From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [Debate Transcript] On Drugs and Legalization
Originator: kadie@eff.org
Keywords: transcript, obfuscation, confusion
Organization: The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 13:30:01 GMT

[[An excerpt from an article by kellym@ether.UUCP (Kelly M McArthur)
to talk.politics.misc,alt.activism,alt.rush-limbaugh,or.politics
 - cmk]]

[[kellym@ether.UUCP (Kelly M McArthur) writes:]]

The First Presidental Debate				10/11/92

====================================================================


NOTE: This transcript was taken from the Closed-Caption 
data stream with the aid of my new TextGrabber 
(manufactured by Preferred Technologies, Dallas, Tx (214) 702-9191).  
Unfortunately, as is common with programs that are broadcast live, 
there are a few typos that happen when the operator gets behind and such.  
Also remember that this is taken ver batim, so tortured prose and 
bizarre syntax are the norm (especially for Mr.  Bush.)  

Consider this entire document to be [sic].  

====================================================================
[[...-cmk]]
 Mr. President  Bush, there's  
been be a lot of talk  about  
harry truman in this campaign,  
so much so that I think be  
tomorrow I will wake up and see  
him named as the next  
commissioner of baseball. 
 They could use one. 
 The thing Mr. Truman didn't  
have to deal with is drugs. 
Americans are increasingly  
alarmed about drug-related  
crimes  in cities and suburbs,  
and  your administration is not  
the first to have grappled with  
this. 
And are you at all of a mind  
that maybe it ought to go to  
another level, if not to what's  
advocated by William F. Buckley 
junior, legal situation,   
between there and where we are  
now? 
 No, I don't think that's the  
right answer. 
I don't believe legalizing  
narcotics is the answer. 
I just don't believe that's the 
answer. 
I do believe  that there's some  
fairly good news out there. 
The use of cocaine, for example, 
by teenagers is dramatically  
down. 
But we've got to keep fighting  
on this war against drugs. 
We're doing a little better  in   
interdiction. 
Many of the countries below that 
used to say, "this is the united 
states problem. 
If you'd get the demand down, we 
wouldn't have the problem," are  
working cooperatively with the  
D.E.A. and the military. 
We're using the  military more  
now and our funding for recovery 
is up, recovering the addicts. 
Where we're not making the  
progress is-- we're making it in 
teenagers and thank god. 
But where we're  not making it is 
with the confirmed addicts. 
And I'll tell you one place that 
is working well, and that is the 
private sector. 
Jim Burke and the task force he 
has. 
You may know about it. 
I'll tell the American people,  
but this man said I'll get you  
$1 million a  day in pro bono  
advertising, something that's  
very hard for the government to 
do, and he went out and did it. 
And people are beginning to  
educate through this program,  
teaching these kids, you  
shouldn't use drugs. 
We're still in the fight, but I  
must tell  you I  think   
legalization of narcotics or  
something of that nature in face 
of the medical evidence would be 
totally counterproductive and I  
oppose it and I'm going to stand 
up and condition-- continue to  
oppose it. 
 Mr. Perot, one minute. 
 Any time you think you want  
to legalize drugs, go to a   
neonatal unit, if you can get  
in. 
There are between 100 to 200%  
cast up and downtown east coast, 
and the reason is crack babies  
being born. 
Babies in the hospital 42 days. 
Typical cost to you and me is  
$125,000. 
Again and again and  again the  
mother disappears in three days and  
the child becomes a ward of the  
state because he's e permanently 
and genetically damages. 
Just look at those little  
children and if anybody can even 
think about legalizing drugs  
they have lost me. 
Let's look at  priorities. 
We went on the Libyan raid,  
remember that one, because we  
were worried to death that  
Qaddafi might be building up  
chemical weapons. 
We have chemical warfare being  
conducted against our children   
all day every  day and we don't  
have the will to stamp it out. 
Again, if I get up there, if you 
 send me, we're going to have 
some blunt talks about this and  
get down in the trenches and say 
is this one you want to talk  
about or fix? 
Talk won't do it. 
There are guys who couldn't get   
a job on the third shift in a Dairy  
Queen driving B.M.W.'S and  
Mercedes selling drugs and  
they're not going to quit  
easily. 
 Governor  Clinton, one minute. 
 Like Mr. Perot, be I have  
held crack babies in my arms,  
but I know more about this, I  
think, than anybody else up  
here, because I have a brother  
who's a recovering drug addict. 
I'm very proud of him, but I can 
tell you this. 
If drugs were legal, I don't  
think he'd be alive today. 
I am adamantly opposed to  
legalizing drugs. 
He is alive today because of the 
criminal justice system. 
That's a mistake . 
What should we do? 
First we ought to prevent more  
of this on the street. 
30 Years ago, there were three  
policemen for every crime. 
Now there are three crimes for  
every policeman. 
We need 100,000 more police on  
the street. 
I have a plan for that. 
Secondly, we ought to have  
treatment on demand. 
Thirdly,  we  ought  to  have boot  
camps for first-time nonviolent  
offenders so they can get  
discipline and treatment and  
education and reconnected to the 
community before they are  
severed and sent to prison and  
learn how to be first-class  
criminals. 
There is a crime bill that  
lamentably was blocked  from passage  
once again, mostly by  
republicans in the u.S. Senate  
that would have addressed one of 
these problems that. 
Crime bill will be one of my  
highest priorities next January  
if I become president. 
(Applause) 

