Well, he sure as hell didn't go there during the State of the Union, but the President will have a good opportunity to comment on the drug war this Thursday when he takes questions from the public in a live interview on YouTube. If he's classy enough to answer the question that got the most votes, then we'll soon find out what he has to say about this:
The written version is as follows (to vote for it on YouTube, just click here and copy the question into the search bar).
As a police officer, I saw how waging the war on drugs has cost a trillion dollars and thousands of lives but does nothing to reduce drug use. Should we discuss legalizing marijuana and other drugs, which would eliminate the violent criminal market?
It's a reasonable question and it currently has almost 6,000 votes, far more than any other. Obama can ignore it if he chooses, but to do so would make a mockery of the voting process in which over 95,000 have taken time to participate. I'm hardly alone in hoping that doesn’t happen this time. But if Obama isn't comfortable answering this, I'd be ok with him answering the 10th ranked question instead, or even the 50th. Those questions are about legalization too, and if the voting process has any influence whatsoever over which issues are discussed, then the President will just be talking about the drug war and nothing else for an hour on YouTube this Thursday. I can't wait.
Update: My friend Micah Daigle gets it right in this question:
We understand that the President is uncomfortable spelling out his thoughts on a controversial topic. That's politics. But his repeated refusal to meaningfully address the issue is creating a snowball effect and it's turning this whole online-question-voting-followed-by-interview fad into a total farce. I actually feel bad for people who are more interested in other topics, because you can't even figure out where the most popular non-legalization questions fit into the rankings. It's ridiculous, but it's Obama's fault for persistently ducking a subject of obvious interest and importance.
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