Marijuana 'not a factor' in Drug War, say DHS chief John Kelly

Posted by Sagar Satapathy on April 22, 2017.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly has said that marijuana is "not a factor" in the war on drugs  in the Trump Administration despite Attorney General Jeff Sessions'  tough talk on state movements to legalize the marijuana either medicinal or recreational or for both purposes in recent past.

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press", on Sunday Kelly was asked whether legalizing marijuana would help or hurt his work to stop the flow of drugs into the United States from Central America and Mexico.

"Yeah, marijuana is not a factor in the drug war," Kelly answered. "It's three things. Methamphetamine, almost all produced in Mexico; Heroin, virtually all produced in Mexico, and cocaine that comes up from further south."

Kelly said that in 2015 those three drugs, plus opiates, were responsible for the deaths of 52,000 people in the United States and cost the country $250 billion.

Importantly, Kelly considered that solving the nation's drug problem does not involve merely cracking down on marijuana dealers, users, addiction, and marijuana related crime in the U.S. Instead, he said the solution is to lower the drug demand in the country.

"The solution is a comprehensive drug demand reduction program in the United States that involves every man and woman of goodwill. And then rehabilitation, and then law enforcement, and then getting at the poppy fields and the coca fields in the south”, Kelly stated.

Ironically, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has expressed different views in case of marijuana legalization. He argues "good people don't smoke marijuana" and has long taken an enthusiastic hard-line stance on federal marijuana prohibition in particular and the drug war in general.

However, Kelly's de-legitimizing of marijuana as "not a factor in the drug world" seems to fuel recent criticism of inconsistencies in the Trump administration in case of marijuana legalization.

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