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03-15-2017, 03:39 PM
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/sessions-vows-crackdown-on-drug-dealing-and-gun-crime/2017/03/15/08d831de-08f5-11e7-93dc-00f9bdd74ed1_story.html
“The crime rate in our country remains at historic lows,” Sessions acknowledged in his remarks. “But we’re beginning to see an increase again.”
He attributed that increase to less forceful prosecutions and lower sentences, a declining prison population and a growing opioid epidemic.
The solution, he said, is to “hammer” drug dealers and other criminals while bringing back the drug abstinence campaigns of the 1980s and 1990s.
“We have too much of a tolerance for drug use,” Sessions said. “We need to say, as Nancy Reagan said, ‘Just say no.’ There’s no excuse for this, it’s not recreational. Lives are at stake, and we’re not going to worry about being fashionable.”
Sessions also scoffed at the idea, promoted by some doctors and researchers, that medical marijuana can be used as an alternative painkiller to prevent or treat opioid addiction.
“I’ve heard people say we could solve our heroin problem with marijuana,” he said. “How stupid is that? Give me a break!”
After his speech, Sessions told reporters he was “dubious” of medical marijuana in general.
“The crime rate in our country remains at historic lows,” Sessions acknowledged in his remarks. “But we’re beginning to see an increase again.”
He attributed that increase to less forceful prosecutions and lower sentences, a declining prison population and a growing opioid epidemic.
The solution, he said, is to “hammer” drug dealers and other criminals while bringing back the drug abstinence campaigns of the 1980s and 1990s.
“We have too much of a tolerance for drug use,” Sessions said. “We need to say, as Nancy Reagan said, ‘Just say no.’ There’s no excuse for this, it’s not recreational. Lives are at stake, and we’re not going to worry about being fashionable.”
Sessions also scoffed at the idea, promoted by some doctors and researchers, that medical marijuana can be used as an alternative painkiller to prevent or treat opioid addiction.
“I’ve heard people say we could solve our heroin problem with marijuana,” he said. “How stupid is that? Give me a break!”
After his speech, Sessions told reporters he was “dubious” of medical marijuana in general.