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Clinton, Trump both claim they’ve never smoked marijuana

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

In this Oct. 24, 2015 file photo, former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, wave to supporters after the Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson fundraising dinner in Des Moines, Iowa. Bill Clinton has said he smoked marijuana, but didn’t inhale. Hillary Clinton said she has never smoked marijuana.

WASHINGTON >> While President Barack Obama has never hid his penchant for marijuana during his youth in Hawaii, Americans soon will elect a president who claims never to have touched it.

Republican Donald Trump boasts that he has never smoked marijuana or a cigarette, or had a drop of alcohol.

Democrat Hillary Clinton was adamant on CNN when asked whether she had ever smoked marijuana, replying that she never had and never would: “Absolutely not.”

Despite their personal views, Clinton and Trump have pledged to allow the states to regulate marijuana.

That would be welcome news for Washington state, Colorado, Oregon and Alaska, where voters approved recreational marijuana, along with the 26 states that allow the drug to be used for medical reasons. But legalization backers still have one nagging question: Can you believe either Clinton or Trump?

Both candidates have a history of flip-flopping on major issues, and a majority of Americans don’t trust either candidate: A CNN poll taken during the Republican convention found that only 30 percent think that Clinton is honest and trustworthy, compared with 43 percent for Trump.

Trump, who once called himself a supporter of abortion rights, now wants to ban abortions. After first opposing an increase in the minimum wage, he wants it raised.

In 1990, the Republican candidate called for legalizing all drugs, a position he no longer holds. And his statements on marijuana have given ammunition to both sides of the legalization debate.

Trump told a Denver television reporter recently that he would not use federal laws to block Colorado’s marijuana sales: “I’m a states person. I think it should be up to the states, absolutely.”

But last year, he told a conservative gathering that Colorado had experienced “big problems” by legalizing marijuana. “I think it’s bad and I feel strongly about that,” he said.

Ethan Nadelmann, the executive director of Drug Policy Action, a pro-legalization group, said Trump had been “all over the map,” making it hard to know what he’d do.

“He’s entirely unpredictable on this issue, as on so many others,” Nadelmann said.

Clinton once opposed same-sex marriage but now backs it. As secretary of state, she promoted Obama’s proposed Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal, only to oppose it now.

Like Trump, Clinton backs medical marijuana, though she says it needs more study. And Clinton has repeatedly said that states such as Washington and Colorado should be “laboratories of democracy” in experimenting with recreational marijuana.

In a 2014 interview on CNN, Clinton distanced herself from her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who famously said in 1992 that he had smoked marijuana once but never inhaled.

“No, I didn’t do it when I was young,” she said. “I’m not going to start now.”

In a report card from the Marijuana Policy Project, another pro-legalization group, Clinton got a B-plus while Trump received a C-plus. The group gave A-plus grades to two other presidential candidates: former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party and Jill Stein of the Green Party.

“This is the most marijuana-friendly field of presidential candidates in history,” Robert Capecchi, the organization’s director of federal policies, said when the report card was released in May.

Tom Angell, the chairman of the pro-legalization group Marijuana Majority, said this year is the first time that all remaining presidential candidates had promised to respect state marijuana laws.

“In 2008, our movement had to physically chase down candidates during the New Hampshire primary just to elicit promises not to arrest cancer patients who were abiding by state medical marijuana laws,” he said. “That shows how far we’ve come in only a couple election cycles.”

Obama got in front of the issue in 2006, poking fun at Bill Clinton for claiming that he had never inhaled marijuana.

“I inhaled frequently. That was the point,” Obama said.

In his 2012 book on Obama, biographer David Maraniss described how Obama had smoked marijuana with his buddies at the Punahou School in Hawaii.

Maraniss, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for reporting on Bill Clinton, said Obama had helped start a trend called “TA,” or “total absorption,” in which he and his friends were penalized for exhaling: They’d have to pass the next time the joint came around. The book detailed how they enjoyed doing “roof hits,” closing the car windows and tilting their heads head back to suck in all the leftover smoke from the ceiling.

As president, Obama said he’d grown up in a home without a father and was angry about it: “I made bad choices. I got high, without always thinking about the harm that it could do.”

No one knows how many of the 44 presidents have smoked marijuana, but Richard Nixon apparently was not one of them.

Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, the law that classified marijuana as the most dangerous Schedule 1 drug, like LSD and heroin.

In a declassified recorded conversation with an aide, Nixon said he wanted a national commission to make “a goddamn strong statement about marijuana,” one that “just tears the ass out of them.”

In a crude display of anti-Semitism, Nixon could be heard on the recording saying: “That’s a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob? What is the matter with them?”

Jimmy Carter tried a softer approach on regulation. He called for an end to federal penalties for possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana, “leaving the states free to adopt whatever laws they wish.” The proposal went nowhere.

Ronald Reagan went back to Nixon’s get-tough approach, saying marijuana use could cause “permanent ill effects.” And he said that “marijuana, pot, grass, whatever you want to call it, is probably the most dangerous drug in the United States.”

Reagan’s successor, George H.W. Bush, stepped up the war on drugs in 1988, saying “legalization is just another word for surrender, and surrender is not in our vocabulary.”

Bush’s son, George W. Bush, apparently smoked marijuana. He was outed by a friend, Doug Wead, who secretly taped some of his conversations with Bush before he ran for president.

According to a report published by The New York Times in 2005, Bush told Wead that he wouldn’t answer reporters’ questions about marijuana “because I don’t want some little kid doing what I tried.” After he left the White House, Bush joked with TV host Jay Leno that he “didn’t behave that well” when he was younger. “I might have smoked some,” he said

With Clinton leading in the polls, many marijuana backers say she’ll come under heavy pressure in coming months, with the Democratic national platform calling for a “pathway” to legalization for the first time.

57 responses to “Clinton, Trump both claim they’ve never smoked marijuana”

  1. Wazdat says:

    Well we know Trump NEVER had a drink in his life and I would believe he has never tried pot. Now Hiliary, GIVE ME A BREAK that lady was smoking joints with Bill and has just LIED again !

    • sarge22 says:

      Let’s look at this objectively.

      Hillary’s poor health has been known for a while. In acting like this was created from whole cloth, a normally responsible Dave Weigel takes a side trip into deception. Hillary has a history of falling on her fat butt. In 2009, she fell and broke her elbow. In 2011, she fell while boarding an aircraft and not under sniper fire. In 2012, she fell at home and bounced off the floor and furniture hard enough to get a blood clot. Last year, I posted on this subject:

      We know that Hillary Clinton has suffered from fainting spells since at least 2005. In that year she passed out, presumably sober, while giving a speech. In 2012, she passed out yet again and suffered a concussion. Radar Online has reported that sources close to Hillary Clinton say she has suffered minor strokes and may have multiple sclerosis. The book on Hillary by Ed Klein says that she suffers from depression and migraines.
      In Hillary Clinton’s emails we have lots of direct evidence that she is physically not up to the job of being president.

      • Ikefromeli says:

        Sarge, you are talking out of the side of your pie hole, and literally have not a single bit of actual knowledge on the subject. Where did you go to medical school? Where did you do you residency? Have you personally reviewed HRCs entire medical record?

        I would rather trust my wife: an honors graduate from John Medical school, medical residency and chief resident at UCSF and triple, yes board certified. What qualification do you bring to the table to make these ridiculous assertions?

        • sarge22 says:

          Good for youz guys. Just a little Google will do the trick. Can you have your wife check out HiLIARy and report the results? Just a normal physical and a brain scan will do.

        • Ikefromeli says:

          She said actually she looks and appears in great health for her age and that actually Donald appears to have bit more of legitimate health concerns……

        • Ikefromeli says:

          You want to comment on the 50 very senior security republicans repudiating him in very forceful terms…..including former CIA directors, two homeland security secretary and the head of NSA……breathtaking even for Trump.

        • lespark says:

          I think Ikefromeli and Klastri have Walter Mitty Syndrome. No, I don’t think. I know.

