Although President Donald Trump repeatedly promised not to go after legal cannabis while he was on the campaign trail, anyone who considers themselves an advocate knows that Jeff Sessions, his pick for U.S. attorney general, is one of the marijuana industry’s worst nightmares.
Last week, in his latest absurd tirade against cannabis, Sessions claimed that marijuana use is “only slightly less awful” than heroin addiction. His baseless comment was offensive on multiple levels, both to those who use the plant for medical purposes and to the vast number of Americans who have been impacted by the growing opioid epidemic.
However, his unsavory and uneducated comments didn’t go unchecked by CBS Late Show host Stephen Colbert. On Tuesday night, the politically savvy comedian took aim at the Trump administration, centering Sessions at the butt of the joke. Introduced as the “Attorney General and Forest Gnome Whose Riddles Are Kind of Racist Jeff Sessions,” Colbert mocked the former Alabama senator for his outlandish remarks.
Putting on a hilariously stereotypical Southern accent, Colbert mimicked Sessions’ remarks that equated cannabis use with heroin addiction. The Late Show host mocked the U.S. Attorney general’s comments by stating outlandish comparison such as "burning your tongue on hot cocoa is only slightly less awful than being set on fire."
During the opening monologue, Colbert also poked fun at the rumors that "paranoia has seized the Trump White House.” This was based on recent hearsay that the administration has mostly fallen silent during official meetings, due to fears that their comments would somehow be leaked to the media. Trump and his cronies have been operating in fear that a “deep state” consisting of military and intelligence officers are out to destroy them.
Colbert ended the segment on a lighthearted note, shifting into a story about a cooler filled of marijuana that was recently donated to Goodwill.
However funny the monologue was, his mention of Sessions’ anti-cannabis rhetoric is still no laughing matter. The U.S. Attorney general has repeatedly sent mixed messages to the industry about potential crackdowns, and has even gotten himself mixed up in the ongoing Russian scandal
