Trump’s war on Jeff Sessions is over, the attorney general’s war on pot should be too

Attorney General Jeff Sessions submitted his resignation on Wednesday — at President Trump’s request. As Trump considers his replacement, he should pick someone that is willing to pursue a pragmatic approach to drug policy — specifically, marijuana legalization.

With Sessions at it’s head, the Department of Justice turned back the clock on drug policy, treating marijuana as an evil threat straight out of “Reefer Madness” rather than a substance with widely acknowledged medicinal uses and increasingly legalized for recreational use by popular ballot proposals. Instead, he angled to enforce federal law to the letter by prosecuting marijuana as an illegal Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act regardless of state law.