Source; The Guardian http://www.guardi...cards-politicians
June 26 2009 by Mary O'Hara

http://nicepeopletakedrugs.org/

From former presidents to serving ministers, politicians around the world have today found themselves the butt of a web campaign skewering them as hypocrites for advocating a zero tolerance approach to drugs despite having used drugs in the past.

The online "deck of cards" pillories public figures such as Bill Clinton and chancellor Alistair Darling while encouraging web users to volunteer their own "hypocrites" with accompanying quotes to complete the set. The device is a tactic to draw attention to World Anti-Drugs Day and is the latest phase in the Nice People Take Drugs campaign from the UK charity Release, which sparked controversy earlier this month.

Two weeks ago, the charity saw its advertisements, which read "Nice people take drugs", removed from buses in London because the bus company was worried they might offend some members of the public, prompting charges of censorship.

The web campaign is likely to be no less controversial. British politicians in the deck are headed by David Cameron, the Tory leader, who is quoted as saying: "I did lots of things before I came in to politics which I shouldn't have done," and the former Europe minister Caroline Flint, with the more straightforward declaration: "I took cannabis 20 years ago."

Top of the pack is former US president George W Bush as the "joker", whose quote reads: "I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried." In contrast, the incumbent US president, Barack Obama, is characteristically less convoluted: "Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. I inhaled frequently. That was the point."

Also among the US contingent are the firebrand Republican Newt Gingrich, who reportedly said: "When I smoked pot it was illegal but not immoral. Now it is illegal and immoral. The law didn't change, only the morality. That's why you get to go to jail and I don't."