Pubdate: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 Source: Meet the Press Copyright: 1998 National Broadcasting Company, Inc. Contact: http://www.msnbc.com/news/MEETPRESS_Front.asp Note: Only the part of the transcript that is on topic for this service is provided. ‘MEET THE PRESS’ MR. RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday morning: Newt Gingrich is gone. Who will be the next speaker? We’re joined by four important Republican House members who will make that decision: Jennifer Dunn, Lindsey Graham, Steve Largent and David McIntosh. Is the Republican revolution over? Then, the most stunning upset of the year. A former wrestler, actor, action figure, football coach, talk show host is elected the next governor of Minnesota. (Videotape): GOV.-ELECT VENTURA: What is so gratifying about this is being able to prove the experts wrong. (End videotape) MR. RUSSERT: In his first and only Sunday morning interview, Jesse “The Body” Ventura.MR. RUSSERT: We’re back. Governor-Elect Jesse Ventura, welcome to MEET THE PRESS. GOV.-ELECT VENTURA: Thank you, Tim. It’s very nice to be here. MR. RUSSERT: What was Tuesday’s election all about? GOV.-ELECT VENTURA: Well, running for governor, for me. I mean, we put in a lot—we started well over a year ago, and I had to go through the reform party convention, which I won unanimously, and then it was just a matter of us getting our message out to the people of Minnesota. And the people, obviously, accepted our message, more than they did the Democrats and Republicans, and I’m the governor-elect of the state of Minnesota. MR. RUSSERT: There is a caricature of you that is emerging. Here’s Time magazine. Body Slam! Get A Life. We’ve Got One. Who is Jesse Ventura? GOV.-ELECT VENTURA: Well, Jesse Ventura is a young kid that grew up in south Minneapolis. My mom was a nurse. My dad was a city laborer. And I enlisted in the Navy. I spent four years as a romping, stomping Navy SEAL frogman. I went to college for a year. Went out on an 11-year professional wrestling career. Switched to broadcasting and film work and became mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, in 1991 and served for four years, through 1995, and went back to broadcasting career, and then attempted to become governor, and I’m now the governor-elect. I guess that’s who I am in a nutshell. MR. RUSSERT: You’ve said a couple of controversial things during the campaign, and I want to give you a chance to talk about them so we have your full beliefs in context. The first involved drugs, and let me put on the screen some comments and give you a chance to talk about them. “Hemp or marijuana is not addictive. Decriminalize it and get those drug dealers to start paying taxes. And what you do in the privacy of your own home is your own business. If someone takes LSD and locks themselves up at home, why should I care? Anyway, I’ve done way more stupid things on alcohol than I’ve ever done on pot.” What is your sense of drugs, Governor-Elect? GOV.-ELECT VENTURA: Well, my sense is this, you know, I believe you’ve got to fight the war from the demand side, not the supply side. I mean, for goodness sake, we have Stillwater State Penitentiary here and we can’t keep drugs out of there, and these people are locked up 24 hours a day. If you’re going to fight the war on drugs, you fight it on the demand side. And I don’t believe that government should be invading the privacy of our own homes, and I also believe that you shouldn’t be legislating stupidity. If there are stupid people out there doing stupid things, it’s not the government’s job to try to make them be smarter. We live in a land of freedom. And again, if we can’t keep drugs out of the state penitentiary, how on earth do they propose we’re going to do it out on the street corner? You fight it on the demand side. You get people to be smart and intelligent. It’s like a business. You don’t create a product because of supply; you create it because there’s a demand for it. MR. RUSSERT: Would you consider decriminalizing marijuana and other drugs? GOV.-ELECT VENTURA: I said absolutely not at this time. I do believe in industrial hemp. I think we’re missing the boat on that. You can make food out of—or, I mean, clothing out of it. Excuse me, not food, but you can make clothing out of it. You can make paper out of it. It’s an industry that will create jobs out there. Canada is using it. We’re not. And I also believe medicinal marijuana should be allowed. I mean, my goodness, a doctor can give you a prescription for morphine and yet they can’t prescribe you marijuana? I think that should be left up to the medical community for people that are that ill and in that much pain. I don’t believe the government should be telling them what they can or cannot use. It should be in the medical community and up to the doctors and physicians to do that. - --- Checked-by: Richard Lake