Barack Obama Admits Past Drug Use

Barack Obama claims, "I blew a few smoke rings, remembering those years. Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though. ..."

Prior to running for President of the United States, Barack Obama admitted to drug use in his 1995 autobiography called, Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance that was published by Three Rivers Press. Many of us are reading this fascinating book today, as we watch the campaign-trail entertainments provided nightly by the media.

As I understand the story in the book, Barack was born to an upwardly motivated college relationship that ended in divorce pretty quickly. Barack had a mother from Kansas, and a father from Kenya. For schooling, Barack went to private college preparation schools with mostly Asian people until sometime in high school.

While in high school, Barack started leaving his school light skinned circle of friends in an effort to find black girls to date; he started attending military functions in search of companions. It appears to be sometime during this period of time that Barack started to try drugs.

Looking at the Barack claim, he smoked cigarettes that made smoke rings, smoked pot or marijuana, drank some booze, and did a little "blow" cocaine when he had extra money, but he never tried "smack" heroine. This period of time would have been over 20-years ago for Obama, during his late-childhood years.

In my mind, it is tough for me to decide who to be mad at: the "kid" who tried drugs or the military adults who let a younger person co-mingle into an atmosphere where opportunity to experiment was available. This experimental drug use happened before Barack Obama left his teen years.

According to a CASA study, teens under high stress are twice as likely to smoke, drink, and participate with illegal drugs. High stress situations for teens include a new school, concern over an unusual family structure, relocations, peer acceptance, and a desire for academic achievement. All of these circumstances applied to Barack Obama during his teen years according to the stories told in his book.

Barack Obama is a high-achieving personality by nature as shows in his elected presidency over the prestigious Harvard Law Review during his 20's, despite his drug experimentation just a few years prior. In my opinion, the teenage Barack was a young man with high intelligence showing; he could perhaps hide his drug abuse because nobody expected illegal activity out of such a high achiever.

I don't believe that a mistake from the Barack unsettled teenage years would have any bearing on his political abilities today; in fact, his brief wanderings through a societal structure that was different than main-stream America may be an asset to his career. Not one of us can claim that he tried to hide this "taboo" information; Barack openly admits that he's walked on both sides of our moral issues as they relate to drug use.

When the presidential campaigns are over, for better or worse, I would enjoy seeing Barack take a few hours of self-imposed community service for his admitted errors of judgment. Barack is our "bad boy" who amazingly swam to the top despite odds after experimental drug use.

We have many young adults in our society today who have given up hope towards ever achieving beyond buying their next fix. Barack is an eloquent spokesman, who might just have the right words up his sleeve to turn a few of these unhappy young lives around. Barack understands teen stress; he can change lives if he chooses to do so.

Barack did not grow the dope, import the cocaine, nor buy the booze for himself while he was a teenager. Others did the real crimes.