President Barack Obama's pot-smoking past is detailed in Barack Obama: The Story, a new biography of the Commander-in-Chief by David Maraniss, who had previously revealed Obama's early girlfriends (including Genevieve Cook) in Vanity Fair.
The President himself has been remarkably and refreshingly candid about his past drug use, but new details of Obama smoking marijuana with his buddies at Hawaii's Punahou School are still setting the web ablaze (sorry). Maraniss writes, "When a joint was making the rounds, [Obama] often elbowed his way in, out of turn, shouted 'Intercepted!' and took an extra hit.
Yeah. Let's all take a moment and let that image sink in. "But Obama's buddies, who called themselves the "Choom Gang," didn't mind him messing up the rotation," he continues. "After all, this was Hawaii." Indeed. That's not all. Maraniss writes that Obama was known for starting a trend called "TA," short for "total absorption." Use your imagination.
When you were with 'Barry' and pals, if you exhaled precious pakalolo (Hawaiian slang for marijuana, meaning "numbing tobacco") instead of absorbing it fully into your lungs, you were assessed a penalty," writes the author.
"Your turn was skipped the next time the joint came around." Maraniss also describes Obama's technique of "roof hits" while hot-boxing cars ... i.e. smoking up with all the windows closed: "When the pot was gone, they tilted their heads back and sucked in the last bit of smoke from the ceiling.
The book is one of two biographies making the rounds about Obama. The Amateur, by Edward Klein, contains this alleged Obama divorce story. Again, it's worth noting Obama has been less than shy about his drug use in the past, writing about the topic in his memoir Dreams from My Father.
Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it," the future president wrote in the memoir, before taking a darker tone.
Junkie. Pothead. That's where I'd been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man. Except the highs hadn't been about that, me trying to prove what a down brother I was.
Not by them, anyway.
I got high for just the opposite effect, something that could push questions of who I was out of my mind, something that could flatten out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory.
As Obama moved to higher stage, he's also been forthcoming about drug use. On Bill Clinton's absurd claim that he had once tried marijuana but "didn't inhale," Obama said smiling in 2007, "That was the point, wasn't it?
The President himself has been remarkably and refreshingly candid about his past drug use, but new details of Obama smoking marijuana with his buddies at Hawaii's Punahou School are still setting the web ablaze (sorry). Maraniss writes, "When a joint was making the rounds, [Obama] often elbowed his way in, out of turn, shouted 'Intercepted!' and took an extra hit.
Yeah. Let's all take a moment and let that image sink in. "But Obama's buddies, who called themselves the "Choom Gang," didn't mind him messing up the rotation," he continues. "After all, this was Hawaii." Indeed. That's not all. Maraniss writes that Obama was known for starting a trend called "TA," short for "total absorption." Use your imagination.
When you were with 'Barry' and pals, if you exhaled precious pakalolo (Hawaiian slang for marijuana, meaning "numbing tobacco") instead of absorbing it fully into your lungs, you were assessed a penalty," writes the author.
"Your turn was skipped the next time the joint came around." Maraniss also describes Obama's technique of "roof hits" while hot-boxing cars ... i.e. smoking up with all the windows closed: "When the pot was gone, they tilted their heads back and sucked in the last bit of smoke from the ceiling.
The book is one of two biographies making the rounds about Obama. The Amateur, by Edward Klein, contains this alleged Obama divorce story. Again, it's worth noting Obama has been less than shy about his drug use in the past, writing about the topic in his memoir Dreams from My Father.
Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it," the future president wrote in the memoir, before taking a darker tone.
Junkie. Pothead. That's where I'd been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man. Except the highs hadn't been about that, me trying to prove what a down brother I was.
Not by them, anyway.
I got high for just the opposite effect, something that could push questions of who I was out of my mind, something that could flatten out the landscape of my heart, blur the edges of my memory.
As Obama moved to higher stage, he's also been forthcoming about drug use. On Bill Clinton's absurd claim that he had once tried marijuana but "didn't inhale," Obama said smiling in 2007, "That was the point, wasn't it?
