Trump DEA Nominee Withdraws, Reform Groups Slam NY Marijuana Regulators, More... (12/4/24)

The Drug Policy Alliance and Harm Reduction International have issued a report on US spending on the global drug war--to the tune of $13 billion in the last decade--and more. 

Florida's Hillsborough County Sheriff, Chad Chronister, has withdrawn his name from consideration as DEA head. Chad, we hardly knew ye. (Hillsborough SO)

Marijuana Policy

NAACP And Allies Push New York Governor To Stop Letting Marijuana Officials Favor ‘Big Corporations’ Over Small Businesses And Equity. A broad array of groups interested in marijuana policy and social equity sent a letter to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) on Tuesday criticizing what they described as state marijuana regulators’ "efforts in service of big corporations at the expense of small business and equity outcomes" during the latter half of this year.

"When you entered office, you publicly committed to New York having the most equitable and small business-focused cannabis market in the country, but we are seeing different priorities from your administration," the letter says, with the groups elaborating in a press release that since Chris Alexander, the first state marijuana regulator left in May, state officials have demonstrated a "shift toward corporate interests at the expense of small business, justice-involved entrepreneurs, and Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) licensees who are directly impacted by prior marijuana arrest."

Signatories to the letter and the press release include the NAACP New York State Conference, Black Cannabis Industry Association, Minority Cannabis Business Association, Service Disabled Veterans in Cannabis Association, Drug Policy Alliance, NYC NORML and VOCAL-NY.

"Since the Office of Cannabis Management’s (‘OCM’) inaugural executive director was forced out, OCM, under the leadership of its interim executive director who is novel to both cannabis and economic markets, has pursued efforts in service of big corporations at the expense of small business and equity outcomes."

In recent months, the groups said, they’ve "grown increasingly concerned by the lack of political leadership" in fully implementing the state’s adult-use marijuana law, pointing to what they say are a "lack of funding of social and economic equity programs, a series of short-sighted regulatory decisions, and the lack of appropriate OCM leadership."

The groups not only challenged the qualifications of OCM Acting Executive Director Felicia Reid, but they also criticized her handling of a recent review of licensing applications, as well as understaffing, troubles with the social equity loan program, and changes in the duties of the social equity officer position. 

"During this critical time of establishing New York’s cannabis market, the Administration has irresponsibly failed to seat a permanent leader with appropriate economic development and cannabis experience and instead has appointed an interim director who lacks experience in cannabis and economic development to serve in leadership," the letter to Hochul says. "In a sharp pivot, OCM expanded its review of the November queue without regard to market capacity, only to push back its review of the less capitalized businesses in the December queue, effectively jeopardizing hundreds of small businesses’ opportunity to open.

"To diminish oversight of these changes, OCM has transformed the Chief Equity Officer role by redrafting the job description to ensure the next Chief Equity Officer holds less decision-making oversight of licensing and market regulations with cannabis equity in mind," it continues. "Add to this the mounting financial challenges facing CAURD entrepreneurs caused by the failed commitment by this administration to help fund at least 150 CAURD licensees with low-interest loans."

The groups want Fields gone and replaced by someone with experience in the marijuana or regulatory spheres and a commitment to social equity. 

"We believe many of these knee-jerk changes in licensing review and failed commitments to equity," they wrote in the letter, "stem from a lack of experience and exposure to cannabis market development and regulatory licensing regimes, as well as a poor demonstration of a commitment to lead the agency according to the goals set out" in New York’s adult-use marijuana law., 

Drug Policy

Trump DEA Pick Bows Out Under Criticism from MAGA World for Covid-Era Arrest of Pastor. Well, that didn't take long. Chad Chronister, the Hillsborough County (Florida) sheriff nominated by President-elect Trump to head the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has abandoned the effort in the face of criticism of his handling of COVID-era social distancing crackdowns by elements of Trump's MAGA base. 

Just three days after he was nominated, Chronister announced Tuesday that he was withdrawing from criticism and said he would stay on as sheriff in Hillsborough County. 

"Over the past several days, as the gravity of this very important responsibility set in, I’ve concluded that I must respectfully withdraw from consideration," he wrote. "There is more work to be done for the citizens of Hillsborough County and a lot of initiatives I am committed to fulfilling."

But Chronister had drawn opposition from within Trump world for his enforcement of public health orders during the pandemic. MAGA members were particularly incensed by his arrest of a pastor for ignoring state and local public health orders by holding large church services in March 2020, just as the World Health Organization was declaring COVID-19 a pandemic and Trump himself was declaring it a national emergency. 

Rightist critics such as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said Chronister should be "disqualified" over the pastor's arrest, while the rightist Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association said in a statement that it was "shocked and dismayed" by the selection, citing Chronister’s enforcement of covid mandates.

But Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who appointed Chronister as sheriff stood by him. 

"He’s actually a good personal friend of mine," Scott said. "He’s a very good sheriff, he’s been re-elected twice since I appointed him. He’s a great community leader."

Chronister, who had a barely existent national profile, was a surprise pick for DEA head but had worked alongside former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, who is now Trump's pick to head the Justice Department. No word yet on who might replace him as the nominee to head the DEA. 

Foreign Policy

US Taxpayers Spent Nearly $13 Billion Funding Global Drug War in the Past Decade, Report Finds. American taxpayers upset about fruitless and ineffective federal government spending might want to take a look at global US anti-drug programs, which a new report from the Drug Policy Alliance and Harm Reduction International found cost taxpayers nearly $13 billion over the past decade. 

The report found that that spending came at the expense of efforts to end global poverty while exacerbating human rights violations and environmental damage. 

The report examined anti-drug spending across various government departments and included case studies of Colombia, Mexico, and the Philippines. 

The report's analysis "demonstrates how US assistance has supported and expanded destructive and deadly anti-drug responses in low- and middle-income countries around the world," the authors wrote. 

The US global drug war spending, the report says, "is more taxpayer money than the US government spent over that decade on primary education or water supply and sanitation in low- and middle-income countries" and also greater than

 U.S. foreign aid over the same period "for all of Southern Africa or Central America."

The report notes that the Biden administration has "requested $1 billion for international ‘counternarcotics’ activities," for Fiscal Year 2025, about half of which ($480 million) would be allocated to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), while about $350 million would have gone to the State Department.

"The role of the United States in exporting the destructive war on drugs to other countries is unparalleled," DPA and HRI said in an executive summary of the findings. "

Of course, the US-led global war on drugs has been going on for much longer than just the past decade, and after all these years, the dollars really add up. 

"Since 1971, the US has spent more than a trillion dollars on the war on drugs, prioritizing law enforcement responses and fueling mass incarceration within its borders,"  the report says. "It has also played a leading role in pushing and funding punitive responses to drugs internationally."