Donald Trump’s nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., as attorney general could have dire consequences for Washington state’s marijuana industry, for the wishes of the public, and for common sense when it comes to federal drug policy.
While Trump said during the campaign that, “In terms of marijuana and legalization, I think that should be a state issue, state-by-state,” Sessions is an old-school hard-liner when it comes to drug policy. He said during a congressional hearing in April that, “good people don’t smoke marijuana”; he once joked that he thought members of the Ku Klux Klan were “OK until I found out they smoked pot”; and he has said, “We need grown-ups in charge in Washington saying marijuana is not the kind of thing that ought to be legalized, it ought to be minimized, that it is in fact a very real danger.”
Sessions’ view is disputed in 29 states that have approved the use of medical marijuana and in eight states that have approved the recreational use of the drug by adults. It also is disputed by a majority of the public, with a recent Gallup poll finding 60 percent of Americans in favor of legalization and a Pew Research poll pegging the number at 57 percent.
In 2012, Washington approved recreational use with 56 percent of the vote. The federal government, which still regards marijuana as an illegal drug, agreed to a hands-off policy so long as the state adopted measures and strategies designed to keep it out of the hands of minors, and Washington’s marijuana industry has blossomed.
Despite this approach, federal officials this fall announced that marijuana would remain on the list of Schedule I drugs — along with heroin and LSD — while indicating that there is “no accepted medical use” for cannabis. This was the result of an absurd Catch-22 in which the federal government limited the growing of research-grade marijuana to one small facility at the University of Mississippi and, therefore, not enough research existed to warrant the removal of the drug from the Schedule I list.
The lack of “accepted medical use” likely came as a surprise for millions of people across the country who find that marijuana helps relieve symptoms epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder, multiple sclerosis, and other afflictions. It also reinforced outdated notions of marijuana that date to the establishment of the federal drug schedule in 1970, when the Nixon administration was fostering a social war between the establishment and that era’s counter-culture.
In truth, marijuana should be treated as akin to alcohol — a substance that can be dangerous if abused but should be left up to the individual states and the individual users. For decades, the “War on Drugs” led to the incarceration of many people on minor marijuana charges while foolishly wasting law-enforcement funding that could have been better spent elsewhere. Rekindling that war would be a waste of time and money while entrenching the nation in an obsolete battle over a misguided prohibition.
We would hope that Sessions, assuming he is confirmed to the post by Congress, would focus upon more pressing matters facing the attorney general: Cybercrime and its threat to our institutions; restoring trust in law enforcement; striking the proper balance between surveillance and privacy; and strengthening the federal prison system.
When it comes to the legalization of marijuana, the nation would be better served to heed the words of candidate Trump and leave the issue up to the states.
