GOP Senator to FBI Chief: Stop Encouraging Kids to Smoke Weed

FBI Director James Comey was on Capitol Hill Wednesday to talk about the threat of Chinese cyber hackers and the spawn of Al Qaeda plotting attacks inside the United States. But Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions had a matter of even greater domestic urgency to discuss with America’s top cop: Why are you encouraging kids to smoke weed?

Sessions told Comey he was "very disappointed" by a recent Wall Street Journal article in which Comey seemed to make light of the FBI’s prohibition on hiring people who’ve smoked marijuana within the past three years.

"I have to hire a great workforce to compete with those cyber criminals, and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview," Comey said at a conference in New York earlier this week, according to the newspaper.

Sessions wasn’t amused. He asked Comey, "Do you understand that that could be interpreted as one more example of leadership in America dismissing the seriousness of marijuana use, and that could undermine our ability to convince young people not to go down a dangerous path?"

"Very much, Senator," Comey assured the senator, and quickly added: "I am determined not to lose my sense of humor. But unfortunately there I was trying to be both serious and funny."

Comey explained that his remarks were prompted by a conference goer, who said he knew of a great candidate for the FBI, but that he’d smoked pot within the past five years. Comey told him to go ahead and apply, and told the audience that the bureau was "grappling" with how to hire future agents from a pool of young applicants whose attitudes about marijuana use are more permissive than the FBI’s.

Comey didn’t quite tell Sessions to loosen up and smoke a bowl, saying he was "absolutely" against smoking marijuana and that he didn’t want young people to smoke it. But, he told the senator, "Look, one of our challenges we face is getting a good work force at the same time when young people’s attitudes about marijuana and our states’ attitudes about marijuana are leading more and more of them to try it."

More than half of all states and the District of Columbia either have laws on the books allowing marijuana use for medical or recreational purposes or have decriminalized smoking pot. Comey cited a study from the American Medical Association that found that young smokers experience increased rates of anxiety and mental disorders.

Sessions seemed satisfied with his public scolding. "I think you should understand your words can have ramifications out there," he told Comey. 

Watch the full exchange here.