"I certainly agree with the suggestion made by the former surgeon general Joycelyn Elders that a public dialogue on the decriminalization of drugs is absolutely necessary. As it stands today, people are punished because they have done harm to themselves. The "crime problem" can only be addressed ultimately by the eradication of poverty, by the eradication of the circumstances that lead people to commit the kinds of crimes for which most are sent to prison."
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United States federal government officialsWomen born in the 1930s20th-century African-American womenPhysicians from ArkansasPediatricians
Original Language: English
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1998 interview in Conversations with Angela Davis Edited by Sharon Lynette Jones (2021)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Joycelyn_Elders
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Joycelyn Elders
Minnie Joycelyn Elders (born August 13, 1933) is an American pediatrician and public health administrator who served as Surgeon General of the United States from 1993 to 1994. A vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, she was the second woman, second person of color, and first African American to serve as Surgeon General.
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