Mitch Daniels and drug law

I have been scanning the news for mention of Mitch Daniels, since I consider him the best candidate I have seen thus far for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2012.  I came across this post about his drug arrest at Princeton in 1970, and a 1989 Washington Post op-ed in which he favors strengthening drug laws.  Paul Waldman's take on the two:

Try not to get distracted by the despicable assertion that anyone who holds a position different from Daniels' "should be disqualified from further participation in the drug debate." See how Daniels describes his possession of an amount of marijuana that under current law would almost certainly qualify as "intent to distribute," not to mention LSD, as nothing more than "after one party too many." He certainly doesn't mention the two shoeboxes full of pot -- he'd obviously rather let you think the cops found him passed out with a roach in his pocket.
The comically mild penalty he received -- a $350 fine, no jail time, no probation -- was a salutary wake-up call that allowed him to go on to a productive career. And he presents this as evidence in favor of laws that would absolutely destroy the career of anybody caught in 1989 (or today) doing what Daniels was caught doing. A couple of hundred thousand students have lost their financial aid, in many cases meaning they had to drop out of college, because of a conviction for possession or sale of drugs. If Daniels were in college today, and thus had actually served time as a convicted drug dealer, not only would he have no political future, he wouldn't have much of a future at all.
But his logic seems be this: When the police found me with a huge amount of drugs, I was given a slap on the wrist, and I then went on to a productive life. Which shows that kids today who did what I did ought to have to leave school and get chucked in jail with murderers and rapists. Perhaps Daniels has changed his position on this issue since 1989 -- lots of other people have. But it's worth asking, particularly since he's probably going to run for president, if not next year then in 2016.

I think this is a good point.  Most of today's politicians have recreationally used drugs.  Bill Clinton used the "I didn't inhale" line.  Bush never addressed charges that he was a regular cocaine user in the 1980's.  Obama admitted using cocaine.  Now I come to find out one of the biggest dorks in politics got busted for having two shoe boxes worth of marijuana in college.  As the post says, the Washington Post op-ed is behind the paywall, so I can't read the whole thing, but it does seem odd that some one who got off pretty easily, and still thought it would keep him out of public office, would come out in support of tougher drug laws.  Clearly other people making the same mistake would end up suffering greater punishments because of the 1989 laws.  I think politicians need to take a look at the failed "War on Drugs" and re-evaluate the crimes and punishments, especially since most have broken these same laws.