Gary Johnson is known for being a bit of a stoner.
He’s one of the few politicians to have advocated for marijuana legalization before it was cool, and was the chief executive of the recreational marijuana company, Cannabis Sativa. Now, the Libertarian candidate might be for legalizing heroin too.
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Johnson appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday to give his take on the third presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, but the conversation quickly turned to Johnson’s stance on drugs and America’s growing acceptance of them.
“I’ve advocated legalizing marijuana only,” Johnson told Kimmel. “But I think the country is going to come to a quantum leap of understanding when it comes to drugs. And it’s going to start with understanding problem first as a health issue rather than a criminal justice issue.”
When asked by Kimmel if only advocating for marijuana conflicted with his libertarian values, Johnson said, “I don’t think we’re going to legalize heroin in my lifetime, but can we adopt strategies that will reduce death, disease, crime, and corruption? Yes, we can.”
Johnson then cited a harm reduction strategy in Zurich, Switzerland in which they gave out free heroin.
“They came out with a program: free heroin,” Johnson said. “The chief of police came to Albuquerque, he said, ‘Look, when they came out with this program, I could not have been more opposed to this.”
The Zurich police chief was worried that “death, disease, crime, and corruption was gonna skyrocket,” however, he admitted that it had been “fabulously successful” and that “all the things they said would be worse were better.”
So, now that 71 percent of millennials approve of marijuana legalization, it’s possible that heroin will see that same support in 10-20 years.
Watch an excerpt of Gary Johnson’s interview with Jimmy Kimmel below:
