cannabisnews.com: Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher 





Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher 
Posted by FoM on December 09, 2000 at 20:16:10 PT
Partial Transcripts of December 7, 2000 Program
Source: Politically Incorrect
Bill: Oh, what a crowd. Thank you very much. Okay, let us meet our panel. He is a funny comedian and famous sitcom star. And he is our buddy -- Mr. Jimmie Walker is right over there! [ Cheers and applause ]Mr. Jimmie Walker. She is a conservative policy analyst and law professor at Virginia's Regent University -- Darlene Kennedy. Darlene.
[ Cheers and applause ]Darlene: Bill, good to see you.Bill: Welcome back. Thank you. A fine actress, talented musician and the star of the movie "The Price of Air" premiering next year. From the Mamma and the Papas, my good friend Michelle Phillips! [ Cheers and applause ]Hey, honey. Sorry I missed your party. I know you'll have another. And he is the Tony-nominated star of "Art" and the movies "Boogie Nights" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark." His next one, "Chocolat," opens next Friday -- Alfred Molina.[ Cheers and applause ]Alfred, how are you sir? Good to see you. Okay, every day I say this, I know I'm supposed to talk about the election, but, you know, who cares? [ Laughter ]Okay. It's some big thing happening in the Florida Supreme Court, but they haven't decided. And when they do, I still won't care. Now, what pissed me off today was Bill Clinton's -- did anybody see it, it just came out today? -- interview in "Rolling Stone." Because Bill Clinton said, "Small amounts of marijuana should be decriminalized." He defined "small amount" as whatever it takes to mellow out Al Gore.[ Laughter ]No.[ Cheers and applause ]You know, I'll tell why you this really -- I'll tell why you this bugs me so much. It reminds me so much of -- sometimes a guest on this show says nothing during a segment. And then we go to commercial and they lean over and they say something really good. And I'm like, "Why didn't you say that while we were on the air?" I mean, Bill Clinton --Michelle: Why didn't you say it during the presidency? Bill: Yes! He's been there eight years. Eight years, and they have prosecuted this drug war. They've escalated it.Alfred: He's looking to go down in history. He wants to be --Bill: Don't say "go down" about him.[ Laughter ]Alfred: Well, maybe he should say, "Yes, I did inhale. And, yes, I did get a [ bleep]." [ Laughter ]Maybe he's just come clean about everything.Bill: But, that's not what this is about. I mean, his administration has been really hard --Alfred: But, he can afford to be nice about all this stuff now, 'cause he's on his way out.Michelle: Yeah, but, you know, he just contributed, on our behalf, $6 billion to the Colombian drug war. Why not take that money and do something really constructive with it? Bill: Right. He's fighting the drug war on one hand. Where do you think the drug war ends up? With people having small amounts of marijuana. And, on his way out of door, he says, "Oh, by the way, did I forget to mention? Pot should be legal. Good-bye!" Darlene: Is this a surprise to anyone? I mean, he's certainly not a role model for the American children. And, you know, what bothers me about -- what bothers me about this is he says marijuana -- small amount of marijuana. You know what kids are gonna hear? "Drugs." "It's okay to do drugs." I mean, it escalates.Bill: No, they're not! If people would stop acting like that -- if people would treat --Michelle: 25% of the population smokes pot.Darlene: But, it's illegal. And until it is a legal drug --Michelle: That's why it shouldn't be illegal, because 25% of the population should not be criminalized for something that is so stupid.Darlene: Well, until the laws are changed, it's illegal. And -- we need to abide by the law.[ Cheers and applause ]Jimmie: The problem with the whole thing is that in the sliding morals of our society, unfortunately, drugs like marijuana have become part of our fiber. And we have to sadly deal with the reality that you have to decriminalize it because it's here. It's here to stay. And that's the reality of it all.Bill: Jimmie, at what point in history do you think drugs were not part of any society's fiber? Jimmie: But, I think the reality --Bill: Even animals do drugs.Jimmie: But, Bill, the thing is, it is a major part where it's not even unhip to do drugs. And there was a time when people would sneak around and do drugs. Now people are riding in their cars just smoking right out of there -- "Hey! Hi, everybody." [ Laughter ]Bill: No, no. You've got it completely backwards.Jimmie: Okay.Bill: 20 years ago, you remember, in Hollywood --Jimmie: She remembers. That's right.Michelle: I sure do.[ Laughter ]Bill: People used to do cocaine in meetings. They would be like -- "Could I get you a Diet Coke or some blow?" Michelle: Yeah, I mean, you used to go to a dinner party and there'd be a mound of cocaine on the coffee table.Jimmie: It depends on who's at the dinner party. If Keith Richards is there, maybe, yeah. But, I mean, not everybody.Michelle: First of all, I believe that all drugs should be decriminalized. I think that we should spend our money educating our children about drugs. Because I'm not saying that drugs are good for you. I'm saying that we should spend the $6 billion --Bill: But, they've been good for you.[ Laughter ]Michelle: Thank you, Bill.[ Applause ]I think that we could spend that money educating our children about drugs. I was educated as a child. My father was a probation officer for juvenile hall. He told me that he expected that I would probably smoke marijuana because I was living in a mecca of drugs. And he said, "And this is what cocaine is gonna look like. I don't know if you'll ever see it." "Oh, dad." And he told me that it was this white powder. He made me promise never to try any heroin. He said, "If you will just promise not to ever try any heroin, I will never, never come down on you about the drugs -- about the pot thing." Darlene: You know, this is a slippery slope. You start with marijuana. Then it's coke and then crack and then heroin.Michelle: No, it's not! Darlene: You know, we're saying to our children, "Hey, why don't we just make it legal? Let's all have a funfest." [ Cheers and applause ][ Talking over one other ]That's why, I think, society is so messed up as it is today.Michelle: I think that we should make it legal.Bill: First of all, that is a completely discredited argument.Jimmie: I don't agree with that. I agree with her.Bill: Really? Jimmie: Yes! Bill: The argument is that if one thing precedes another, it is the cause of it.Jimmie: But it does! It does! Bill: Okay, well, you know what? Kids drink Mountain Dew before they drink beer. So, is that really what causes it? Mountain Dew? Jimmie: But, people drink beer before they drink whiskey and stuff. I mean, that's the reality of that.Bill: Beer is the real gateway drug.Jimmie: That's right.Bill: But, they're not gonna make that illegal, 'cause they pay too much to politicians.[ Cheers and applause ]Jimmie: But, it's the same thing with drugs, though.Michelle: It is a drug. Beer is a drug. Whiskey is a drug. They're all legal.Jimmie: We're never gonna beat the drug people unless we do -- we might as well, I hate to say it, we have to give up, unfortunately, because they got us beat. And I hate to say it because they've tried everything they can. Unless they do a scorched earth and go to Colombia and just blow the whole thing up and declare war on them. That's the only way --[ Laughter ]Michelle: That's a solution there for ya. Let me ask you something.Jimmie: But, when --Michelle: Let me ask you. Don't you think that cigarettes are a drug? Jimmie: Definitely.Michelle: They're a worse drug -- how many more -- how many more marijuana drug deaths do you think there are a year as compared to cigarette deaths a year? Jimmie: People get run over from going too slow on the freeway, maybe, the marijuana people I think.[ Laughter ]But, I still think you cannot beat the drug people. I agree with you that it should all be decriminalized, because we can't beat the --Bill: Who are the drug people? Are they the people that drink coffee? Jimmie: No.Bill: Are they the people who take Prozac? Jimmie: No.Bill: Are they the people who drink Scotch at night? Jimmie: The illegal drugs, Bill! Bill: The people who smoke cigarettes? Jimmie: Bill, the illegal drugs.Bill: Well, somehow the illegal drugs wound up on the side of the ledger where less people die. What is --Jimmie: I don't agree with that. I think there's a lot of ancillary things that happen with drugs. I mean, there's a lot of robberies. I think people get beat up a lot. I think there's a lot of people in jail.Bill: Because they're illegal! That's why people get beat up! Michelle: You try making cigarettes illegal and see how much -- how many crimes will be committed in the name of cigarettes. Many more. Many, many more.[ Cheers and applause ]Jimmie: I think that people who do cigarettes are just as stupid as people who do drugs. I don't think there's any difference.Darlene: And if you're talking about children, at least right now, cigarettes and alcohol, you can't use them before the age of 21 and 18.Jimmie: But, people do.Darlene: I know they do do it. But, obviously, that is just as important and a concern to people as this issue.Michelle: Well, I think we shouldn't let children smoke marijuana until they're 18 either.Jimmie: But, people do it. I mean, that's the unfortunate situation -- they do do it.Michelle: I think that there should be law -- no marijuana until you are 18.Bill: No nothing until you're 18.Jimmie: People do everything before they're 18, and they stop after 18 doing everything else. I think it's people that start before. That may be the problem. I think drugs have to be legalized. I agree with her. But I agree with her only because we can't beat them. If we could beat them, I would say, "Whip them and get them the hell out of here." That's what I would say.Alfred: My worry about -- I agree, I think we should decriminalize drugs. But my worry is, once they're decriminalized they become part of the bureaucracy.Jimmie: But, they are right now! Alfred: But, who's gonna work out how many drugs people get, or what drugs people get? Jimmie: People get what they can pay for.Alfred: What I'm concerned about --[ Laughter ][ Applause ]-- people who are using marijuana, say people that are smoking marijuana to alleviate pain. Now, I don't think --Bill: Gotta stop them. That has to end. People who are having cancerous pain fits and need --Darlene: They have legal drugs.Bill: Which don't work as well. Why don't you listen to what the cancer patients want? Darlene: You know, I have relatives and friends who have had terminal illnesses. And they've had legal --Bill: Morphine.Darlene: Morphine and other drugs that are available to people --Bill: So morphine, let's give them that. Because that's, like, only 1,000 times --Michelle: That's like heroin.Bill: Yeah. That's only 1,000 times --Darlene: But you'd have an illegal drug used for a purpose. Did you see the article today about Mr. Kevorkian, and he's killing off people that weren't terminally ill? That's what frightens me about this society. It's a slippery slope. We start of with, "Oh, let's make drugs -- " Michelle: Then why don't just go back to Prohibition? Darlene: And now let's just kill everyone. You know, let 'em, if they wanna off themselves --Bill: I gotta take a commercial. It's the anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor -- the incident that led us, America, to entering World War II and keeping the world safe for democracy. Or whatever you call it when some chick in Florida picks the president.[ Laughter ]Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher Panel Discussion: Guests on this program were:Alfred Molina Jimmie Walker Michelle Phillips Darlene KennedyTranscripts: December 7, 2000©2000 Follow Up Productions, Inc.Web Site: http://abc.go.com/primetime/politicallyincorrect/
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Comment #5 posted by defenderoffreeworld on December 10, 2000 at 11:16:19 PT:
what does prop. 36 really mean?
certainly the law enforcement agencies have no will and in fact, will not abide by whatever new laws are put in practice. think about it, they ignore and disrespect the u.s. constitution, the most sacred document the country has. look at the country nowadays, just look at it. do you really think its going by the rules that have been pre-established by our founding fathers? i think not, and honestly, i think prop. 36 will not bring about too much change, even if it is representing the will of the people. what about all the medical marijuana laws that have been passed? to that, the government just says 'ah, that doesn't change anything at all'. what i'm getting at is that decreminalization will never take place, it simply won't work. full out legalization is the only solution, but that is still years away. 
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Comment #4 posted by dddd on December 10, 2000 at 08:32:47 PT
scott
Thanx
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Comment #3 posted by scott on December 10, 2000 at 07:57:22 PT:
hmmm
Prop. 36 was not a form of decriminalization. It's still a form of narco-prohibition but its been dumbed down and given to the voters to make it look not-so-bad. If you have to go to treatment for it then you are still being punished in some way, since a lot of government forced treatment is just a prison where people wear white suits. Decriminalization is bogus too because it won't eliminate any of the prohibition created problems. Decrim. doesn't open up a legal market, because users still have to hit the streets. Only legalization will end all the problems of drug prohibition,and bring our nation to drug peace. 
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Comment #2 posted by dddd on December 09, 2000 at 23:00:02 PT
What?
 Occasional user,,I am curious as to how you would define "decriminalized". If I choose to smoke pot,and I somehow get "busted" for it,and I have to go to court,,and I am forced to attend some "treatment" program,,does this somehow not fit into the category of "criminalization"? It's a good question.Because something is "decriminalized",that would seem to mean it is no longer a "crime".If it is no longer a "crime",but is still not "legal",then how is it that one is forced into a "treatment".How can one be forced to do anything,if they have committed no crime? Help me out on this one,if anyone can clarify this quandry............dddd
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Comment #1 posted by Occassional Pot User on December 09, 2000 at 22:45:29 PT
All drugs are [almost] decriminalized w/ Prop. 36
Other than having to go into treatment, they are decriminalized in California where this show is taped. (its in Los Angeles, if I recall correctly)
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