Atty. Gen. Candidate Lungren Takes a Swipe at Woodstock

Even though he is the right age, Republican state attorney general candidate Daniel E. Lungren made it clear Wednesday that he does not identify with the “Woodstock generation.”

During a tough anti-drug speech, Lungren lamented the attention given recently to the 20th anniversary of the Woodstock rock festival, saying media coverage ignored the many people involved in it who “got messed up” by drugs.

Lungren, who was 22 and beginning his first year of law school in 1969 when the historic rock festival took place, said drug use was not only “tolerated” but “glorified” during Woodstock.

“What message are we sending to our kids today when, on the one hand, we say don’t use drugs and, on the other hand, we celebrate something without ever disclaiming that part of it which truly had negative impacts on society?” Lungren asked members of the Sacramento Press Club during a luncheon speech.

Later, Lungren told reporters that he never tried marijuana like many members of his generation and said he believes laws decriminalizing the use of the drug have failed.

As for penalties for those arrested for drug offenses these days, the Sacramento attorney and former Long Beach congressman said he favors lifting driver’s licenses and withholding student loans from young people caught twice with illegal substances such as marijuana.