OBAMA OPEN TO LIMITED LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA

 

Posted: Sunday, November 25, 2007 9:33 AM by Domenico Montanaro

Filed Under: 

2008, 

 

Obama

 

From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan

OBAMA WEEKEND CAMPAIGN NOTEBOOK

AUDUBON, IA -- Obama can't seem to escape the 

smoke of his youthful indiscretions wafting after 

him on the campaign trail. Just four days after 

he told a group of high school students that he 

had experimented with drugs in high school, Obama 

had to admit to it again at a town hall here.

 

When a voter asked Obama if he was for the 

legalization of medical marijuana, Obama said 

that he wasn't in favor of legalization without 

scientific evidence and tight controls. Citing 

his mother who died from cancer young, Obama 

compared marijuana to morphine saying there was 

little difference between the two.

 

"My attitude is if the science and the doctors 

suggest that the best palliative care and the way 

to relieve pain and suffering is medical 

marijuana then that's something I'm open to 

because there's no difference between that and 

morphine when it comes to just giving people 

relief from pain," Obama said. "But I want to do 

it under strict guidelines. I want it prescribed 

in the same way that other painkillers or 

palliative drugs are prescribed."

 

But he added that he was concerned that the 

reasons for the use of marijuana would grow and 

create a "slippery slope."

 

"I was feeling really tense, so I needed a 

joint," Obama joked with the crowd of those who 

might try and undermine that type of system.

 

The question was followed up by another voter 

asking him, "Unlike other presidents, did you 

inhale?"

 

"I did," Obama said to loud applause and 

laughter. "It's not something that I'm proud of. 

It was a mistake Š But you know, I'm not going 

to.  I never understood that line. The point was 

to inhale. That was the point."

 

- Derek Rosenzweig

PhillyNORML Co-Chairman