Sen. Kamala Harris, a Democrat from California, denounced on Tuesday a recent order by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recommence Drug War-era enforcement of federal drug laws, the Sacramento Bee reports.
“Let me tell you what California needs, Jeff Sessions,” Harris said during a speech at the Center for American Progress Ideas Conference in Washington. “We need support in dealing with transnational criminal organizations and dealing with human trafficking – not in going after grandma’s medicinal marijuana.”
Harris was reacting in particular to a memo from AG Sessions that surfaced last week, in which the country’s top cop called for prosecutors to “charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense” — which, despite a growing consensus among Americans that the Drug War has been majorly disastrous, may lead to an uptick in mandatory minimum life sentences, even for nonviolent drug offenders.
Before being elected as a U.S. Senator by California voters in the 2016 election, Harris had been serving as the state’s attorney general, during her time as which she made prison sentencing reform one of California’s top priorities.
Harris also announced her support for nationwide reforms on Tuesday, saying that decriminalization is the “smart … and right thing” to do.
“We need a national drug policy that finally treats substance abuse not as a crime to be punished but as a disease to be treated,” she said.
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