Summarizing marijuana use in Barack Obama’s high school
years at Punahou: there was little difference from what was
happening across America at the time. Smoking pakalolo
(marijuana; literally “numbing grass”) was relatively harmless
when compared with the substance abuse that followed in the
mid-70s and beyond. Cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and
“designer drugs” would appear on the scene. These substances
were easily obtained, if one knew where to “score.”