House Representative Calls Attorney General Eric Holder Out On Marijuana Prohibition

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House Representative Calls Attorney General Eric Holder Out on Marijuana Prohibition

 

At Wednesday evening’s House oversight hearing with Attorney General Eric Holder, most House members were focused on recent allegations of invasive search by the IRS.  However, Representative Steve Cohen was thinking about a more longstanding issue– marijuana prohibition.

 

 

Cohen was unrelenting in his questioning of Holder, asking why the DOJ is “continuing to put people in jail” even though the majority of Americans believe marijuana should be legal.

Cohen stated, “One of the greatest threats to liberty has been the government taking people’s liberty for things that people are in favor of.

 

The Pew Research Group shows that 52 percent of people do not think marijuana should 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. It 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, and I would hope you would do so.”

 

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Holder did not respond to Cohen’s questions and statements.  Instead, questioning just moved on to the next Congressman.  Attorney General Holder has remained mostly mum on the topic of marijuana since it was legalized in Washington and Colorado last November.  However, actions speak louder than words (or a lackthereof) and the recent DEA raids of medical marijuana collectives are indicative that the federal government still wishes to flex its muscle against legal forms of marijuana.

 

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