Sessions' pot crackdown creates a need for new legislation in Congress: Judge Napolitano
Attorney General Jeff Sessions' decision to change Obama-era federal policy on legal marijuana has produced the need for new legislation in Congress, according to Fox News Senior Judicial Analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano.
"This is going to create a mess," Judge Napolitano told FOX Business' Stuart Varney on "Varney & Co." "Not only in people's social and personal lives but for the huge and burgeoning cannabis industry."
Sessions on Thursday sent a letter to federal prosecutors rescinding all use of marijuana, making it illegal in the eyes of federal law and fair game for prosecution.
Sessions decision was met with bipartisan criticism. On Thursday, Colorado Senator Cory Gardiner, where pot is legal, called out Sessions in a fiery speech on the Senate floor.
"Up until 8:58 this morning that was the policy. One tweet later, one policy later, a complete reversal of what many of us on the hill were told before the confirmation, what we had continued to believe the last year and without any notification, conversation or dialogue with Congress," Rep. Gardiner said.
Judge Napolitano said overturning the law would also overload federal prosecutors' offices and "infuriate" the FBI and local law enforcement, who have been lobbying for years to make small amounts of marijuana legal.
“They just felt it was a waste of their time," he said.
The Judge added fallout would also require the reorganization of the Department of Justice, which faces “far more serious threats to the U.S. than marijuana could ever be."