As a student in Princeton, the Indiana governor was arrested in a police ating. Daniels was cited for pot possession but got off with a $350 fine for "maintaining a common nuisance." He later called the incident an "unfortunate confluence of my wild oats
period and America's libertine apogee". As governor, Daniels has endorsed alternative sentencing for non-violent offenses like pot possession as a way to reduce prison overcrowding.
Source: Tim Murphy in Mother Jones magazine
, Apr 20, 2011
1971: Arrested and convicted of drug use in college
After Mitch Daniels was arrested and convicted on charges of drug use as an undergraduate in May 1970, he said that he thought his aspiring political career was doomed. "Any goal I might have had for competing for public office were shot," he told The
Daily Princetonian in September 1988.
On May 14, 1970, officers found enough marijuana in Daniels' room to fill two size 12 shoe boxes. He and the other inhabitants of the room were also charged with possession of
LSD and prescription drugs without a prescription. After plea bargaining, Daniels eventually escaped with a $350 fine for "maintaining a common nuisance."
In an opinion piece in The Washington Post in 1989, Daniels called the drug incident
an "unfortunate confluence of my wild oats period and America's libertine apogee. Marijuana was as easy to obtain as Budweiser beer and was viewed with equal complacency. For a time, I was a carefree consumer of both," Daniels wrote.
Source: Teddy Schleifer, The Daily Princetonian
, Feb 24, 2011
