From a speech:
I realize this may be an unfashionable belief in a time of growing tolerance of drug use. But too many lives are at stake to worry about being fashionable. I reject the idea that America will be a better place if marijuana is sold in every corner store. And I am astonished to hear people suggest that we can solve our heroin crisis by legalizing marijuana – so people can trade one life-wrecking dependency for another that’s only slightly less awful. Our nation needs to say clearly once again that using drugs will destroy your life.
He calls marijuana traffickers criminal gangs and vows to destroy them:
“I returned from the border last week and they told me that quite a number of the people they arrest are hauling marijuana across the border.”
“If you are a gang member, we will find you,” he said. “We will devastate your networks. We will starve your revenue sources, deplete your ranks, and seize your profits. We will not concede a single block or a street corner to your vicious tactics.”
US Attorney General Jeff Sessions labelled cannabis "only slightly less awful" than heroin.
"We will enforce our laws and put bad men behind bars," he said in a recent speech in Richmond, Virginia.
"We will fight the scourge of drug abuse."