew up next door to crime, so to speak. Clubs of dubious reputation were, for a long time, the only places where it could be heard. But the times bring changes, and as Billy Holiday was a victim of time and change, so too was Charlie Parker, a man whose music, like Billie’s, is still widely imitated. Most musicians credit Parker among others as spearheading what is called modern jazz.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_J._Anslinger
The effectiveness of the “War On Drugs” in negatively affecting the lives of American people of color, especially Blacks is incontrovertible by the statistics:
“Race: Black males continue to be incarcerated at an extraordinary rate. Black males make up 35.4 percent of the jail and prison population — even though they make up less than 10 percent of the overall U.S population. Four percent of U.S. black males were in jail or prison last year, compared to 1.7 percent of Hispanic males and .7 percent of white males. In other words, black males were locked up at almost six times the rate of their white counterparts.” http://www.nccd-crc.org/nccd/pubs/2006nov_factsheet_incarceration.pdf
And again from my guest blog on the subject: http://jonathanturley.org/2011/11/26/the-incarceration-of-black-men-in-america/#comments
“Race: Black males continue to be incarcerated at an extraordinary rate. Black males make up 35.4 percent of the jail and prison population — even though they make up less than 10 percent of the overall U.S population. Four percent of U.S. black males were in jail or prison last year, compared to 1.7 percent of Hispanic males and .7 percent of white males. In other words, black males were locked up at almost six times the rate of their white counterparts.” http://www.laprogressive.com/law-and-the-justice-system/boiling-hot-mad/.html
There is even more that shows the “War On Drugs” is a war on Black Americans:
“Nationwide, black males convicted of drug felonies in state courts are sentenced to prison 52 percent of the time, while white males are sentenced to prison only 34 percent of the time. The ratio for women is similar – 41 percent of black female felony drug offenders are sentenced to prison, as compared to 24 percent of white females. With respect to violent offenses, 74 percent of black male convicted felons serve prison time, as opposed to only 60 percent of white male convicted felons. With respect to all felonies, 58 percent of black male convicted felons, as opposed to 45 percent of white men, serve prison sentences”. http://www.civilrights.org/publications/justiceontrialsentencing.html
There are estimated to be over a million people incarcerated in American on drug related offenses, the majority of which are Black. In most States convicted felons lose their voting rights and their jail records ensure that their chances for employment are limited. The “War On Drugs” is a war on people of color, particularly Black people. This is President Obama’s hypocrisy and this is President Obama’s shame. Is it too much to assume that our first Black President would not make life worse for his fellow Black Americans and would at least not be responsible for continuing a futile “War On Drugs”. It is estimated that since 1971 the United States has spent $1 Trillion pursuing this insane “War”. Last year alone the cost was $41 Billion alone, not counting court and incarceration costs. http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/06/opinion/branson-end-war-on-drugs
The futility and hypocrisy of this war is becoming recognized by people on both the Right and Left sides of the political equation. The people are passing referendums decriminalizing marijuana use and the support for it grows from our politicians. It is time for our President to stop this hypocrisy and this sham. It is also time to turn the money spent on drug enforcement, into money spent on drug rehabilitation for those who need it.
Submitted By: Mike Spindell, Guest Blogger
http://jonathanturley.org/2013/06/21/post-racial-america/
http://jonathanturley.org/2013/03/30/the-myth-of-black-freedom-in-the-u-s/
http://jonathanturley.org/2012/07/21/collateral-damage-of-the-police/
pres Obama can’t legalize drugs because he’s a black man who has used drugs. just like only nixon could go to china only some old tight white man whose idea of a drug is hemorrhoid cream will be able to legalize drugs.
besides, what will they do with all those dea agents? there is a very large number of people making a lot of money on the prison industry.
If you want to know how to be a responsible hard drug user read Keith Richard’s, Life. The ole boy is still kickin’ and rockn’. But, he’s been clean and sober for some time now.
