Interview With Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone Magazine - part 2 - President Bill Clinton - Interview

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Dec 11, 2000

Drugs and the Legal System

Mr. Wenner. Do you think that people should go to jail for possessing or using or even selling small amounts of marijuana?

The President. I think, first of all-----

Mr. Wenner. This is after-we're not publishing until after the election.

The President. I think that most small amounts of marijuana have been decriminalized in most places and should be. I think that what we really need--one of the things that I ran out of time before I could do is a reexamination of our entire policy on imprisonment.

Some people deliberately hurt other people. And if they get out of prison--if they get in prison and they get out, they'll hurt them again. And they ought to be in jail because they can't be trusted to be on the streets. Some people do things that are so serious, they have to be put in jail to discourage other people from doing similar things. But a lot of people are in prison today because they, themselves, have drug problems or alcohol problems. And 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.

Mr. Wenner. You're talking about any offender?

The President. Yes. But there are tons of people in prison who. are nonviolent offenders, who have drug-related charges that are directly related to their own drug problems.

Mr. Wenner. Don't you think those people--should we be putting nonviolent drug offenders in jail at all, or should we put them in treatment programs that are more fitting and not-----

The President. I think it depends on what did know, I have some experience they You this. Let me just say-----

Mr. Wenner. Well, I remember your experience is based on your brother's-----

The President. Well, let me just say about my brother--whom I love and am immensely proud of, because he kicked a big cocaine habit--I mean, his habit got up to 4 grams a day. He had a serious, serious habit. He was lucky to live through that. But if he hadn't had the constitution of an ox, he might not have.

I think if he hadn't gone to prison, actually been put away forcibly somewhere, I think his problem was so serious, it is doubtful that he would have come to grips with it. I mean, he was still denying that he was addicted right up until the time that he was sentenced. So I'm not so sure that incarceration is all bad, even for drug offenders, depending on the facts. I think there are some-----

Mr. Wenner. I meant-----

The President. Let me finish. I think the sentences in many cases are too long for nonviolent offenders. I think the sentences are too long, and the facilities are not structured to maximize success when the people get out. Keep in mind, 90 percent of the people that are in the penitentiary are going to get out. So society's real interest is seeing that we maximize the chance that when they get out, that they can go back to being productive citizens, that they'll get jobs, they'll pay taxes, they'll be good fathers and mothers, that they'll do good things.