HILLARY CLINTON SAYS that she supports the medical use of marijuana and will monitor its legal use for recreational purposes, but added that no she does not intend to try it herself.
The potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidate held two separate interviews last night with CNN and Fox News as part of a promotional tour for her new book.
She was asked about a range of issues including gun control, the fatal attacks on the US embassy in Benghazi and immigration.
The former Senator and First Lady adopted a cautious approach when asked about the medical and recreational use of marijuana, saying that “at the risk of committing radical candour” she supports its use for medical purposes but added that more research is needed.
“I have to say that we need to be very clear about the benefits of marijuana use for medicinal purposes, I don’t think we’ve done enough research yet.
Although I think for people who in are in extreme medical conditions and have anecdotal evidence that it works, there should be availability under appropriate circumstances. But I do think we need more research because we don’t know how it reacts with other drugs.
“On recreational, I think states are the laboratory of democracy and we have at least two states that are experimenting with that right now. I want to wait to see what the evidence there is,” she added.
Unlike her husband, who famously admitted that he’d smoked cannabis in college but hadn’t inhaled, Clinton has said that she she has never done so. When asked by CNN interviewer Christiane Amanpour whether she will try it if it legalised, Clinton laughed saying that she was too old.
“I didn’t do it when I was young. I’m not going to start now.”
Benghazi
Clinton has routinely been criticised by opponents and some elements of the US media for her role following the 2012 attack by militants on the US embassy in Benghazi in Libya that killed four Americans including the Ambassador.
A significant portion of the Fox News interview focused on Clinton’s response to the Benghazi attack, reflecting criticism among Republicans that Obama and Clinton were disengaged during the incidents and later misled voters about the causes of the attacks.
A new Republican-led House select committee on Benghazi could extend the issue into the next presidential campaign. The probe could figure into Clinton’s political future if she seeks the White House again.
Clinton said during the Fox interview that “I know you and your viewers have a lot of questions.” But she said the US often sends people into dangerous places to represent its national security interests and she didn’t think that should change. “I don’t think we should be retreating from the world,” she told CNN.
Clinton reiterated her support for expanding background checks for firearm purchases and reinstating the ban on assault weapons:
I don’t think any parent should have to fear their child going to school or going to college because someone for whatever reason, psychological, political, emotional, whatever it means could possibly entered that school with an automatic weapon and murder innocent children, students and teachers.
“We cannot let a minority of people — and that’s what it is, it is a minority of people — hold a viewpoint that terrorises the majority of people,” she said.
Clinton urged the Obama administration to remain cautious about working with Iran to combat fast-moving Islamic insurgents in Iraq. And she said it was unclear whether it would have turned the tide in Syria if the US had tried to help moderate rebel forces there, as she once advised.
- Additional reporting by Associated Press
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say