Reason # 5 Also economical but not just on the cost side, but revenue/tax side. Billions of tax dollars can be saved, and billions more can be made by legalizing cannabis and taxing it like liquor..not cigarettes, liquor. There are legit medicinal reasons for cannabis but I would estimate only ~15-20 of card carrying med cannabis card holders use it for medical reasons. Most of the people serving serious Fed time for cannabis are whites and Hispanics. Blacks are apprehended mostly for simple possession. Cocaine used to be white, Hispanic and Black..again I’m talking serious Fed sentences. But now it’s mostly black and Hispanic. Blacks have run the heroin industry for decades. Hispanics have cut into their biz as have Asians, but it’s still mostly black. So, legalizing cannabis will have little effect on black population in prison, it will lessen their population in City/County lockup. If you want to lower the black population in prison we’ll need to legalize cocaine and heroin, and I don’t see that happening
The opiate pill, particularly oxycontin “hillbilly heroin” is primarily white controlled both distributing and using. The users are overwhelmingly w/f. This is an epidemic that has been going on for a couple decades but now just getting attention. And, finally crystal meth. Poison and the worst of them all. Meth is cooked in the most unsterile environment, incredibly addictive, and the favorite of gay men and poor whites.
Nick,
You went off course with reason #5 and the statistics are there for you to resd in the links provided if you care to. As far as Blacks running the heroin and cocaine trade for decades can you source your proof for me with links because I think you are wrong in that assumption.
As for using Keith Richards as an example of how to stay alive as a heroin user the answer is simple, be worth aroun $100 million. Ever read about Howard Hughes drug problem?
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm
Anslinger: “Marijuana causes…Insanity”. If you’re a defense lawyer this is magic. In the 30s-40s several murderers got off with this defense (like the Twinkie defense in the Harvey Milk murder). That’s the source of the horror stories of that era. One gov’t “expert” testified: “After 2 puffs…I was turned into a bat.” Today we live with the legacy of that craziness.
I have not smoked weed but I have seen people that did. That stuff relaxes people insomuch that had they be ice they would quickly become a puddle of water.
M.Spinndebell —
When it comes to the art of making note of what most informed people agree is the obvious, your ability to restate the obvious is excellent.
Why don’t you use your fine critical thinking skills and apply them to the
obvious question: WHY are drugs from Walgreens legal, – assuming you’ve
paid the first dealer in the chain – a doctor – but Peruvian Marching Powder is as illegal today as it was when Bush allegedly got busted, and Bronco Bama & Bill Clintoon were also doing “blow”?
There is another approach to this subject that needs to be thrown into the mix. Part of the unspoken, yet widely understood, purposes of the War On Drugs is that among certain religious believers there is the feeling that the act of intoxication (by whatever means) is in itself wrong, sinful and should be stamped out. This is an important premise of the WOD and can be shown whenever a legal drug gets re-used as something to get high with. Benzedrine inhalers were legal in the 40’s and people could get stoned on them, they became illegal. Cocaine was legal in all States until California banned it in 1902. Heroin was developed in the wake of the rise of cocaine addiction in the first decade of the 20th Century. It was supposed to help people stop being addicted to cocaine. LSD was legal until it gained popularity in the early 60’s.
By saying this I’m not trying to advocate the use of any of these drugs and certain of them are lethal depending on the quantity. My problem is with banning them, since there is not one instance where a drug that was banned has its popularity or use decrease when law enforcement became involved.
As Nick astutely pointed out there are tremendous economic reasons that make the selling of illegal drugs very lucrative. When I was young there was a heroin epidemic in New York. The news stories would sensationalize each new arrest and the police would invariably overstate the amount of money the seized drugs were worth. What was common too were the announcements that the new bust would raise the cost of the drug thus making it less popular.
An addict will do whatever they can to get their drug of choice. If it costs more their desparation will increase and the deeds they do to get the money will become more dangerous for all concerned. Intertwined with this is the belief that getting intoxicated is and of itself a bad thing. I don’t personally think there is anything wrong with it, if done responsibly. Where things go wrong is in the continued criminalization of drugs making them worth more than gold or diamonds. Addiction to anything is no doubt bad for any individual. I know as a former addict of cigarettes. However, it would make more sense to me to take the profit and law enforcement element out of drugs and put some of the money into treating those who finally want to be treated. An addict with their heroin is a passive actor not robbing or hurting anyone, if they wish to kill themselves in the process that is their choice.
Our nation could eliminate the national deficit that was created by Bush and Cheney, with their two wars charged to our country’s credit card, by both legalizing marijuana and selling/taxing it in the same manner as cigarettes and alcohol. For the record, cigarettes and alcohol are more harmful to Americans’ physical and mental health than marijuana. President Obama is not the only American who is behaving like a total hypocrite on this issue.
Nick,
your four reasons all have merit and are good contributions to the dialogue. My purpose and that of other GB’s is to start discussions, rather then give a final word on a topic. You’ve added to the dialogue and carried the discussion further.
I don’t believe any of the last three Presidents give a rat’s ass if anyone smoke’s pot….
