Why Does Anyone Think Cops Know What Should Be a Crime?

Why does anybody pay attention to what law enforcement employees think should be a crime? This is from Michele Leonhart’s confirmation hearing as head of the DEA:

“I’m a big fan of the DEA,” said [Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama], before asking Leonhart point blank if she would fight medical marijuana legalization.

“I have seen what marijuana use has done to young people, I have seen the abuse, I have seen what it’s done to families. It’s bad,” Leonhart said. “If confirmed as administrator, we would continue to enforce the federal drug laws.”

Well, that’s sort of the job…

“These legalization efforts sound good to people,” Sessions quipped. “They say, ‘We could just end the problem of drugs if we could just make it legal.’ But any country that’s tried that, Alaska and other places have tried it, have failed. It does not work,” Sessions said.

“We need people who are willing to say that. Are you willing to say that?” Sessions asked Leonhart.

“Yes, I’ve said that, senator. You’re absolutely correct [about] the social costs from drug abuse, especially from marijuana,” Leonhart said. “Legalizers say it will help the Mexican cartel situation; it won’t. It will allow states to balance budgets; it won’t. No one is looking [at] the social costs of legalizing drugs.”

When I was in school, I learned that legislatures made the laws, and executive bodies, such as the DEA, enforced them. So who the hell is Michele Leonhart to tell us what the laws should be? I mean, she has the same right to speak out as anyone else, but why would anyone bother to listen? She’s an expert at law enforcement, but that doesn’t mean she knows anything much about the moral and ethical reasoning needed for good lawmaking.