"Health & Medical News"

Barack Obama has acknowledged using marijuana and cocaine as a young man, but interviews with old friends and classmates find few who remember the presidential candidate as much of a drug user, the New York Times reported Feb. 9.

Former classmates from Obama’s high school and Occidental College, which he attended between 1979 and 1981, described Obama in mostly positive terms, with some saying he occasionally smoked marijuana but none recalling any cocaine use.

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Barack Obama stated support for marijuana decriminalization in 2004 but has backed off that position during the 2008 presidential campaign, the Washington Times reported Feb. 1.

While running for Senate in 2004, Obama told a group of Northwestern University students, “I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws. But I’m not somebody who believes in legalization of marijuana.”

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A supporter of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton recently suggested that Barack Obama’s admitted youth drug use could be a liability if he came up against a Republican opponent in the general election, but it seems like only Clinton backers are making Obama’s past use of marijuana and cocaine an issue so far.

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Barack Obama said that his admitted use of marijuana and cocaine as a young man should not have any bearing on his fitness to lead the country as a middle-aged adult, the Des Moines Register reported Dec. 15.

“I can’t say how Americans think generally about it. I do think that the average American believes that what somebody does when they were a teenager 30 years ago is probably not relevant to how they are going to be performing as commander in chief and president of the United States,” Obama said. “I think people have pretty good judgment about that.”

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Barack Obama’s frank admissions about use of marijuana and cocaine in his youth could hurt his chances of winning the presidency in a general election against a Republican contender, according to an advisor for rival Hillary Clinton.

CNN reported Dec. 13 that Bill Shaheen, who co-chairs Clinton’s campaign in New Hampshire, said that Republicans will “jump on” Obama’s admissions should he defeat Clinton in the Democratic primary and become the party’s nominee for president.

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