Attorney General Sessions Reverses Obama Mandatory Minimum Drug Sentences

The Obama administration’s changes to mandatory minimum drug sentences proved they had a very lax attitude on crime, preferring to comfort and protect criminals rather than live in the real world.

The Obama Justice Department, led by Attorney General Eric Holder, pushed prosecutors against seeking mandatory minimum sentences in federal drug cases.

mandatory minimum drug sentences

The Obama administration felt that mandatory minimums would unduly punish criminals, despite the fact that prosecutors routinely used the threat of a mandatory minimum sentence to obtain valuable information about higher-level drug dealers, a fact that seemed unimportant during the Obama years.

The Holder directive did the following:

Instructed federal prosecutors not to specify the amount of drugs involved when charging low-level and non-violent drug offenders. That policy effectively gave judges discretion to set sentences lower than the mandatory punishments ranging from five years to life in prison federal law dictates when someone is convicted of a crime involving a certain quantity of illegal drugs.

Well, its a new era in law and justice, and the Jeff Sessions Justice Department has had enough, reversing this 2013 directive.

In a memo, Sessions explained that “It is a core principle that prosecutors should charge and pursue the most serious, readily provable offense. This policy affirms our responsibility to enforce the law, is moral and just, and produces consistency. This policy fully utilizes the tools Congress has given us.”

Sessions’ reversal of Obama’s lax drug policy should come as no surprise given his past comments about America’s complacency around drugs, saying, “It is a big, critical part of it. We’re on a bad trend right now. We’ve got too much complacency about drugs. Too much talk about recreational drugs.”

Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, then-candidate Donald J. Trump spoke passionately about the need to restore law and order to America, which helps explain why Attorney General Sessions made this announcement.

Trump has also pushed for drug testing for welfare recipients, so this isn’t just a one-off policy.

A video of President Trump discussing the need to restore law and order can be seen below:

Do you support the Trump administration’s decision to reverse Obama’s lax policy when it comes to prosecuting drug crimes? Share your thoughts below! 

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