I believe instead there is a corrupt portion of US Security that has been involved in helping WHOLE COUNTRIES export their crop, (sometimes one of their biggest exports), worth hundreds of billions of dollars. And they use some of these profits to push their agenda around the world, even financing wars and more.
I’d hate to guess at the skimming going on, and just who’s finger’s are in that pie….but it has to be a LOT to keep pushing Federal law against State law’s that allow it!!
Big Pharma has devolved to glorified laundry detergent salespeople.
Every two years they come up with a new improved version of an old drug.
Ten % more effective, quicker acting,… BS. They patent these new drugs (same as the old drug) and triple the price. What a racket.
Aspirin is as effective today as it first was. Regardless of the packaging, size, or shape.
Marijuana that is refined, cultured, controlled and designed for various relief applications, would destroy Half the BS. high priced medications big pharma sells. The placebo is the massage, profit is the purpose.
Marijuana as a curative or reliever of ills, will probably become as common as aspirin and as effective. But big Pharma won’t allow it, they would lose mega profits. The politicians, for profit prisons, for profit (or look at our arrests sheets) law enforcement, will not allow it. The evils of marijuana is a strawdog. The profit mongers have it well trained. . .
Ms Daly’s story is a perfect example of what has happened to our law enforcement officers and our criminal “justice” system. The officers have no limits and no judgement and there is no downside when they make colossal mistakes because while they are “often in error they are never in doubt”. When they are wrong, They will charge you with obstruction or resisting arrest. As to the “justice” system there isn’t one. Our prosecutors are just as out of control as the officers and most lack a modicum of judgement. Over charging, Testalying, civil seizures are all part of a break down in the system.
We are simply not safe.
Be like Jesus is save the soul. Do you know what I am saying?
Rafflaw, Thanks. I think the money motive is too much in play for it to matter to most of them even if it is they or their own family member who suffers.
(Pain patients are the only group of which I am aware where the patients are presumed felons in that many pain management doctors have their patients sign “opiod contracts” that include among other things the right of the doctor to perform random urine testing, promising not to get drugs from other sources, being unable to get more meds if they run out before the 30 day period is up even if they lost some pills or had days where the pain required extra medication, etc.. Sorry, my soapbox (: )
My experience is similar to yours Mike: OCD as a kid, dope in college, while a production foreman, through law school and into practice – until family came in to play. New data, though, diagnosed with Lupus, did weed for a different reason, but found when I quit the symptoms of the affliction had been greatly addressed by the use. Sure Obama is a hypocrite and black folks have been burdened much greater by the war. Let’s get the smart folks our age to stand up. That is how this all changes, unless you want to go the route of employing bean counters to show that the numbers make sense. For me, the use makes sense, especially for many who don’t do it just for recreation. If you eat it the buzz is much less obvious. Bob Marley said it best, to trite for those that know.
George W. Bush “possibly” used cocaine?!!! Bush snorted more coke between 1968 and 1974 that he couldn’t “find Jesus” for another twelve years due to the destruction of his limited amount of brain cells. Please keep in mind that “finding Jesus” in Texas is as easy as finding cheese in Wisconsin; someone was extremely lost in Texas, and it was the son of a President (son of a Bush!) instead of the son of God. Regardless, the “war on drugs” is almost as much of an economic disaster as the Bush/Cheney regime, and we need to use another approach: legalization of drugs.
If the legal profession weren’t so worried about having fewer clients. maybe some of them would seek to have drug laws declared unconstitutional.
Drug laws would make sense if they were aimed at outlawing producers,
distributors, and dealers (e.g.CVS and medical doctors) of dangerous drugs. You know, the ones promoted on TV.
leejcaroll,
maybe if one of these politicians had to suffer like you do on a daily basis, we would then see some sanity brought to this issue.
There has recently beed a study showing that vaporized cannabis can help with neuropathic pain. My pain is neuropathic in origin. I am in Pennsylvania so I cannot try it even though it has the potential to get me back to work, if it can truly help, and let me be a contributing member of society again but no, better to continue this ridiculous ‘war on drugs’ that cost untold millions and resulted in the incarceration of peple, as noted, who should maybe be on probation if you want to keep it illegal.
The war on drugs is now being taken out on those in chronic pain by making it harder and harder for doctors to prescribe opiods, for patients to find pharmacies that will dispense them. How many might be helped by marijuana?