 next question is to you, Mr. 
Perot. 
You have  two minutes to answer  
and john will ask it. 
 Mr. Perot, racial division  
continues to tear apart our  
great cities. 
The late episode being this  
spring in Los Angeles. 
Why is this still happening in  
America, and what would you do  
to end it? 
[[... -cmk]]
 governor  Clinton, one minute. 
 I grew up in the segregated south. 
Thankfully raised by a  
grandfather with  almost  no  
formal education but with a  
heart of gold who taught me  
early that all people were equal 
in the eyes of god. 
I saw the winds of hatred divide 
people and keep the people of my 
state poorer than they would  
have been be spiritually  and  
economically . 
And I've done everything I could 
in my president  Bush life to  
overcome racial divisions. 
We don't have a person to waste  
in this country. 
We are being murdered  
economically because we have too 
many drop-outs, too many  
low-birth-weight babies, be too  
many drug  addicts , too  much  
violence, we  are too divided by 
race, income, and region, and I  
have devoted a major portion of  
this campaign to going ac Ross  
the country and looking for  
opportunities to go to white  
groups and African-American  
groups, Latino groups and  
Asian-American groups and say  
the same thing. 
If American  people cannot be  
brought together we can't turn  
this country around. 
If we can come together,  
nothing, nothing can stop us. 

(Applause) 
 Mr. President, one minute. 
 Well, I think governor  
 Clinton is committed. 
I do think it's fair to note --  
he can rebut it,-- that Arkansas 
is one of the few states that  
doesn't have any civil rights  
legislation. 
I've tried to use the white  
house as the bully pulpit,  
speaking out against  
discrimination. 
We've passed two very  
forward-looking civil  rights  
bills. 
It's not going to be all done by 
legislation. 
But I do think that you need to  
make an appeal every time you  
can to eliminate racial  
divisions and discrimination. 
And I'll keep on doing that and  
pointing to some legislative  
accomplishment to back it out. 
I have to  take ten seconds here  
at the end, be the red light  
isn't on yet, to say to  Ross  
Perot, please don't say to the  
D.E.A. agents on the street we 
don't have the will to fight  
drugs. 
Please, I have  watched these  
people. 
The same for our local law  
enforcement people. 
We're backing up every way we  
possibly can, but maybe you  
meant that some of the country  
don't have the will to fight it. 
Those on the front lines, as you 
know, you have been a  strong  
supporter of law enforcement, I  
want to clear that up, have the  
will to fight it and frankly  
some of them have given their  
lives. 
[[ ... -cmk]]
-- 
Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me.
 =kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =
Xref: sparky talk.politics.drugs:6824 talk.politics.misc:52259 alt.drugs:17121