OBAMA'S DRUG ADMISSION DIDN'T GO FAR ENOUGH

And so Barack Obama tells high school kids in New Hampshire that he
"made some bad decisions" at their age. He "experimented" with pot and
cocaine. This is old news - but even if it were new news, it would be
ho-hum in today's politics.

After all, drug use has proven no bar to high office - at least for
those who evaded arrest. Vice President Al Gore, ex-House Speaker Newt
Gingrich and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas have all admitted
to smoking pot. President Bush refuses to deny that he snorted
cocaine. And no one believes that Bill Clinton "didn't inhale" on that
joint.

I would second a ho-hum, except for this: More than half a million
Americans now rot in jail for nonviolent drug offenses, some not as
bad as Obama's.

Out of humility and humanity, you'd think that the Illinois senator
would use this teaching moment to say: "What we politicians call our
'youthful discretions' should not become life-destroying crimes for
everyone else. Let's stop arresting drug users."

I don't wish to pile onto Obama, because most presidential candidates
support this crashing hypocrisy called the "War on Drugs." The
honorable exceptions are two Democrats, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich and
former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, and Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

"You can get over an addiction, but you can never get over a
conviction," Jack A. Cole, who spent 14 years as an undercover
narcotics officer for the New Jersey State Police, told me. Cole now
heads a group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP),
ex-cops who oppose current drug policy.

The lunatic War on Drugs has produced some extraordinary statistics.
Since it started in 1970, American law enforcement has arrested 38
million people for nonviolent drug offenses, nearly 2 million last
year alone.

The number of people jailed for violent crimes has risen 300 percent,
but the prison population of nonviolent drug offenders has soared
2,558 percent.

The reason is "get-tough" mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related
crimes.

"We're putting violent criminals back on the street to make room in
our cells for nonviolent drug offenders," Cole notes.

The insanity continues under Democratic and Republican presidents
alike. During the Clinton era, more people were arrested for
nonviolent drug offenses than in all the previous years of the "war"
combined.

And despite his past, Bush has shown no mercy, not even for
high-school kids caught smoking pot behind the bleachers. One of the
silliest spectacles of his administration was federal agents raiding
the backyards of cancer patients growing medical marijuana, as
permitted by California law.

The recent rise in cocaine prices has prompted Bush's drug czar, John
Walters, to declare a major victory. Oh? The price of cocaine
fluctuates. And it was 40 percent cheaper 37 years ago.

Revulsion against the War on Drugs is starting to gain momentum. The
National Conference of Mayors recently voted to end the conflict, as
has the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators. Cole wants to
embolden politicians to say what everyone knows - that the war has
been a dismal $1 trillion failure. If they do that, he said, "they're
not going to lose one more vote than they gain."

Here's a guaranteed way for one of the leading presidential contenders
to rise above the pack: promise a pullback from the War on Drugs.

Because of his own drug use and vow to apply fresh thinking to old
problems, Obama would be the perfect candidate for such a move. He
could transform his story to a demand for decency: If having tried
cocaine doesn't disqualify him for the presidency, it shouldn't be
allowed to wreck the dreams of other Americans, either.