Joycelyn Elders is still outspoken on health issues. She
was fired as U.S. surgeon general by President Clinton two
years ago after implying at a United Nations AIDS
conference that masturbation should be included in sex
education curricula. The following are excerpts from a
recent Might magazine interview. Q: Do you think the recent
passing of propositions to allow for medicinal use of
marijuana is a step toward legalization?

Elders: We really need to look carefully at marijuana.
Marijuana does not cause any of the major hazards. It's not
nearly as bad as cigarettes. And yet the federal government
subsidizes the cigarette industry. And we say "Oh, we're
doing all of this, we have all these laws, we're putting
all these people in prison, making a lot of our young
people criminals." And we say, "But we're protecting them!"
Why do we work so hard to protect them from drugs? We don't
protect them from poverty, we don't protect them from
ignorance, so who's getting paid off to protect them from
drugs? I get hostile, excuse me.

Q: You once called Clarence Thomas an "Uncle Tom."
That's a pretty harsh criticism to level at someone. Did
you mean it?

Elders: I really feel that the worst thing Bush did to
black people and he did a lot of good things for black
institutions and black people but the worst thing that he
did for us was to appoint Clarence Thomas to the Supreme
Court. I feel that Mr. Thomas represents the most
conservative segment of a very, very small section of black
people. I feel that he has used all the advantages he had
to get himself there, and now he wants to make sure that he
is perceived as a conservative white man.

Q: Should masturbation be a part of sex education
curriculums?

Elders: I certainly feel that masturbation should be
discussed as part of sexuality education. We need to stop
telling children that hair will grow on their hands, that
they'll go blind, that they'll go crazy. We need to be open
and honest with our children. And we're not.

Q: What is your biggest regret?

Elders: I think that probably the biggest regret, if I
have one, is that I didn't push for clean needles. I really
didn't push it as hard as I should have. But mostly I'd do
it all the same again.