By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Attorney General Jeff Sessions wants to prosecute people who sell medical marijuana in states that have approved the sales for qualifying patients.
In a letter to congressional leaders, Sessions urged lawmakers to undo federal marijuana medical protections instituted in 2014, the Washington Post reports.
Under President Obama, the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment bars the Justice Department from using federal funds to crack down on marijuana in states where medical use has been approved.
Sessions argues in the letter:
I believe it would be unwise for Congress to restrict the discretion of the Department to fund particular prosecutions, particularly in the midst of an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime. The Department must be in a position to use all laws available to combat the transnational drug organizations and dangerous drug traffickers who threaten American lives.
Sessions’ claim that medical marijuana is part of a “historic drug epidemic” is at odds with researchers who say the real problem is opiate deaths and overdoses, which have declined in states that approved medical marijuana.
John Hudak of the Brookings Institution responded that the letter is a “scare tactic” that “could appeal to rank-and-file members or to committee chairs in Congress in ways that could threaten the future of this Amendment.”
