Do you think a person who has smoked pot and used cocaine could make a good president?

Question

If you otherwise liked the person, would this be a positive or negative factor when deciding whether to vote for them?

I don't know much about Obama, but maybe someone who has been there will have a better idea of how to realistically prevent drug abuse in teens.

To clear up confusion: I'm just interested in others' opinions. I'm not telling anyone that he wouldn't be a good candidate. In fact, I think that the drug use makes him a more down to earth candidate.

Answer 1

Well, we've had two in a row. One who smoked pot and of course he inhaled lol. And another who did cocaine and is an alchoholic who didn't stop drinking until he was in his forties. One was a good President and the other one is creating a mess for the next President to clean up. So I guess the answer is sometimes yes, and that it possibly doesn't matter by the time someone is old enough and mature enough to run for office. Obama is very straightforward about his past drug use - no coyly saying he didn't inhale, no trying to get his past record of drug use expunged. At least he addressed it, talked about it and said he hoped to be an example to others who are trying/doing drugs that they too can get away from it and make something out of their lives. That sounds very commendable to me and tells me a lot about his good character.

Answer 2

I don't think past drug use is a factor as long as it is way behind them. I have met and known recovered heroin, crack, meth, etc. addicts and alcoholics who are very nice, intelligent and competant professionals. The consider those parts of their pasts to be chapters not worth re-reading.

Is it the illegal status that bothers you, or is it the drug itself? Consider alcohol: it is a hard, hardcore narcotic. No other drug does as much damage to your organs, long-term, as alcohol. My uncle, a practicing physician for over 40 years, said, "If you want to learn medicine, study drunks; they die of everything."

Let me make a brief digression with a point:

A crack smoker is much more likely to deliver a normal child than a drinker. You never hear about potheads or heroin addicts beating the cr@p out of their wives and kids. Drunks regularly do. Think about all of the serial killers who were alcoholics: Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Richard Speck, Henry Lee Lucas, Wayne Henley, Jim Jones, heck, Josef Stalin!

How about alcoholic traitors: all of the members of the Cambridge 5, Kim Philby, Donald MacLean, Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt, Richard Sorge, Christopher Boyce, Andrew Daulton Lee, Edwin Wilson, Clayton Longtree, Phillip Agee, Glen Souther, Robert Lee Johnson and others.

My point is that alcohol seems to be far more destructive on just about any scale you choose, yet we think nothing of a Presidential candidate having a drink.

Answer 3

So long as he doesn't still use them.

There's a big hooha in the media in the UK right now because the opposition leader has admitted to having smoked pot when he was at school. The vast majority of the public don't care what he did behind the bike sheds 20 years ago...they're interested in what he's going to do NOW.

Answer 4

Aldous Huxley a best selling author wrote in "The Doors of Perception" about his experience with drugs. Here is what he said, "The man who comes back through the Door will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less sure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable mystery which it tries, forever vainly, to comprehend."

Yes, I think it can be a valuable experience in a future president's life. Especially if they are willing to face up to it.

Answer 5

Sen Obama has admitted to experimenting with pot and cocaine as a intense college student. there has been plenty written approximately President Bush's arrests for inebriated utilising and cocaine possession -- nicely previous his youngster years. i've got not got faith the two considered one of them nonetheless makes use of cocaine, yet are you able to teach to me that President Bush would not? Please clarify the style you will circulate approximately proving a unfavorable.

Answer 6

Abusing it and trying it a couple of times is a big difference...As far as Obama he couldn't have been abusing it to much and graduated from Harvard Law School...and I"m sure we have had presidents that have done it before...I know there were some that were alcoholics which is just as bad.

Answer 7

Well Bush snorted coke and was an alcoholic and he hasn't done anything good for our country.

Teen drug use is lower in Amsterdam than in America...the solution...legalize it, take the excitement out of it...and they will abstain in greater numbers.

For instance, when I was young I had a fake ID to get into clubs...it was exciting and I liked the thrill. I used to go like 3 times a week. Once I turned 21...I stopped going out as much...not as fun.

Answer 8

I think it is a mark against their character but if they overcame it it might be excusable and would give them understanding.

I never did any of those things so personally I think those of us who knew such things were stupid from the start have a better position. Answerer one - there are many people out here who have never done those things, we just are not in liberal circles!!!

Answer 9

the way I see it is....out of all the people in this country, who the hell would vote for a drug addict, or even occasional user? The idea that anyone would consider a person of this KNOWN moral value as presidential material is rediculous. Give me a break! What a looser! Take a look at the pool of his supporters......not exactly the most educated, well spoken, clean nosed kind of crowd. Obama is an insult to our country.

Answer 10

if you are rich, nothing matters. look at bush.
anyway, who cares, the elections are fixed. look at bush, he stole two elections and people are too stupid to figure it out. OR the electoral college, other wise known as the buy an election venue- which people are also too stupid to figure out.
http://www.hevanet.com/kort/2004/FISHER8.HTM
This spells it out- voters are not intelligent enough to vote, which is the original intent of the electoral college.