(As an aside I believe Bill Clinton can be telling the truth. I had the opportunity to smoke pot. I did not want to but was in a peer group situation. I took the cigarette, took in the smoke in but never inhaled .)
bettykath,
that is an amazing story. Why wouldn’t the police have just stopped them without the 7 person assault? The only concern that they claim was possession of alcohol. Scary.
The war on drugs has expanded.
http://news.yahoo.com/uva-student-jailed-possession-bottled-water-ice-cream-135417476.html
A University of Virginia student spent a night and good part of the next day in jail after seven plain-clothes agents from the state’s Alcoholic Beverage Control division ambushed her.
The student, 20-year-old Elizabeth Daly, made the mistake of walking to her car with bottled water, cookie dough and ice cream in a dark supermarket parking lot near the UVA campus, reports The Daily Progress.
The seven agents sprung aggressively into action, suspecting that the student was carrying was a 12-pack of beer. She was actually carrying a sky-blue carton of LaCroix sparkling water.
Police admit that one of the high-strung agents vaulted onto the hood of Daly’s car. She contends that one of them also drew a gun.
It’s not clear what about Daly’s appearance gave the six police officers the belief that they had probable cause to confront her en masse.
Daly, along with two roommates who were in the car, did what reasonable, unarmed people usually do when violently pounced upon by seven people. They tried to get away.
“They were showing unidentifiable badges after they approached us, but we became frightened, as they were not in anything close to a uniform,” Daly said in a written account, according to The Daily Progress.
“I couldn’t put my windows down unless I started my car, and when I started my car they began yelling to not move the car, not to start the car. They began trying to break the windows. My roommates and I were … terrified,” the student also wrote.
According to court records obtained by the Charlottesville paper, Daly “grazed” two agents with her vehicle. At this time, the records state, the unidentified passenger in the front seat of her SUV was yelling “go, go, go” and simultaneously diving into the back seat.
Once the three students managed to make it out of the parking lot, they called 911. Daly testified that her goal was to drive immediately to a police station. However, she was stopped by a vehicle with identifiable sirens and lights.
Daly had just left an annual UVA “Take Back the Night” vigil on the famous campus founded by the man who drafted the Declaration of Independence. She was eventually able to explain that she had purchased the water and junk food for a sorority benefit. She also apologized.
The seven Alcoholic Beverage Control agents were not satisfied. They charged Daly with three felonies: one count of eluding police and two counts of assaulting a law enforcement officer. In Virginia, each of these Class Six felonies carries up to five years in prison and up to $2,500 in fines.
The seven agents then had her hauled to the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.
The incident occurred April 11. Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman deigned to drop the criminal charges this week.
“You don’t know all the facts until you complete the investigation,” Chapman told The Daily Progress in defense of his own actions and the actions of the Alcoholic Beverage Control agents.
It’s unclear why Chapman’s investigation took some 80 days.
The Charlottesville broadsheet also does not mention how much Daly paid her defense attorney, Francis Lawrence.
A spokeswoman for Alcoholic Beverage Control’s regional office, Carol Mawyer, refused to provide details other than saying that the bureau’s agents cunningly wear plainclothes.
“This has been an extremely trying experience,” Daly wrote in her statement. “It is something to this day I cannot understand or believe has come to this point.”
Mike: I don’t have much to contribute really; but I will follow.
I am in my 50’s but I have never smoked Marijuana. It was widespread in my high school, but besides working to put myself through high school, I was in the nerd circle, chess and mathematics; only a few of whom were tokers. Plus it was my intent to join the military for the G.I. Bill (ten years of college), and at 16 I had been informed (erroneously, by an older cousin) that I would have to pass a lie detector test on drugs to get in, and so I just didn’t bother. I had already tried smoking cigarettes and getting drunk, and did not care for that.
Despite being a non-user, I would legalize pot without restrictions, and perhaps with SOME restrictions all recreational drugs. Some drugs can be extremely dangerous, kill people on first usage, or are easy to O.D. on, so I think dosage and purity need to be regulated for public safety, as well as perhaps venue of use (for example in the home versus in public, and not while piloting a car, airplane, or anything else that can harm passengers, bystanders or other travelers).
My interest, for the most part, is in getting a beneficial plant to people who might be helped by it. I’ve watched several family members with cancer essentially starve to death, due to a complete lack of appetite. People with certain digestive disorders, particularly those where nausea and pain are components, could be helped by cannabis, as well. It’s galling that alcohol, which is addictive, dangerous and truly has no legitimate medical purpose, is legal and cannabis isn’t.