        • sarge22 says:

          It’s the establishment that is afraid their game is up if Mr Trump becomes President. One of the Bush clan is backing Trump…What do the 50 very senior security republicans have to say about HiLIARy’s classified emails? Here is another breaking news story…Clinton’s private server held emails about nuclear ‘spy’ executed in Iran: Aides discussed scientist ‘friend’ and his decision to return home after defecting to the U.S. for $5m
          Shahram Amiri was in the U.S. while Hillary was Secretary of State
          Believed to have handed over secrets about Tehran’s nuclear program
          He was hanged for ‘revealing secrets to the enemy’ on Sunday
          Hillary stressed he was here at his ‘own free will’ at the time
          But he maintained he’d been kidnapped by American intelligence agents
          A diplomat and one of Clinton’s top advisers then sent emails about him
          One stated it was ‘diplomatic, psychological issue’, but not a legal one

          Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3728222/Hillary-Clinton-discussed-executed-Iranian-nuclear-scientist-advisers-private-server-referring-friend.html#ixzz4GnGqc8EZ
          Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

        • Ikefromeli says:

          Again, the topic is Trump, and 50 very well respected security folks, from his very own party, not only coalesced around a single idea of rebuking Trump, but felt so strongly about his temperament, comportment, immaturity, anger management and lack of decorum, they decided to publicly document their feelings??!

          Please, it is beyond incomprehensible, it is an indictment of the most damming proportions.

        • lespark says:

          First off, only a quack would offer a medical opinion regarding someone’s health without examining a patient thoroughly.
          Secondly, you have been known to embellish your credentials to the point it’s impossible to determine your veracity.

        • Ikefromeli says:

          First, Doctors are frequently asked to provide opinions,,not to be confused with a diagnosis, on the narrative of symptoms. Les, why don’t you ask SA for my email address, you would be surprised to see the institution it is associated with….

          Oh, a sitting R US Senator, Susan Collins, has formally refused to,support Trump…more to come.

        • sarge22 says:

          What do the “50 very senior security republicans” have to say about HiLIARy’s classified emails? Do you have their names.

        • lespark says:

          Ike, OCCC.com. You are so full of it. Since when they let inmates use the wifi?

        • lespark says:

          Ike, ask your wife how she can tell? She had so many face lifts. What you see is not what you get.

        • calentura says:

          WJ Clinton was a Rhodes scholar. How in the heck did he get outsmarted by an intern with a blue dress?

        • Ikefromeli says:

          Les, I got plenty of relatives and friends for homestead at OCCC, in fact I grew up very close by. Why, you got one old boyfriend from back in the da day when you went by LeaLani Park, you like visit?

        • calentura says:

          Maybe you should get your wife to proofread your comments when you’re writing about her.

        • sarge22 says:

          What do the “50 very senior security republicans” have to say about HiLIARy’s classified emails? Still no answer. Missing from the signatories are any of the living Republican former secretaries of state: Mr. Kissinger, George P. Shultz, James A. Baker III, Colin L. Powell and Condoleezza Rice. Wonder why that is?

        • Ikefromeli says:

          Why Sarge,,because the Trump campaign is begging them, and I mean begging, for them not to make this a public abnegation. Conversely, have any of the afore-mentioned publicly endorsed Trump…….??!

        • sarge22 says:

          Not yet. They will probably come around in due time as more Clinton crimes and lies are exposed. They will have no choice.

        • Ikefromeli says:

          Sarge,,seriously? At this moment, there are far more Rs leaving him, then joining….

        • sarge22 says:

          What do you expect from the RINOs? Remember Trump is 16-0 against these guys and Bernie’s guys are angry.

  2. yobo says:

    Let’s really think about this…..

    Billy -“I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky”. Blue dress incident.

    Hillary – I did NOT send classified information on that server.

    Liar, liar pant’s – suit on fire.

  3. den says:

    both of their noses are growing.

  4. HawaiiCheeseBall says:

    Why are we asking this question? If either of them smoked some weed in college so what. I think we should be suspicious of both of them now that they both claimed never 2/2 smoke some weed even though they were in college and the 60s. They both must be lying about this!

  5. fiveo says:

    Hillary Clinton is a liar, liar, liar if she claims that she has never used marijuana. But of course this denial does not cover use of other drugs, namely cocaine which her brother was
    convicted for being a dealer. There is also the allegation that the Clinton’s were involved in cocaine trafficking with the CIA out of Mena, Arkansas back in the day when Bubba was
    the governor of Arkansas.

    • lespark says:

      In response, the Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton, came out against the legalization of marijuana. She made a brazen attempt to have it both ways, calling for “more research” and suggesting that marijuana should remain illegal but that no one should go to prison for it — an endearing paradox reminiscent of Bill Clinton’s 1992 claim that he smoked marijuana but “didn’t inhale.” But evasions aside, she wants to keep weed criminalized. Presidential candidates don’t typically tell an audience that half the people in it should be arrested and given permanent criminal records, yet that’s what happened. So why wasn’t she booed off the stage?

