During Wednesday’s congressional appearance, Attorney General Eric Holder was questioned on a number of other topics, including the administration’s failure to close Guantánamo Bay and the ongoing scandal surrounding the IRS. Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee took Holder to task over the Justice Department’s record on the drug war, including a continued crackdown on dispensaries providing medical marijuana.
Rep. Steve Cohen: "The Pew Research Group shows that 52 percent of Americans think marijuana should not be illegal. And yet there are people in jail, and your Justice Department is continuing to put people in jail, for sale and use, on occasion, of marijuana. That’s something the American public has finally caught up with. There was a cultural lag. And it’s been an injustice for 40 years in this country to take people’s liberty for something that was similar to alcohol. You have continued what is allowing the Mexican cartels’ power, and the power to make money, ruin Mexico, hurt our country, by having a prohibition in the late 20th and 21st century. We saw it didn’t work in this country in the ’20s. We remedied it. This is the time to remedy this prohibition."
In response, Holder said he still plans to announce a new Justice Department policy on how to respond to Washington and Colorado’s legalization of recreational marijuana.
