Obama on Pot

By now you probably know that the President of the United States of America has declared, “Pot is not more dangerous than alcohol. I smoked pot as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life.” He added the provision that such behavior is a “bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy.” First, the President is not exactly an objective commentator on the issue having admitted his own addiction. Second, he isn’t a drug counselor nor a medical doctor, not even a drug researcher. In short, he’s not an expert, just a user. The President then injected race into the debate by suggesting that pot laws were enforced disproportionately against African Americans. Instead of taking the moral high ground to admonish those of his race not to take the road to drug usage, he seemed to be saying that the main issue was to lessen drug laws so specific ethnic groups aren’t the target of law breaking.

Anyone who counsels those with addiction issues knows the obvious: marijuana is a gateway drug and the one substance that more than any other dumbs down the focus and ambition of teenage users. Obama argues that alcohol is more dangerous. Really? Just because pot is slower to take a toll doesn’t mean it is safe. One might argue that smoking isn’t dangerous because you don’t die from lung cancer in a day, a year, a month, or even 10 years from your first smoke. It make take decades before the awful specter of death catches up. But the link between cancer and smoking has been established. It wasn’t so clear 40-50 years ago. Likewise the neurological and physiological dangers of pot may not be fully apparent until it’s too late to realize its damage. Through the years I’ve dealt with hundreds of potheads and never met one filled with love for the Lord and ambition to achieve great things in life. The President may have escaped the worst consequences of pot smoking – so far – but one can also point to many alcoholics who live years before cirrhosis of the liver kills them. Smokers may puff packs a day for decades before succumbing to lung cancer. Mr. President, I admire what you’ve done to overcome many obstacles in your life but your possible exception to the rule doesn’t give you the right to ruin the lives of others. Obama would do well to heed the words of Stuart Gitlow, Director of the Annenberg Physician Training program in Addictive Disease at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Says Gitlow, “The president is obviously not familiar with the science and frankly doesn’t know what he’s talking about. There’s no benefit to marijuana, it’s simply that people want the freedom to be stoned. That’s all it is. And there’s a great deal of risk.”