Palin and pot

"I can't claim a Bill Clinton and say that I never inhaled," Palin said in a 2006 interview.

Back in 2006, Anchorage Daily News political reporter Kyle Hopkins did a roundup on some of the issues surrounding the Republican primary race for governor, the election in which Sarah Palin upset incumbent Frank Murkowski.

One of the issues in his story was marijuana policy.

Hopkins asked Murkowski, Palin, John Binkley and Andrew Halcro -- the Republican candidates for governor -- about their take on marijuana and if they'd ever smoked.

Palin was the only one who openly admitted to smoking pot, though Halcro and Binkley alluded to it.

From the ADN:

Palin doesn't support legalizing marijuana, worrying about the message it would send to her four kids. But when it comes to cracking down on drugs, she says methamphetamines are the greater threat and should have a higher priority.

Palin said she has smoked marijuana -- remember, it was legal under state law, she said, even if illegal under U.S. law -- but says she didn't like it and doesn't smoke it now.

"I can't claim a Bill Clinton and say that I never inhaled."

A quote on R.A. Dillon's Alaskan Abroad blog is what led me to Hopkins' story:

"Gov. Palin is one of many millions of Americans who have used marijuana and gone on to live productive, wildly successful lives. That she used marijuana is no big deal, but what is a big deal is that she thinks that the 100 million Americans who have used marijuana, including herself, belong in jail. That wouldn't be good for her kids. Perhaps most importantly, Alaska is one of 12 states that allow the medical use of marijuana, and one in five Americans currently live in those states The GOP ticket should embrace the time-honored Republican principle of local control by promising to end the federal government's war on sensible medical marijuana laws in both red and blue states." – Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington.