On the recordMay 28, 2014
The Department of Justice is correct to respect the laws of the States and to put an understanding that heroin and crack and cocaine and meth and prescription drugs are drugs that really cause the evils we have and the problems we have in society, that make people commit crimes to feed their habits. Marijuana does not make people commit crime. It makes them overeat. It doesn't make them commit crimes. And that is why we need to prioritize the resources we have in this country toward those drugs that really cause problems to others. I commend the Department of Justice for their discretion. They haven't gone as far as they should. And the laboratories of democracy, the States, as Louis Brandeis called them, are doing a great service to this country, in Colorado and Washington, to see how it works. They are bringing in millions and millions of dollars. Violent crime has gone down in Colorado. There have not been the problems alleged to have occurred in other areas. And we can wait and see how those States' experiments go. And the Department of Justice is allowing the experiment to go on for other States' benefits. And I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana.
