Bill Clinton met with President Enrique Peña Nieto in Mexico City on Friday and spoke at the Laureate Summit of Youth and Productivity. During his talk, he apologized for the United States’ involvement in a drug war that has claimed the lives of over 120,000 people, seen 27,000 go missing and caused myriad social problems.

“I wish you had no narco-trafficking, but it’s not really your fault,” he said. “Basically, we did too good of a job of taking the transportation out of the air and water, and so we ran it over land. I apologize for that.”

The admission caused a stir in Mexican media and on social networks.

The Clinton Foundation has since confirmed his stance, earning praise from Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Drug Policy Alliance. Nadelmann added that it’s a promising sign if Hillary Clinton ends up as President in 2016.

“Of course one wishes he’d done the right thing when he was president and had the power to do so, but it’s always better for an ex-president to apologize for his sins than to pretend he never sinned at all,” Nadelmann told Fusion. “Let’s just hope that Hillary Clinton will be far more supportive of major drug policy reform than she’s been in the past.”

H/T: Fusion