"Obama Smoking Pot Again" blared the headline at the far-right website wnd.com on Oct. 31. Surprisingly, several marijuana sites poached quotes from the story, hence helping to promulgate it.
HighTimes.com: "New Book Claims Obama Is Smoking Weed Again... Is It True?"
MerryJane.com: "Conservative Author Ed Klein Claims Barack Obama Has Been Too Busy Smoking Weed to Resist Trump"
Leafly.com: "Is Obama Back on th Cannabis Train? We're Skeptical"
Sure, they're skeptical, but they ran with it anyway, despite the fact that the story's author Ed Klein has a reputation for concocting fake news. Clearly, the article, which is based on an anonymopus source, is meant to suggest the former president is a burned-out stoner who never should have been the Chief Executive. It's exceprted from Klein's new book, All Out War: The Plot to Destroy Trump.
My source at the New York Times, where Klein edited the Sunday magazine from 1987-1997, thinks it's laughable that anyone in the media would take Klein seriously. "You were smart to not run with it," he told me. The others, not so much.
It's certainly possible that Obama has toked on a joint since he left the White House. However, I'd like to hear about it from a more reliable source.
