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Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on the oversight of the Justice Department.

(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder this week

, Politico's

reports.

Republicans slammed the U.S. Department of Justice for taking it easy on marijuana. A Democrat on the committee pressed Holder on marijuana's classification as a Schedule I controlled substance, a designation assigned to drugs with no medical value and prone to abuse. (Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., has

.)

Here's a clip from

:

Under questioning by Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., Holder defended the administration's response to states with legal medical and recreational marijuana laws. Holder told the committee his agency uses discretion when determining which cases to pursue.

Gerstein reported on one particularly charged exchange between the lawmaker and the attorney general.

"One of the laws of the land, which is federal law from 1970 — 10 years before I was ever born, that says that marijuana is a violation — the sale or possession, is a violation of federal law. What do you say to those kids, when you're in the classrooms and they ask why you choose to enforce certain laws and some laws you don't enforce?" Smith asked.

Holder sought to turn the tables on Smith, asking if he favored a policy of prosecuting every marijuana possession case at the federal level.

"We have limited resources. I don't think you are meaning to suggest that the federal government should prosecute every possessory marijuana case in that exists in the United States, which technically we I suppose would have the authority to do," the attorney general said during the pointed but generally mild-mannered exchange. "That's not what you're proposing, right?"

-- Noelle Crombie