JOB NO. 1: THE OPIOID CRISIS
The new U.S. attorney for Massachusetts is laserfocused on cutting off the opioid supply that killed 2,100 Bay State drug abusers last year, and unapologetic that the recreational marijuana industry will be closely scrutinized.
“Marijuana cultivation and trafficking is unambiguously illegal under federal law. It just is. That said, the No. 1 enforcement policy for my office is the opioid crisis,” Andrew Lelling said yesterday at his first meet-and-greet with the press. “If you run into something that’s a priority for my office and the state and local police don’t want to be involved — say, immigration or marijuana — I can’t tell them what to do. I can ask for their help. But at the end of the day, if they don’t want to give it, then we’ll have to be on our own.
“I’m not a policymaker,” he stressed. “I just deal with the law as it is. The law as it should be? That’s somebody else.”
Perhaps by way of assuaging the pro-pot crowd’s fears of arrest, the Monsey, N.Y., native said the 14 drugenforcement prosecutors at his disposal “are spending the bulk of their time chasing down bulk trafficking of heroin and opioids. Historically, the marijuana cases that we have pursued have involved the bulk importation of marijuana from Canada or from Mexico, accompanied with some kind of money laundering.”
The 55th U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, a career white-collar crime and civil rights prosecutor, was appointed by President Trump.
Lelling was also plainspoken about how his office “will be more aggressive” when it comes to immigration enforcement, specifically cases involving people who repeatedly re-enter the country after they’re deported and illegal immigrants who are involved in gangs, drug trafficking and sham marriages.
“It’s important to the president,” he said, “and it’s important to the attorney general.”