cannabisnews.com: President Reveals a Few Departing Thoughts President Reveals a Few Departing Thoughts Posted by FoM on December 09, 2000 at 07:30:31 PT Opinion Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette President Clinton suggests in an interview published in the latest issue of Rolling Stone that it's time to reform our prison system and to reconsider how we treat nonviolent drug offenders. Clinton also said he probably would have run for president again if the Constitution had let him, and he confessed a sneaking empathy for a disgraced predecessor, Richard Nixon. Does Clinton think he'd have won a third election? "Yes. I do." Rolling Stone's article combines information from interviews that the magazine's publisher, Jann S. Wenner, conducted with Clinton in October and November. Clinton's remarks about the prison system came Nov. 2 aboard Air Force One after Wenner asked him if he thought people should go to jail for possessing or even selling small amounts of marijuana. "I think that most small amounts of marijuana have been de-criminalized in most places and should be," Clinton responded. "I think that what we really need -- one of the things that I ran out of time before I could do -- is a re-examination of our entire policy on imprisonment." Clinton said that there are "tons of" nonviolent offenders in prison, often because they have drug or alcohol problems. "Too many of them are getting out -- particularly out of the state systems -- without treatment, without education, without skills, without serious effort at job placement." Clinton qualified that criticism by citing his brother's 4-gram-a-day cocaine habit. "So I'm not so sure that incarceration is all bad, even for drug offenders, depending on the facts." But he said he believed we needed to reconsider mandatory sentences for drug use. "I think we need to examine -- the natural tendency of the American people, because most of us are law-abiding, is to think when somebody does something bad, we ought to put them in jail and throw the key away. And what I think is we need a discriminating view." On Nixon, Clinton said that "I always thought that he could have been a great president if he had been more trusting of the American people. I thought that somewhere way back there, something happened in terms of his ability to feel at home, at ease with the ebb and flow of human life and popular opinion." Clinton, who said he had invited Nixon to the White House for a visit, said he treasured a "lucid, eloquent" letter the former president had written him from Russia just a month before his death. During the visit, Clinton said, "he told me he identified with me because he thought the press had been too hard on me in '92 and that I had refused to die, and he liked that. He said a lot of life was just hanging on."Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (AR) Published: Saturday, December 9, 2000Copyright: 2000 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. Address: 121 East Capitol Avenue, Little Rock, Arkansas, 72201 Contact: voices ardemgaz.com Website: http://www.ardemgaz.com/ Forum: http://www.ardemgaz.com/info/voices.html Related Articles:Clinton Says He Felt Pushed Into Gay Policyhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7922.shtmlClinton: Pot Smoking Should Not Be Prison Offense http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7920.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #4 posted by defenderoffreeworld on December 09, 2000 at 11:15:12 PT: good thing you mentioned it, frank what about the mena connection and the tons of cocaine that were brought in? is anyone else aware of that? and regarding FoM's question on his brothers sentence, do you even doubt it was probably either in a very very private and much improved cell for a fraction of the sentence, if that? oh well, what really bothers me is the fact that he's going on about how he doesn't have any time to decriminalize or whatever. what about the criminalization of drugs he advocated, obviously targetting minorities, such as could be the higher education act of 1998, amongst many others. its not like he didn't do anything to decriminalize, the bastard actually criminalized it. i am quite satisfied with the fact that the guy at least admitted that we need change, he could have easily not even said that. at least he spoke his mind, and some way, benefitted our own cause. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by FoM on December 09, 2000 at 08:15:00 PT Question His brother went to jail, OK. Does anyone know anything about the details of his brothers incarceration? Did he stay if a fancy jail? Did he do a normal sentence whatever that is? I would really like to know more about his case. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Frank S. World on December 09, 2000 at 07:56:53 PT What was Clinton's daily habit? "Clinton qualified that criticism by citing his brother's 4-gram-a-day cocaine habit. "So I'm not so sure that incarceration is all bad, even for drug offenders, depending on the facts."But he said he believed we needed to reconsider mandatory sentences for drug use."His brother, Roger, is on tape saying that Bill Clinton had a "nose like a Hoover". The hypocrisy never ends. What about Mena airfield? [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Thomas on December 09, 2000 at 07:55:54 PT Come On Bubba. . . Quit this damage control crap and actually do something. The huge prison population happened, for the most part, on your watch, not to mention the DoJ's vicious attack on medical cannabis. Don't go down in history as the uncompassionate jailer president. Do something now!! [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: