Did the president smoke real marijuana?

There has been much written on president Obama's recent comments on the dangers, or lack of dangers, of smoking marijuana.

Here is one such article - the president on pot!

I am most shocked by the president comparing smoking marijuana with smoking cigarettes, as seen in the following quote -

"As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life,"

I agree that cigarettes are a bad habit; they do harm to the one smoking them, they also do harm to those exposed to second hand smoke, and there are significant cost to society as a whole for the health effects of those who smoke cigarettes. All these are true of smoking marijuana as well. However, I would be much more willing to trust someone who just smoked a cigarette to fly a plane, do surgery or have their hand on the nuclear trigger!

I regret to admit I used tobacco for many years and even more regret that I used marijuana for many years as well. I wasted time, money and hurt my health with tobacco, as I did with marijuana. However, with marijuana I also wasted many hours of time I should have invested in school, work and relationships. Marijuana is also a sin for which I am very sorry. I also made bad decisions while under the influence of marijuana and used it to cover the guilt and shame I had for other sins, rather than facing and repenting of them. Here an article about marijuana use and sin - thegospelcoalition

To compare marijuana with alcohol may be reasonable. Alcohol does much damage to individuals, families and society, just like marijuana. But do we really need one more legal way to hurt ourselves and society?

However, to compare marijuana to cigarettes is absurd and I have only a few possible explanations for why the president would make such a ridiculous comparison -

1. He is the devil's servant and pushing the devil's agenda.  This in fact is true of all who have not been born again through faith in Jesus, so it may apply with or without any of my other theories about the presidents view on marijuana.

2. A purely political motive - the president thinks people on pot will be more likely to vote Democrat and/or to support his socialist agenda.

And for the most generous possibility -

3. The president was sold something besides marijuana, that he smoked as a child, and therefore actually does not know that smoking marijuana really does cause impairment. Could the president be comparing the effects of smoking oak leaves to cigarettes? That would explain his comments.

Regardless of the reason for his comments, the president has essentially opened the door for everyone of every age to feel like smoking marijuana is no big deal and legalizing it can bring nothing but good results.

Deciding to make these comments may be the worst decisions he has made in my opinion, and that says a lot!