Charles Jaco has written opinion and commentary pieces for dozens of magazines and newspapers. Each week, read and comment on a fresh on-line version. The discussion page enables you to share your view points world wide. If you would like to make a comment go to the " Join the discussion" link below. If you would like to view past editorials visit the Editorial Archive. Editorial: 8/27/99 WHAT DID WE KNOW AND WHEN DID WE KNOW IT? I love people who say they "experimented" with drugs. It makes snorting cocaine sound like working on the Manhattan Project. Smoking a joint is not the same as figuring out the atomic weight of nitrogen. People do not experiment with drugs. They use drugs. And they use drugs to feel better. That's what illicit drugs do, at least until your heart stops. So now we have the American public, in whose name a war on drugs has been fought longer than we fought the Viet Cong, telling us they don't care if George W. Bush snorted cocaine as a reckless youth. Recent ABC and CNN polls are remarkably similar. A majority of people want the media to stop asking George W. if he used coke. An even larger majority think he did inhale blow at some point. And an even larger majority don't care if he did, even if he did it recently. Whoa. We have enough layers of meaning here to confound even Timothy Leary. First, there's the question about attitudes toward drugs. Does this mean most Americans would just as soon see drugs legalized? On a more conflicted level, does it mean they still support keeping drugs illegal, but don't care if someone else uses them? Then, there's the question about exactly how much we--the public--have a right to know. Do we still care that Monica and Bill were, well, Monica and Bill? Does it matter that Newt Gingrich was carrying on a D.C. affair while pontificating about family values? Do we care that all the other presidential candidates have marched forward in lockstep and said "I have never used cocaine."? The problem is, no one asked them. The only one who's been asked is Bush, and he refuses to say. What about the hypocrisy factor? George W. toughened Texas's anti-cocaine laws a good deal. Now you can get jail time for possession of a gram of cocaine or less. Which means a lot of Texans are doing time for the same thing that's suspected of George W.--recreational cocaine use--thanks to George W. Does that alone make him fair game? And what about the mother of all motives, payback? Some Democrats are cawing like crows on a power line over this one. Meantime, Republicans whine that George W. is being badly treated compared to Bill Clinton. Last time I looked, though, no one had started impeachment hearings against George W. This is a generational phenomenon, and you might as well get used to it. Bill Clinton was the first baby boomer president, not the last. And boomers know more about temptations than Motown records. From marijuana and hashish through cocaine and LSD, mescaline and psylosibin, PCP and MDA, more boomers than would ever admit it toked, snorted, and hallucinated their way through at least a few months. And more than will ever admit it still see marijuana the same way they look at an after-work beer or martini. Except they have to be hypocritical because of the kids and even grandkids, so they spend a lot of time in the bathroom with the exhaust fan running. Which is pretty much the same way they behaved in college. Boomers have to remmeber that nothing happens without consequences. If you run for public office, sooner or later someone like me is going to ask one of those "Did you ever...?" questions. And for all our talk about victimless crimes, nothing ever works out that way. You go to a prostitute, you're supporting the pimps and drug dealers who run the trade. You snort cocaine, and your supporting the Cali cartel and their reign of terror, murder, torture, and subversion of governments from the U.S. to Colombia. You smoke marijuana, and you may be supporting anyone from biker gangs to Jamacian posses, none of whom are up for membership in the Rotary Club. As far as the public's concerned, though, Bill Clinton started something when it comes to political candidates. And it has nothing to do with Monica. Instead, the Clintonite legacy may be--don't ask, don't tell.   Join the discussion

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