February 6, 2014

Obama the Biochemist


[From article]
Last week a biochemist announced that marijuana “is no worse than alcohol.”
OK, he’s not exactly a biochemist, but he does have some expertise on the subject. As a teenager in an exclusive private school in Hawaii, he was a member of a “club” called the Choom Gang. They had a narrow charter: It was to get high smoking marijuana every day. “Barry,” as he was then called, excelled.
President Barack Obama, as he is now called, still publicly jokes and brags about his teenage marijuana habit.
[. . .]
As for marijuana, he said the “main problem” is that too many poor people and too few rich people get arrested for it.
These pronouncements came in the same interview where he said that if he had an adult son, he “would not let” him play professional football because it’s too dangerous.
[. . .]
But what registers with people is not the nation’s laws, not the scientific facts and not the White House website. It is the onetime hipster president promising that it’s no big deal.
[. . .]
Alcohol kills more than 100,000 people a year in America, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than half of all traffic accidents involve alcohol. The leading cause of death among young people is drunken driving. Alcohol is involved in a third of murders, half of rapes and two-thirds of other violent crimes.
Alcohol abuse costs the country about a quarter trillion dollars a year

http://www.aspentimes.com/opinion/9933559-113/alcohol-marijuana-president-worse

Glenn K. Beaton
The Aspen Beat
February 2, 2014

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