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InvisibleveggieM

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,538
Obama's Drug Past Isn't Hurting Him -- But Thousands Aren't So Lucky
    #8533285 - 06/17/08 11:01 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Obama's Drug Past Isn't Hurting Him -- But Thousands Aren't So Lucky
June 17, 2008 - alternet.org

If only we could forgive the thousands of imprisoned casual drug users in the way we've forgiven Barack Obama.

Barack Obama is about to make history by becoming the first major party's presidential nominee with an identifying trait that once would have automatically disqualified him for the job. No, I'm not talking about his African American heritage -- I'm taking about his past illegal drug use. Not just of who-cares marijuana, but of cocaine, a drug that carries a felony penalty in many states. It's both encouraging and appalling that he's getting a pass for doing something that has gotten thousands of other Americans thrown in jail.

As Obama blithely acknowledges in his autobiography, he used drugs for a while, didn't like them, quit and moved on. No harm done -- not to himself, anyone around him nor, obviously, his career prospects. Same goes for newly-installed New York Governor David Paterson, who has also admitted to smoking weed and sniffing blow.

Neither case seems like a big deal in a country where, according to the federal government's own figures, more than 35 million Americans have tried cocaine at least once and nearly 98 million have sampled marijuana or hashish. Once, confessing to toking was enough to scuttle Douglas Ginsberg's nomination for a Reagan-era US Supreme Court seat. Things had clearly loosened up by the time Bill Clinton's hilarious claim that he "didn't inhale" was considered an adequate fig leaf. By George W. Bush's candidacy we were ready to excuse his past pot use; the only issue was whether he had done cocaine. Now, we give such indulgences a wink and a shrug.

Except, that is, for that minority of drug users who get caught. Thanks to harsh mandatory minimum sentencing and "Three Strikes" type laws, the number of Americans locked up for narcotics offenses has exploded in the last 20 years. There are now an estimated 500,000 people locked up for drug crimes -- more than the total of ALL prisoners in 1980.

Most of them aren't exactly kingpins, either. A federal survey found that more than half of all state prisoners doing time for drug offenses had no record of violence or high-level drug involvement; 43% were convicted of simple possession. Over 40,000 people nationwide are locked up on marijuana charges.

And as much as Obama's ascendancy shows how far we have come as a nation toward genuine racial equality, the way we're waging the War on Drugs shows how far we still have to go. The recent roundup of San Diego State students made headlines not because it's shocking that college kids take drugs, but because it was so exceptional for middle-class white kids to be arrested for doing so. Study after study has shown that blacks are more likely than whites to be arrested, convicted, and given longer sentences for drug offenses. Most recently, a report released in April by the Washington, DC-based Sentencing Project found that since 1980, the rate of drug arrests in the nation's largest cities increased by 225% for African Americans, while that for whites grew by only 70 percent. A Human Rights Watch report the same month found that African Americans are more than ten times as likely to be sent to prison on drug charges than whites. All this, even though federal government surveys show that whites use drugs at the same rate as blacks do.

Of course, many drug offenders have committed other crimes. Many are dealers. Many deserve to be locked up. But many, many others are no different than the young Barack Obama, or millions of other Americans like him -- curious kids experimenting with intoxicants for kicks. They just had the bad luck to get arrested and charged.

If an undercover cop had happened to be among Obama's party buddies back in his wild days, it's a safe bet he wouldn't be where he is now. Who knows what other potential activists, teachers and leaders we have derailed by throwing so many people in jail? Obama's example proves that by locking up so many petty drug users, we all lose.

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OfflineP. Flux
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Re: Obama's Drug Past Isn't Hurting Him -- But Thousands Aren't So Lucky [Re: veggie]
    #8533320 - 06/17/08 11:12 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

ummmm...
George W. used coke.
Why does nobody know this? Including the guy that wrote this article?


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Offlinenumonkei
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Re: Obama's Drug Past Isn't Hurting Him -- But Thousands Aren't So Lucky [Re: P. Flux]
    #8533666 - 06/17/08 01:22 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Or Billy Bob Clinton's refusal to exhale? Good intention, but useless. Kindda like religion.....:grin:




~Monk

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OfflineNewport101
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Re: Obama's Drug Past Isn't Hurting Him -- But Thousands Aren't So Lucky [Re: P. Flux]
    #8533685 - 06/17/08 01:29 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

it did....re-read it and im sure you will see that it mentions we give a shrug and wink to his cocaine use. What makes Obama so different ( in my opinion) of course is his readysness to disclose this information


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OfflineDonkeyShell
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Re: Obama's Drug Past Isn't Hurting Him -- But Thousands Aren't So Lucky [Re: veggie]
    #8533970 - 06/17/08 02:57 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

So the drug use itself isn't necessarily what's destructive. This proves that people can be remarkable individuals either way, and that its law enforcement that is ruining people's lives. If Barack was caught with coke in his teenage years, all his prospects would have been gone. It makes you wonder how many great people the outside world lost cause of prohibition.

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Offlinejenns_hot
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Re: Obama's Drug Past Isn't Hurting Him -- But Thousands Aren't So Lucky [Re: DonkeyShell]
    #8534242 - 06/17/08 04:15 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

George Bush's drug use was extremely detrimental.  The writer's argument is that some very intelligent people abused drugs at one point, and are still very productive today.  Bush's past has nothing to do with the writer's argument, and so it is irrelevent.


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"Fear makes the wolf look bigger"

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OfflineVisionary Tools
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Re: Obama's Drug Past Isn't Hurting Him -- But Thousands Aren't So Lucky [Re: jenns_hot]
    #8534415 - 06/17/08 04:53 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

I think it is.

Shows what happens to someone that abuses cock and booze.


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Offlineclover606
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Re: Obama's Drug Past Isn't Hurting Him -- But Thousands Aren't So Lucky [Re: Visionary Tools]
    #8534458 - 06/17/08 05:04 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

By George W. Bush's candidacy we were ready to excuse his past pot use; the only issue was whether he had done cocaine.




but he did do cocaine, alot of cocaine, and still made office.
twice.


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grassman said:

I remember being in DARE when i was much younger and some of the stories they would tell you are not only ridiculous, but completely untrue. One story was that a woman was on LSD and thought her infant was a turkey so she baked it in the oven. Now I look back and think thats hilarious, but at the time I guess it scared me.

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InvisibleEgo Death
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Re: Obama's Drug Past Isn't Hurting Him -- But Thousands Aren't So Lucky [Re: Visionary Tools]
    #8534606 - 06/17/08 05:53 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

Shows what happens to someone that abuses cock and booze.




:rotfl: was that intentional?

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Offlinehawksapprentice
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Re: Obama's Drug Past Isn't Hurting Him -- But Thousands Aren't So Lucky [Re: jenns_hot]
    #8535742 - 06/17/08 11:58 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

jenns_hot said:
Bush's past has nothing to do with the writer's argument, and so it is irrelevent.





"Barack Obama is about to make history by becoming the first major party's presidential nominee with an identifying trait that once would have automatically disqualified him for the job."


Seems to me it is relevant.  He's not the first.  it's his first statement he puts out there.  I know what your saying by it's not really the point of the article or whatnot, but is still a pretty big error.


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"I celebrate the Earth, my home, my mother, my grave, and as long as men are Man they must, if they would preserve the integrated being, do the same---[and preserve]--this rank casual hungry smelly sweaty lusting transitory body, my oozy pulpy liquid-bag-swollen body, bones, blood, hair glands, my bejeweled sex; I love and celebrate it all.  never to let men forget that they are animals as much as gods---that is one thing I shall say."

  Edward Abbey

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Offlinegumkeegan
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Re: Obama's Drug Past Isn't Hurting Him -- But Thousands Aren't So Lucky [Re: hawksapprentice]
    #8536345 - 06/18/08 07:03 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

I didn't read into much of the article, because it struck me as dogma from the get-go, however I enjoyed reading this thread; many good points made.

-KTM

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Offlineprototypical_man
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Re: Obama's Drug Past Isn't Hurting Him -- But Thousands Aren't So Lucky [Re: gumkeegan]
    #8537074 - 06/18/08 12:49 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

OF COURSE.. The Clintons and the Bush's are major drug importers. Both are globalist scum.. It's not a left/right issue.. Its a corrupt globalist elite issue. Is it any surprise Obama is just the same?

The biggest sources of cocaine in this country is the GOVERNMENT kids. It keeps the prices high, allows brutal police state crackdown on competition, funds black ops, demonizes an armed citizenry, and fills the jails up with plenty of workers for private interests to work at 12 cents and hour, and have the taxpayers foot the bill for their room and board.. Not to mention soft eugenics on certain undesirable genetic stock.


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OfflineP. Flux
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Re: Obama's Drug Past Isn't Hurting Him -- But Thousands Aren't So Lucky [Re: prototypical_man]
    #8539018 - 06/18/08 11:14 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

the truth is true.
if someone wants to hijack a plane, i don't care how security is, they're going to do it.
it's too easy.
airport security is something to make you feel safe.

just like the d.e.a.
if the feds truly wanted to stop imports, they would.
but i'm writing a love letter now, so i won't get into this. hahahah

but yeah, things are never what they seem. that's why they only seem.
oh, politics!:crazy2:


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When we see the true connection between us all and the world around us, we can truly live as one.

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OfflineAdamist
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Re: Obama's Drug Past Isn't Hurting Him -- But Thousands Aren't So Lucky [Re: prototypical_man]
    #8550915 - 06/22/08 02:56 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

prototypical_man said:
OF COURSE.. The Clintons and the Bush's are major drug importers. Both are globalist scum.. It's not a left/right issue.. Its a corrupt globalist elite issue. Is it any surprise Obama is just the same?





LOL! How exactly does Obama admitting past drug use equate him to being a "major drug importer"??? If that were really true wouldn't you think he'd be a bit more discreet about his own use?

Lay off the crack pipe Jimmy...


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