Obama to young blacks: Go ahead and smoke pot, it's not that big a deal

What a Stupid thing to suggest! Not a good Role Model!

No, those were not his words. But yes, that's the message he delivered.

Barack Obama may be one of the worst things that ever happened to young black people, for this simple reason: He does not implore them to be the very best they can be. Given the opportunity to inspire them to the very best of their nature, he instead says interminable crap like this:

“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,” Obama said in a lengthy profile in the current issue of the New Yorker magazine. “I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.”  

Here is the problem with this, and it has nothing to do with whether marijuana or alcohol is the more "dangerous" substance. Using either of them is stupid so that is an idiotic issue to even raise. The problem is that Obama completely fails when given an opportunity to tell those who actually respect what he says that there is a higher standard to which they can and should hold themselves. Look how he says he presented this issue to his daughters: " . . . it’s not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy."

That's it? It's a "waste of time"? It's "not very healthy"? That's it?

I actually pray that he is a better father than this and that he is just watering down what he really said for the benefit of his left-wing admirers. Because if that's all he really said to his daughters, he did not tell them the truth by any stretch of the imagination.

Obama's daughters are 15 and 12. Smoking pot at this point in their lives would do more than waste their time. It would put them at heightened risk of psychosis. It would desensitize them to the physical, psychological and spiritual issues inherent to the use of mind-altering chemicals, and put them at greater risk of serious addition issues. It would stunt their learning capabilities. And it could very possibly turn them into the kind of mind-numbed, blithering idiots whose drivel you will no doubt find in the comment section following this column, just as you find such comments following everything I write about marijuana.

Maybe Obama is reluctant to make a stronger statement because he thinks he would be a hypocrite in doing so, having smoked pot himself as a younger person as he readily admits. Maybe Obama just doesn't have very strong convictions about it.

But he should know that as president of the United States his words can and do influence the decisions people make. Young people are not going to be very affected when all you have to say about a behavior is that it's a "waste of time" and a "bad habit." Weak sauce like that is not much different from saying, "Hey, it's no big deal, we all do dumb things, and hey, I did it. I became president. So I have to kinda sorta discourage it but I'm not really feeling all that convicted about it. It's no worse than alcohol. Whatever." Making a statement this weak is tantamount to telling them to just go ahead and do it, which is why I headlined my piece in the way I did.

What he could have said - and I for one would have respected him for it no matter what else he has done - is this:

Regardless of the legality question, young people - and I'm especially talking about urban and minority youth who are facing great economic challenges - don't smoke pot. It's stupid. It can do serious harm to you at a time in your life when that is the last thing you need. What you need to do to overcome the challenges in your life is to keep your mind clear and focused on doing the right things. In no way will smoking pot ever help you to do that. You should be looking to rise above the less admirable inclinations of the crowd you hang with, not to fall in with them. You should be learning every day about the good things you can and should be putting into your body and your mind so you can better yourself. There is no way marijuana will ever be on that list, so don't smoke it. And don't give me the excuse that alcohol is just as bad or worse. Even if that's true, so what? Is this the most you expect of yourself? To use the mind-altering substance that is "not quite as bad" as some other substance? Really? Because if that's all you expect of yourself, you'll never get anywhere in life and it won't be anyone's fault but yours.

That is what he should have said. A strong statement like that would have gotten the attention of the young people who look up to him. It would have given some young, urban minorities who face long odds in life a better chance of beating those odds. But the best Barack Obama could come up with is that it's a "vice" and a "waste of time" and "not very healthy."

Pathetic. Young people, the president of the United States is not a role model for you to follow.

http://www.caintv.com/obama-to-young-blacks-go-ahead