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Former US Vice President Al Gore’s Son Continues to Be Dogged by Drug Abuse Problem.

by Gopalan on Jul 5 2007 11:34 AM

Just as the father is preparing himself to electrify the entire world with a 24-hour musical spectacular, the son has a run-in with the law.

He is hoping to arouse the conscience of the people on the burgeoning climate crisis, but his son has handed him a huge embarrassment by being hauled up on drug abuse charges.

Orange County sheriff's deputies in Florida stopped Former US Vice President Al Gore’s son Albert Arnold Gore III on Tuesday for driving about 100 mph on southbound Interstate 5 in Laguna Niguel, authorities said.

They intercepted his Toyota Prius at the Crown Valley Parkway exit and detected the "strong odor of marijuana," said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the sheriff's department. A search of the car found marijuana and prescription drugs Vicodin, Valium, Xanax and Adderall, an amphetamine used to treat attention deficit disorder, Amormino said.

"He didn't have a prescription for any of it," Amormino said.

Gore was booked into Orange County Jail in Santa Ana on four charges, including possession of less than an ounce of marijuana and possession of the drugs without a prescription.

Nearly 12 hours later he was released from the jail.

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The 24-year-old Gore has a history of arrests on suspicion of possession of marijuana, drunk driving and speeding. One night just before Christmas in 2003, an officer stopped him for driving without having his headlights on. The officer smelled marijuana and noticed the windows of the car were open despite frigid temperatures.

A search of the car turned up a partial marijuana cigarette, a cigarette box containing suspected marijuana and a crushed soda can that smelled like marijuana.

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In September 2002, Gore was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving near Ft. Myer, a military base in suburban Virginia outside Washington, D.C. In August 2000, he was ticketed by the North Carolina Highway Patrol after being clocked driving 97 mph in a 55-mph zone. Gore graduated from Harvard University in 2005.

He had been suspended from St. Albans School for smoking marijuana at a school dance in 1996, and his father had called leading news outlets and convinced them not to publish the story, it has been reported.

The boy was the victim of a near-fatal car accident while attending a Baltimore Orioles baseball game in Baltimore, Maryland. As a result of the accident, doctors were forced to remove approximately 60% of his spleen. He also sustained a concussion and fractures to a leg and a rib, as well as bruises to the lung, kidney, and pancreas.

His father chose to stay near him during the recovery, bypassing a possible presidential run in 1992. This was discussed in his father's 2006 book, An Inconvenient Truth and in the 2006 documentary of the same name.

Gore sustained an ankle injury while playing lacrosse in 2000. In order to accompany him during his treatment, his mother was forced to miss a campaign trip through Tennessee. Her daughter Karenna Gore Schiff replaced her during part of the bus trip, appearing at a rally in Nashville, while a latter portion of the trip was canceled.

Many are puzzled that despite such close family attention, the son should be running into drug problems time and again.

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