Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly holds vastly different views on marijuana policy than Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
President Donald Trump has filled key cabinet positions with members who hold a deep disdain for marijuana. Scott Pruitt, Tom Price, and Jeff Sessions have all made public comments against marijuana reform. Sessions has made the most high-profile remarks with blunt comments such as “good people don’t smoke marijuana.”
The Trump administration has struck fear in patients and members of the marijuana industry. However, there could be an important cabinet member who pushes back against criminalizing marijuana.
Chuck Todd asked Department of Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly about marijuana on NBC’s “Meet The Press” yesterday.
“Yeah, marijuana is not a factor in the drug war,” Kelly said. “It’s three things. Methamphetamine. Almost all produced in Mexico. Heroin. Virtually all produced in Mexico. And cocaine that comes up from further south.”
This statement seems to be light years away from Jeff Sessions’ recent comments where he linked marijuana with “more violence than one would think.”
Those “three things” killed over 50,000 Americans and cost the United States over $250 million according to Kelly.
Kelly seemed intent on changing the priorities for how the United States deals with narcotics.
“The solution is not arresting a lot of users,” he said. “The solution is a comprehensive drug demand reduction program in the United States that involves every man and woman of goodwill. And then rehabilitation. And then law enforcement. And then getting at the poppy fields and the coca fields in the south.”
Kelly even demonstrated his support for the use of medical marijuana. “Whether it’s veterans or anyone else, if it helps those people, then fine,” he said. “Medicine is medicine.”
Prior to working for the White House, Kelly served as the head of U.S. Southern Command, which oversees security in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Combating narcotics trafficking was part of his duties.
