Bill Maher contends that President Barack Obama’s political career could have gone up in smoke if he had been busted for pot as a young man.
The president has admitted to drug use in his autobiography.
Although marijuana has been decriminalized or legalized in some states, and across the country medical marijuana is permitted in some areas, it is still against the law at the federal level. Maher, who favors drug legalization, believes that the president should move to change the law in the same way that he has apparently altered attitudes on same-sex marriage.
In specifically commenting Friday night on the president’s performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner , the Real Time host made these comments in relation to marijuana use:
“Now here’s the joke. It was a good joke, but it bothered me a little. He said, ‘The media landscape is changing so rapidly you can’t keep up with it. I remember when BuzzFeed was just something I did in college around 2:00 a.m.’And that pissed me off because, you know, there are actually people in jail. There are something like 750,000 people who get arrested for pot every year. This president wouldn’t be president if they had caught him, if that was on his record…He’d still be a community organizer . I just wonder when he’s going to get the memo that pot is the new gay marriage .”
Guest Marc Maron chimed in that Obama wold be “a community organizer … in jail perhaps.” Added Maron: “I don’t know anyone who hasn’t smoked weed.” When he asked Maher if there are actually people who believe that weed is evil, Maher quipped, “not in my hot tub.”
Maher — who contributed $1 million to the 2012 Obama re-election campaign — has made some interesting statements lately that depart from the usual liberal orthodoxy. For example, he called out a guest on a recent show for trying to downplay the Boston Marathon bombing suspects’ alleged ties to radical Islam by referring to it as “liberal bullsh*t.”
In another broadcast, Maher even expressed doubts about California’s high tax rate under a state government completely controlled by Democrats. “And here in California, I just want to say liberals – you could actually lose me. It’s outrageous what we’re paying — over 50 percent. I’m willing to pay my share, but yeah, it’s ridiculous.”
Watch Bill Maher being “blunt” about Obama’s pot-related joke from the White House Correspondents Dinner:
Do you think marijuana legalization should be a priority for the federal government? Is it in any way equivalent to gay marriage as Maher claims?