WASHINGTON, DC — Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, President-elect Donald Trump's pick for attorney general, on Tuesday offered a hazy picture of how he would handle the issue of marijuana. Eight states have legalized recreational marijuana, and the Obama administration has not enforced the federal marijuana ban.

During Sessions' confirmation hearings Tuesday on Capitol Hill, Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy asked Sessions about his views on marijuana. "I won't commit to never enforcing federal law," Sessions said.

In previous comments, Sessions has been staunchly anti-pot. He said he opposes legal recreational marijuana and called the Obama administration's pot policy "untenable." "Good people don't smoke marijuana," Sessions said during a Senate hearing in April.



On Tuesday, Sessions refrained from talking about his own views on marijuana and instead pointed to the federal ban. He said, "Congress should pass a law" if there's popular support to end the prohibition. He added that it shouldn't be the attorney general's job to decide which laws should be enforced. "We should enforce the laws as we are able," Sessions said.

In November, voters in Maine, Massachusetts, California and Nevada legalized recreational marijuana, which is already legal in Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Alaska.



President Obama's administration has adopted a wait-and-see approach — a policy that Trump appears to favor.