Protects Obama

Do not assume that President Obama is terribly upset because of the bad behavior of his secret service protectors in Colombia. The President now knows that a well timed scandal can be a very useful thing.

As Obama begins to speed his re-election campaign seriously - recent Rolling Stone interview, entitled "Are you ready for a fight" - he reaches out to young voters, one of the key building blocks that have put him in office four years ago.

After all, he was not slow jamming the news with Jimmy Fallon last week for the benefit of people like me. In the same vein, his picking a fight with Republicans about student loans is calculated to rally students and recent graduates on the president's side.

The president is less keen to talk to young voters about marijuana and its role as supreme commander in the war against drugs.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Obama said publisher Jann Wenner, "What I specifically said not to go to prioritize prosecution of people who use medical marijuana. I never made a commitment that we are somehow going to give a free hand for the big-manufacturers and operators of marijuana - The reason is because of the federal law can not annul the law of Congress ".. He admitted that the gray area exists in the form of large pharmacies, he said, "can provide medical marijuana users, but in some cases can be supplied with recreational users." (1)

It is not just medical marijuana users, however, who feel left out in the cold position of president. While they, along with some of Obama's more liberal supporters say they feel betrayed by the administration continued to attack pharmacies in states where medical marijuana is legal, Latin American leaders call for new drug war strategies.

In America in Cartagena Summit, Obama rejected the legalization as the answer to those who spread violence and corruption on both sides of the border (although mostly outside the United States). "I personally and my administration's view that legalization is not the answer, that in fact if you think about how they will finish the work, the ability of major drug trafficking dominate the country, if it was legally allowed to work without restrictions could be equally damaging, if not more damaging than the status quo, "he said, according to BBC. (2)

The president's argument is that if the drug becomes just another big Latin American business, such as mining, coffee and tourism industry will be "as damaging, if not more corrupt," as the status quo, which currently lead to decimation of honest businesses, murder of a journalist, and buying or burying of prosecutors and judges.

Obama's comment, divorced from reality, reflects America's drug policy is "just say no, and spend more money on enforcement," which has achieved nothing constructive in more than four decades. Drugs remain freely available in the U.S., and the drug war costs for companies producing and transit countries to mount.

At a news conference in Cartagena, President of the Guatemalan Otto Perez Molina called for a "responsible and serious dialogue in which scientifically analyze what is happening with the war against drugs." (2) This is not Obama wants to have dialogue, but he does not want American voters to focus on its slavish devotion to failed policies, either.

Enter the secret service scandal that came along just in time to push the drug question in the title.

By the end of last week, nine secret service members resigned or were forced from the agency because of alleged misconduct involving prostitutes. Two dozen people, half the members of the Secret Service and a half of military personnel, came under investigation in the affair. Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, called for an independent audit,. Senator Patrick Leahy, D-VT, responded to this request is purely a political maneuver.

The President has some maneuvering their own. He was happy to talk about the secret service in her Jimmy Fallon appearance, where, according to CNN, Obama said that "99.9%" of secret service agents do great work, and "[...] a couple of knuckleheads should not take away from what they do. "

The President is not in any hurry to explain to students that drug use leads to a lottery, as a large percentage of them play. In most cases, recreational use of marijuana will not hurt your career or your future. Occasionally, however, someone who is in the wrong place at the wrong time will find his or her life changed forever because of his arrest on drug free.

Hypocrisy is stunning. We had three baby boomer president, and although the last two to avoid getting caught up in President Clinton's rationalization, we can safely assume all three is, in fact, breathe. All have gone on to chair the policies of drugs that destroy people's lives for doing the same.

I've written before about the reasons for legalization is overdue. I'm still waiting for the government to treat marijuana like milk, which the manufacturers claim that they can not survive without federal price supports, or to admit that cannabis is not, in fact, have application in medicine. In the meantime, it is clear that the prohibition does not work. Even those who do not support the legalization of total start over propose reasonable alternatives in the face of such obvious failure.

The President does not want to talk to young voters around the pot. Coincidentally timed sex scandal means that, for now, he does not have to.