Gore glad his son is safe

Former Vice President Al Gore said Thursday that he was glad his son was safe and getting treatment a day after the 24-year-old was arrested in Orange County on suspicion of illegally possessing marijuana and prescription drugs.

“We love him very much,” Gore told NBC’s “Today” show, adding, “We are going to leave it as a private matter.”

Gore, who appeared on NBC to publicize this weekend’s Live Earth concerts, also briefly discussed politics. He called President Bush’s decision to commute the perjury and obstruction-of-justice sentence of former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby “disappointing” and reiterated that he had no plans to run for president, saying: “I don’t expect to be a candidate again ever.”

“I’ve kind of fallen out of love with politics,” Gore said. He said the best use of his experience was to bring awareness and a sense of urgency to the issue of climate change.

Al Gore III was driving a Toyota Prius about 100 mph on Interstate 5 when he was pulled over in Laguna Niguel and sheriff’s deputies found less than an once of marijuana plus Xanax, Valium, Vicodin and Adderall, which is used for attention deficit disorder, said Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino. Gore also had some Soma, a muscle relaxant, Amormino said.

He did not have a prescription for the Vicodin, Valium, Xanax and Adderall. The pills were in two prescription bottles. There was no label on one of the bottles and the other “appeared to have the label torn off,” Amormino said.

Gore was released from jail Wednesday afternoon on $20,000 bail.

“We are glad he is safe and that he is getting treatment,” his father said Thursday.

The younger Gore is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 1 at Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.

“I can’t say what the charges are going to be,” said Susan Schroeder, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney’s office. “We don’t know all the facts right now.”

Al Gore III, the youngest of Gore’s four children, was previously arrested in 2003 for marijuana possession while a student at Harvard University. He completed substance abuse counseling as part of a program to settle the charge and now lives in Los Angeles, where he is an associate publisher of Good, a philanthropy magazine aimed at young people.