Pot appears to be growing on Barack Obama. In a recent interview with The New Yorker’s David Remnick, the admitted former pot-smoker said he doesn’t think marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol “in terms of its impact on the individual consumer.”“As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol,” Obama told Remnick.
Smoking marijuana is ”not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy,” Obama said.
Obama also noted he’s bothered with the disproportionate number of arrests and imprisonments of minorities and the poor for marijuana use. “Middle-class kids don’t get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do,” he said. “And African-American kids and Latino kids are more likely to be poor and less likely to have the resources and the support to avoid unduly harsh penalties.”
The comments come on the heels of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s endorsement of medical marijuana use and recreational marijuana shops opening up for business in Colorado earlier this month.
But could DC’s relaxed attitude toward marijuana use spell doom for alcohol lobbyists?
Is it high time Big Marijuana took over on Capitol Hill?
