Jeff Sessions Veers Off-Script, Bashes Pot Use But Steers Clear of Claim It's 'Slightly Less Awful’ Than Using Heroin

Attorney General Jeff Sessions continued to make eyebrow-raising statements about marijuana on Wednesday, though he did not utter a line in a prepared speech that marijuana use is “only slightly less awful” than heroin addiction.

Justice Department spokespeople did not immediately respond to an inquiry about why Sessions dropped the line, which had attracted widespread attention on Twitter after the prepared speech was posted online ahead of an event in Richmond, Virginia.

The comparison, of course, is controversial. Heroin killed nearly 13,000 Americans in 2015 and related opioids another 20,000, and users often commit a wide range of crimes to support their addictions.

Marijuana is used by a much larger population and doesn’t kill users -- with legalization advocates arguing it’s even safer than alcohol.

Though he did not utter the particular claim, Sessions did give an increasingly familiar denunciation of marijuana, ridiculing the findings of preliminary research that shows more liberal pot laws may contribute to less opioid abuse.

At his podium, Sessions said "we're not going to worry about being fashionable" and predicted victory in an undefined "argument" in "the months to come."

Justice Department spokespeople also did not respond to a request for clarification on the argument he was referencing.

Following his speech, Sessions also questioned the value of medical marijuana.

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post reported on Twitter that Sessions said he "may have some different ideas" than the previous attorney general about pot enforcement, and that "I think medical marijuana has been hyped, maybe too much."

Marijuana possession remains a federal crime, but eight states have passed laws allowing recreational sales and more than half allow its medical use.

The medical pot industry currently is protected by a congressional spending rider, but the recreational industry is not, having opened with the blessing of the Obama Justice Department, which cited prosecutorial discretion to allow for state autonomy.

Sessions has the power to order legal action that could overturn state-regulated pot markets, and his hostile remarks are causing concern within the multibillion-dollar pot industry, which pays hundreds of millions in taxes and employs tens of thousands.

Sessions' talking points about marijuana on Wednesday were similar to recent comments in a speech before the National Association of Attorneys General.

In both speeches Sessions denounced the suggestion looser pot laws could reduce opioid addiction, and in both speeches denounced the sale of marijuana at grocery stores -- which do not actually sell pot in states that regulate its distribution.

The marijuana-related remarks as prepared for delivery:

As delivered, Sessions said:

Medical experts involved in the debate about marijuana legalization have different views on the accuracy of Sessions’ as-prepared claim that pot abuse is “only slightly less awful” than heroin addiction.

Stuart Gitlow, former president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine and board member of the anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, says “Jeff Sessions’ statement is accurate and supportable from the addiction medicine standpoint.”

Gitlow says: “All of this is tied together, as addiction is but a single disease entity. If we want to put an end to addiction-related morbidity, we have to stop grasping at straws in the impossible attempt to find a safe addictive agent. We have to simply recognize that roughly 15 percent of our population is at risk, and that in order to minimize that risk, the rest of us have to stay away. It’s the same as seat belts, frankly. “

Gitlow says it’s possible to use heroin daily for 10 years with clean needles and no adulterants and be “in perfect health." So-called heroin-assisted therapy, legal in many other countries, seeks this end for addicts who have failed with other treatments -- an approach advocated by a Maryland emergency room doctor who serves in the state legislature.

“Heroin when used appropriately is actually not causal of any morbidity,” Gitlow says. “On the other hand, let’s say I use marijuana every day for 10 years. Now there’s significant morbidity. I have likely lost cognitive function, respiratory function and had a 1 percent chance of getting a psychotic disease that I wouldn’t have otherwise gotten.”

Gitlow says the fact that this view flies in the face of conventional wisdom may make marijuana even more dangerous.

David Nathan, a psychiatrist based in Princeton, New Jersey, who leads the pro-legalization group Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, however, says Sessions is wrong, pointing to the real-world consequences of using the drugs.

“Within my community, it is widely acknowledged and accepted that cannabis is less addictive and dangerous than many legal drugs like tobacco or alcohol — let alone opioids, which killed more than 33,000 people in 2015 alone,” Nathan says. "By comparison, there isn’t a single well-documented case of a fatal marijuana overdose, because it is close to physiologically impossible."

Nathan adds: “there is even some early evidence that cannabis can be an effective exit drug to treat opioid addiction. In states where medical cannabis is legal, recent studies have shown a 25 percent reduction in prescription opioid overdose deaths. That correlation deserves everyone's attention, especially the attorney general's.”