Obama drug use raised
TOWN HALL MEETING | Ignores reference, calls for focus on treatment, not arrest
LOS ANGELES --A man told Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama on Wednesday -- while he campaigned in Henderson, Nev. -- that Obama was fortunate he was never busted for using illegal drugs.
Obama's youthful drug experimentation, known because he wrote about it in his memoir, is popping up in the campaign. On Wednesday, Obama used his answer to call for more emphasis on treatment and less on prison time for first-time nonviolent offenders who only get advanced degrees in "criminality" while incarcerated.
(AP)
At a town hall meeting on a day that took Obama from Nevada to Los Angeles, a man who said he did not use illegal drugs wanted to know if Obama would end the "drug wars."
"You've had experience yourself, where if you were arrested when you were a teenager, you would never be elected to the presidency," the man said.
Obama did not acknowledge the personal reference. "I am not interested in legalizing drugs," he said.
"What I am interested in is putting more of an emphasis on the public health approach to drugs and less on ... incarceration." He said too many "first-time nonviolent drug offenders" were locked up "instead of diverting them into programs where they can get treatment, and all we do is give them a master's degree in criminality."
Dealing with Obama's admitted pot and cocaine use has been a tricky sub-theme in the campaign.
When a Clinton ally brings it up -- directly or indirectly -- as BET founder Bob Johnson recently did (at least that's how his remark was taken) and Bill Shaheen did in December -- (and then stepped down as Sen. Hillary Clinton's New Hampshire campaign chairman) -- it is considered dirty politics.
Shaheen resigned after he raised questions about whether Obama's use of pot and cocaine would provide fodder for Republicans and make him less electable. Clinton personally apologized to Obama for Shaheen.