Obama, Hawaii, Weed and Crystal Meth

So, here's another excerpt from Obama's book which I posted on youtube, about his experiences smoking weed and hanging out back at home in Hawai'i.

Having lived a short time in Hawai'i myself, and spent many a happy evening watching the waves crash leisurely on the North Shore, smoking L's in the back of my black mate's sparkling new sedan, or rolling round Waikiki with a couple of Hawai'ian kids who'd dropped out of school and now spent their nights looking for an excuse to brawl, I feel a sense of identification with Mr. Obama like I never ever thought possible with a presidential candidate...

OK, I know it's a little late to say it now, as he's been president for the best part of a year, but listening to him muse on his past brings me a kind nostalgia, a happy recollection of the life I once led, and the thought that perhaps, one day, I shall buy my own little house on the beachfront, and settle down to raise rugrats in the sunshine under the shade of the banyan trees with the green volcanoes towering far above us...



Something that really struck me about living in Honolulu however, which was the sheer amount of kids addicted to Crystal Meth, or 'Ice', as it's called there.
Seems like, ten years ago at least, and I expect even now, there was an epidemic of crystal meth amongst kids as young as 16, and being close to those street kids, was exciting, intoxicating and worrying.

Like Louis Theroux, I often found myself asking the kids why they were doing it, and trying to warn them off it.

Sometimes they'd sweat that this was the last time, only to be high as a kite the next day or the next week, or the next time I saw them.

So this advice probably goes without saying, but kids, Stay Off teh Crack! (and if you need to, go watch the Louis Theroux documentary on the "Crystal Meth Capital of the World" http://tinyurl.com/ydagghr)