President Obama’s drug legacy

The opponents and supporters of the outgoing President Obama and the Democratic Party say that he is leaving a much stronger economy to the next president Donald Trump than he originally inherited from George W. Bush in 2009. That might be partially true, but even it is true completely, that is hardly the legacy of President Obama. His legacies are many and most of them are horrifying. We and many analysts in the media have criticized Mr. Obama’s foreign policies that alienated allies in Asia and the Middle East, worsened relations with Russia, and led to the rise of ISIS, the most dreaded terrorist group in history. But we hardly talk about President Obama’s another legacy and that is drug epidemic in the United States.

While the use, abuse, and deaths by drug overdose were already on the rise when he came to power but under his watch, it reached a whole new level. For the first time in history, the number of deaths caused by drug overdose exceeds that of with guns or car accidents. Since Obama came to power, the number of heroin deaths just quadrupled and the data dates back to end 2014. Why blame Obama?

Mr. Obama’s executive orders that bypass congress loosened the policing across the border and led to an influx of more drugs and criminals in America. His disregard for harsh drug laws reduced the numbers of prosecutions in related cases.

Do you think that this article is biased against President Obama? Well, here are some facts that directly link him to his drug legacy.

On the last days of his Presidency, Mr. Obama commuted sentences of 330 federal prisoners, which pushed the number to 1,927 during his presidency, including 212 pardons. This is a historical record and surpasses the numbers given by 13 former presidents.  While he argued that he has given commutations to low-level criminals but among these 1,927 individuals, 568 were serving life sentences, a punishment, not for the low criminals. Many of them are drug lords. Click the link below to see the full list of drug dealers, given commutations and will soon be back to the streets thanks to President Obama’s legacy.

https://www.justice.gov/pardon/obama-commutations