Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly may have gotten a bit ahead of himself earlier this week, when he told a portion of the American public sitting at home watching “Meet the Press” that marijuana was “not a factor” in the War on Drugs.

Perhaps he didn’t consider his comments would soon spread across the Internet like wildfire and be covered by virtually every major news organization across the nation.

Nevertheless, it appears that Kelly’s running of the mouth may have steamed his boss over at of the Justice Department, who just so happens to be pot-hating U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, because by Tuesday morning, the retired Marine general was more than eager to do some serious backpedaling concerning his stance on marijuana.

"Let me be clear about marijuana. It is a potentially dangerous gateway drug that frequently leads to the use of harder drugs," Kelly said during a speech at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. "Its use and possession is against federal law and until the law is changed by the United States Congress, we in DHS, along with the rest of the federal government, are sworn to uphold all the laws that are on the books.”

Although no one really knows what insidious force inspired Kelly to shift gears on his position from over the weekend, there is a distinct possibility that the Justice Department had everything to do with it. After all, it is not very becoming for any part of an administration to make comments that contradict key components of the President’s staff. In this case, Kelly’s statement about “not arresting a lot of users” when fighting the War on Drugs, along with his suggestion that perhaps rehabilitation was part of the solution, likely got his rear end gnawed on like an Easter ham.

But, the truth of the matter is some of what Kelly says is true: it is up to Congress to change the law. Until that happens, it appears that Homeland Security is going to be doing some gnawing of its own.

“When marijuana is found at aviation checkpoints and baggage screening TSA personnel will also take appropriate action,” Kelly said. “Finally, ICE will continue to use marijuana possession, distribution and convictions as essential elements as they build their deportation / removal apprehension packages for targeted operations against illegal aliens. They have done this in the past, are doing it today, and will do it in the future."