Aussie politicians admit using marijuana
Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 5:43 pm | By: Radical Russ
AFP: Smoke without ire: Aussie politicians admit using marijuana
SYDNEY (AFP) — Australia’s acting prime minister admitted Friday she had smoked marijuana as a university student, but said it was no big deal.Julia Gillard’s disclosure in a radio interview followed a similar confession on television overnight by the leader of the opposition, multi-millionaire former merchant banker Malcolm Turnbull.
“At university, tried it, didn’t like it,” said Gillard, the deputy prime minister, who is standing in for Kevin Rudd while he attends the UN General Assembly in New York.
“I think probably many Australian adults would be able to make the same statement so I don’t think it matters one way or the other.”
Using the drug remains illegal in Australia.
Turnbull, who took over the leadership of the conservative Liberal Party earlier this month, said he regretted smoking dope.
“Yes, I’ve smoked pot,” he said, drawing laughter from the live studio audience before going on to say that he now considered it to have been a mistake.
“I think now, with what we know about marijuana, I think it is a very serious drug and it is a drug that we should strongly discourage everybody, be they young or old, but obviously particularly young people, from using.”
I guess this is progress. We’ve gone from a point where admitting to smoking marijuana would cost you your political career to a point now where you can admit you smoked marijuana in the past, but only if it was in college and you claim you didn’t like it.
I call this the “yeah, like lots of people, I tried it, but I didn’t like getting high like those stoners!” defense. And it reminds me of Hillary Clinton in the primaries this year trying to score political points by taking a shot of Crowl Royal with some barflies. See, taking the highly potent alcohol drug in a dosage and manner intended to bring about inebriation, that just means you’re one of the regular folks. But if you enjoyed smoking a joint in college twenty years ago, you must be one of those hippie-dippie free love communists!
Topics: Australia, Julia Gillard, Malcolm Turnbull
