Attorney General Jeff Sessions petitioned lawmakers to scale back legal protections for medical marijuana in May, according to a letter leaked Tuesday.
In the letter sent to Congress, Sessions asked that they dismantle rules that bar the Department of Justice (DOJ) from getting involved in medical marijuana issues at the state level. The Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which passed in 2014, prevents the DOJ from using federal funds to prosecute individuals in states with medical legalization, reports The Washington Post.
Sessions argues that these protections undermine the DOJ’s ability to combat the illegal drug trade.
“I believe it would be unwise for Congress to restrict the discretion of the Department to fund particular prosecutions, particularly in the midst of an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime,” Sessions says in the letter, according to WaPo. “The Department must be in a position to use all laws available to combat the transnational drug organizations and dangerous drug traffickers who threaten American lives.”
