Kelly, Sessions Focus On Pot In Order to Ignore True Cause Of Opioid Crisis

The Trump administration seems to be determined to crack down on marijuana as both Jeff Sessions and now DHS head John Kelly have both declared that pot is "a gateway drug". Of course, research and science have shown this statement to be categorically false but when did science drive any Republican policies.

As opposed to Sessions who apparently wants us to return to the 1980s, at least Kelly admitted over the weekend that cracking down on marijuana should not be an enforcement priority and instead the focus should be on meth, cocaine, and heroin. But that was two days ago. Apparently something changed in the last two days because, in a speech today at George Washington University, Kelly took a much harder line, saying, "And let me be clear about marijuana. It is a potentially dangerous gateway drug that frequently leads to the use of harder drugs. Its use and possession is against federal law and until the law is changed by the U.S. Congress we in DHS are sworn to uphold all the laws on the books." Kelly also made it clear that immigrants convicted of marijuana infractions would be targeted be ICE for deportation. In a further provocation, Kelly also challenged those in Congress who opposed the strict enforcement of the law to either change the law or "shut up" and let DHS do its job.

What's so interesting is that both Sessions and Kelly seem to think the opioid epidemic is driven by heroin use. The reality is that the epidemic is primarily driven by the pharmaceutical industry in collaboration with unscrupulous doctors and pharmacies. The situation in West Virginia where there were enough prescriptions written for ever man, woman, and child in the state to receive 430 hydrocodone and oxycodone pills is probably the most extreme example of the real source of the problem.

But Sessions and Kelly are not about to stand up to the monopolies in the pharmaceutical and pharmacy industries. By focusing on marijuana, meth, cocaine, and heroin they can claim big strides in locking people up for drug crimes. In the meantime, the real drug profiteers who make their money through "legal" means won't be touched.