United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions seems preoccupied with marijuana policy even as larger issues such as opioid abuse have yet to be addressed by the Trump administration.
We have covered many of Jeff Sessions’ anti-marijuana comments. In comparison, Sessions has been a bit more silent on the opioid epidemic.
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey believes Session’s is spending too much time expressing his interest in cracking down on marijuana. “He is obsessed with marijuana,” Healey said to business leaders this week according to MassLive.
“I think if you go back and you look at any number of the statements that he’s made, the positions that he’s taken, he spends a tremendous amount of time focused on marijuana, where as a matter of law enforcement, where I see the issues right now, where I see the problems, are with fentanyl and heroin,” Healey said. “And that’s where I would like to see more support and more focus and more attention.”
Healey is worried about the impact of opioid abuse and what further delays could mean for the epidemic.
“We’ve asked for help, we need the help and to me it’s a shame that we have not seen anything from the federal administration yet in terms of needed resources,” she said. “I think it’s shameful that at this point, we’re 100 days into this administration and we haven’t seen anything in terms of additional resources, or additional plans, or proposals to deal with a serious opioid crisis.”
It has been a rough start to Sessions’ tenure as Attorney General. During his confirmation hearings, he omitted key details on his contacts with Russian officials during the campaign. This week, he made controversial statements regarding a federal judge in Hawaii.
“I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the President of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and Constitutional power,” he said on The Mark Levin Show.
There has been a considerable backlash as many have tried to remind Sessions that Hawaii is, in fact, one of the 50 states.
Will Sessions’ reign in his public comments? They certainly do not seem to be helping a White House that finds itself in constant controversy. If the administration continues its crusade against legal marijuana, it will have to take on the majority of the country, a majority who strongly supports marijuana reform.
