Drug Use, 2008, and the Future

Talk about fear-mongering. According to Billy Shaheen, husband of former NH Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, Obama's admitted drug use will hurt him in the general election and therefore we should not choose him as our nominee. While, to me, this seems like yet another desperate attempt from the Clinton campaign to "fight back" against Obama's poll surge, I think there is a larger issue that must be addressed. Obama is the first post-Baby Boom presidential candidate. His youth was not in the 60s or 70s - he is a child of the 80s, a time where cocaine, and marijuana, were quite popular. It is likely that how Obama responds to this will be how other members of his generation will respond down the road.

In "Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance," Obama is open about his drug use:

"Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though."

For the older Kossacks, pot's alter-ego should be obvious. As for blow, that would be cocaine; smack being heroin.

In the weeks before Obama announced his candidacy in January, WaPo ran a story on the issue:

In an interview during his Senate race two years ago, Obama said he admitted using drugs because he thought it was important for "young people who are already in circumstances that are far more difficult than mine to know that you can make mistakes and still recover.

"I think that, at this stage, my life is an open book, literally and figuratively," he said. "Voters can make a judgment as to whether dumb things that I did when I was a teenager are relevant to the work that I've done since that time."

The moral of the story is this: sure, he did drugs (who didn't at least try it?) and he made mistakes. He does not still do drugs nor will he ever do drugs again but at least he is honest about what he did unlike, well, our current President.

One major reason why people like Obama so much is because of his honesty. If you've ever heard his stump speech, he is quick to mention that he told a crowd of teachers about merit pay and a crowd of Detroit automakers about fuel standards. Now, he is telling you about his drug use.

No one wants to admit they've used drugs. Not the high school sophomore, the job applicant, or the presidential candidate. But in 2007, how much does drug use really matter?

The parents of this generation of kids are baby-boomers. If you are my age and your mother or father didn't smoke pot at least once, they are either lying or were living in a coal mine. So OK, pot isn't that bad after all. After all, Bill Clinton was elected after admitting he had "used, but not inhaled" pot. Did anyone believe that? Of course not. Americans were and are realistic enough (I think) to know that pot experimentation should not be the litmus test by which we accept or discard presidential candidates. But cocaine? That may be a different story.

To quote Rick James, "Cocaine is a helluva drug." Cocaine use hit its peak in the US in 1985 with over 5.7 million users (nearly 3% of the population) using cocaine at least "once every month." In 1985, Obama was 24. In other words, still in the height of his youth and therefore a youth in the midst of a cocaine epidemic.

Another important part of Obama's stump speech regards our friends across the aisle the Republicans. He usually winds down the speech by saying something along the lines of "I'm not afraid of what Mitt or Rudy is going to say about about in the general election." It is without a doubt a shot at Hillary and the general politics of triangulation. But Obama is 100% right and this is especially important concerning his drug use.

Obama was open and honest about his past. The Republicans cannot afford to say the same with a straight face. Whether it's security for his girlfriend on the wallet of the taxpayers or Huck's "Willie Horton" moment  with the Evangelical pander of releasing a convicted rapist. The list goes on and one. And if Obama's problem is that he did a little cocaine in the 80s, I and the majority of the country will forgive him.

The Politics of Drug Use is not going away anytime soon, especially as my generation and Obama's generation launch political careers. We need to get used to the politics of fear concerning drugs but, once again, we will follow Obama's lead.