    • lespark says:

      Don’t forget booze.

      While I understand Clinton and McCain’s desire to drown themselves in alcohol — both having voted to wage a war in Iraq that was going horribly awry — their Estonian bender offers a revealing look at the choice of leadership Americans may face if these Baltic booze buddies win the nominations of their parties.

  6. lespark says:

    You know the corruption crosses all racial, social, financial lines. If billionaires like Cuban, Bloomberg, Buffett, Winfrey, can openly endorse a liar like Hilliary I question their character.

  7. justmyview371 says:

    Obviously, POTHEAD Obama is still smoking away.

  8. lespark says:

    The Clintons lie so much they can’t tell fact from fiction. The only thing that runs true is their disgrace.

  9. lespark says:

    While I understand Clinton and McCain’s desire to drown themselves in alcohol — both having voted to wage a war in Iraq that was going horribly awry — their Estonian bender offers a revealing look at the choice of leadership Americans may face if these Baltic booze buddies win the nominations of their parties.

  10. lespark says:

    The parents of two of the four Americans who died in the Benghazi attack in 2012 filed a lawsuit Monday against Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, alleging her “reckless handling” of classified information contributed to their deaths.

  11. CEI says:

    Why the obsession among progressives to legalize marijuana? When at the same time they want to tax so-called sugary drinks out of existence. No too hard to figure out if you know progressives. In the same way FDR’s Great Society resulted in the breakdown of the family, marijuana legalization and proliferation will increase the number of lethargic, passive and apathetic dopeheads. Just the type of cultural breakdown that benefits totalitarian progressives.

    • PoiDoggy says:

      They don’t want to “tax so-called sugary drinks out of existence.” What would be the point of that, when you want to tax them? The soda taxes are pretty minimal, a great way to bring in more tax dollars, which we definitely need. And yes, I’m a soda drinking. The reason for legalizing pot is one, to save money, because the police/courts/jails etc won’t have to spend time on the issue. And two, to raise money because the sale of pot is — guess what — taxed! Bringing in the bucks for the states that legalized it. And the “Great Society” was under LBJ, not FDR. Such poor education; must’ve been born in the 1980s? And the Great Society was meant to do just that, make the US a great society. But LBJ dropped out, Bobby K got killed, and the country got off track and will never recover…a slow fade into the sunset. Or maybe a faster one, once environmental decay really starts kicking in. Cheers!

      • CEI says:

        I stand corrected LBJ Great Society, FDR New Deal, what’s the difference? My point is that progressives need a low information, easily led constituency so that they can consolidate power. I wouldn’t worry so much about environmental decay, it’s cultural decay that is the immediate threat to society.

  12. wrightj says:

    Nixon – wasn’t he the guy who resigned his job?

    • lespark says:

      Possible that might happen to crooked. That’s why she has to win. If she loses its lights out. America will be America and not controlled by billionaires, Wall Street, Islam, black lives matter, Isis, but by ignorant uneducated white people, hooray. Heck, I’m not white.

  13. calentura says:

    Thanks, Hillary, care to short circuit on your alleged use of cocaine?

    • Ikefromeli says:

      Care to comment on the entire short circuit of Trump’s campaign?

      • sarge22 says:

        Hope a generator is nearby when HiLIARy’s pace maker short circuits. Maybe one of Bill’s honeys can help out. HiLIARY is doing better today as she made it all the way up the stairs with only a little assistance. She looks tired and still no press conference.

        • klastri says:

          Leave it to a sociopath like you to celebrate an illness. Even if you just made up the illness.

          Even more sad and pathetic than usual.

  14. klastri says:

    None of this matters. Mrs. Clinton is going to win in a landslide.

    Trump is finished.

  15. lespark says:

    1-State Department releases emails tying Clinton to Foundation while Secretary of State. Pay for Play.
    2-Iran Scientist executed. Clinton implicated
    3-No comment on $400 million ransom payment.
    4-Siddique Mateen endorses Crooked Hilliary Clinton.
    5-Mayor of Fairfax, VA accused of meth for sex endorses Crooked Hilliary.

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