U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions isn’t wavering in his opposition to marijuana, even if it’s not a top priority for President Trump and the rest of his administration.
Sessions told a meeting of the National Sheriffs’ Association on Monday that it’s “frustrating” that he’s at loggerheads with others in Congress over marijuana policy, Forbes reported.
The attorney general was almost certainly referring to U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican, who’s been delaying votes on Department of Justice nominees in response to Sessions’ rescinding of several Obama-era cannabis policies in early January.
In a prepared version of his remarks, Sessions said: “I cannot and will not pretend that a duly enacted law of this country – like the federal ban on marijuana – does not exist. Marijuana is illegal in the United States – even in Colorado, California, and everywhere else in America.”
The president has not made cannabis policy a top priority, and has not mentioned the topic specifically since taking office, with the exception of one ambiguous signing statement last May.
Sessions has also not taken any direct action – such as raiding state-licensed recreational marijuana businesses, something that would be entirely within his power – other than issuing his own DOJ policy memo on Jan. 4. The Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment prevents him from taking action against state-legal medical marijuana companies.
