If the American people are worried about freshly confirmed Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ approach to enforcing federal marijuana laws, he says they should get Congress to change them. During his Senate confirmation hearing back in January, Sessions answered questions on marijuana among other issues, but didn’t offer a definitive stance on what marijuana enforcement would look like under his justice department.
“I won’t commit to never enforcing federal law, [Sen. Patrick Leahy], but absolutely it’s a problem of resources for the federal government,” Sessions said. “Good judgement on how to handle these cases will be a responsibility of mine, which won’t be an easy decision, but I will try to do my duty in a fair and just way.”
Sessions also said he echoes the position former attorney general Loretta Lynch took during her confirmation hearings. Lynch said then she did not support the legalization of marijuana and that it would not be the position of her justice department to do so.
Though 28 states have legalized medical marijuana use, eight states have passed recreational laws and 21% of the U.S. population now lives in a state where smoking weed is legal, the federal law still states marijuana is an illegal substance. And the drug is classified as a Schedule I drug along with heroin, LSD and ecstasy.
Sessions, in the past, has made it clear he opposes marijuana legalization. “Good people don’t smoke marijuana,” he’s on record saying. And further back he allegedly said he thought KKK members were OK until he learned they smoked marijuana. He has since called that a joke.
But in a Trump presidency, he’d be asked to forward the Trump agenda and not his own, and a spokesman for President Trump made it clear Sessions would be implementing the Trump agenda, which is promising for the marijuana industry.
Donald Trump has supported state’s rights in legalizing and establishing marijuana policies. Robert Capecchi, director of federal policies at the Marijuana Policy Project, said they are cautiously optimistic the incoming administration will continue current policies and not interfere in state laws.
“We remain cautiously optimistic that the Trump administration will refrain from interfering in state marijuana laws,” Capecchi said in a statement following Sessions’ confirmation. “We are hopeful that Mr. Sessions will follow the president’s lead and respect states’ rights on marijuana policy.
“It would be shocking if the Trump administration attempted to steamroll the citizens and governments in these states to enforce an increasingly unpopular federal policy.”
In the U.S. about 60% of Americans support marijuana legalization, and following the seven states that recently voted to legalize recreation, or medical marijuana, more are looking to take steps toward legalization.
At this point, the possibility of additional states taking the plunge, or federal legalization getting closer is unknown, but unlikely.
Some of the policies put in place by the Justice Department in the last eight years have been valuable, Sessions said during his hearing, but he’s been critical of the Obama administration’s hands-off approach when it comes to federal marijuana laws.
“It’s not so much the attorney general’s job to decide what laws to enforce. We should do our jobs and enforce laws effectively as we’re able,” Sessions said during his hearing. “The U.S. Congress made the possession of marijuana in every state — and the distribution — an illegal act. If that’s something that’s not desired any longer, Congress should pass a law to change the rule.”
