Attorney General Jeff Sessions should lose his job because of his insistence on fighting a war on drugs, former Rep. Ron Paul said Saturday.
"He represents something that is so un-American, as far as I'm concerned," the Texas Libertarian told CNN's Michael Smerconish. "The war on drugs, to me, is a war on liberty. I think that we overly concentrate on the issue of the drug itself. I concentrate on the issue of freedom of choice, on doing things that are of high risk, and we permit high risk all the time."
On Thursday, Attorney Jeff Sessions is ending an Obama-era policy that had allowed states to determine how to enforce federal marijuana laws, and instead will let federal prosecutors in states that have legalized the use of the drug determine how to enforce federal laws.
"I mean, if you look at the study of philosophy and religion, that's very risky stuff," Paul continued. "There's bad ideas out there. Generally, we allow people to eat what they want, and that is very risky, but we do overly concentrate on what people put into their body."
Also, Paul insisted that the war on drugs is "totally illegal," because for years, the federal government has "recognized that we don't have the right" to regulate drug sales.
"In 1914 when it passed the Harrison Act, it was done over taxes," said Paul, "[and in] 1938, the same thing with marijuana. The same thing when they wanted to manipulate Obamacare. They put taxes on it, they don't endorse the concept they have a right to do all of these things. So, I think it's very questionable constitutionally, they shouldn't be doing it but it's so terrible. It is an excuse to violate civil liberties wholesale."
Sessions, he continued, has been "one of the worst."
"Usually, I don't usually ever get involved in these personality squabbles but this is one major setback," said Paul, "[Barack] Obama did something decent there. He backed off. I thought that was a good move. And Sessions wants to reverse that."
Paul also railed against the idea of the government needing to protect people from themselves.
"Once you get into this thing that government is going to protect us against ourselves, there's no protection of liberty," he said. "People are frightened about liberty, they always want it to be taken care of. Just because you legalize something doesn't mean everyone's going to do it."
Paul also commented about the growth of bitcoin, noting that when he was in Congress, he introduced legislation to allow competing currencies because he hates the current system.
"The official counterfeiters at the federal reserve, people should have the right to choose," he said. "They did originally when money started. Then they picked gold and silver. The government has taken over and abused that standard and monopolized it and destroyed it in this country."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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