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[image:1 align:right caption:true]Drug Policy

DEA Finally Gets a Permanent Administrator as Marijuana Rescheduling is Stalled. More than six months into the second Trump administration, the Senate has given final approval to Trump's pick to run the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), finally getting the agency past a pair of acting administrators.

The new DEA head is Terrance C. "Terry" Cole, a longtime veteran of the agency who rose through the ranks over two decades and served a range of domestic and international assignments, including in Oklahoma City, Washington, DC, New York, Afghanistan, Colombia, and the Middle East. When he retired from the agency in 2020, he was DEA's Acting Regional Director for Mexico, Canada, and Central America.

After his retirement from the DEA, Cole served as Virginia's Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security under Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) from 2023 until this year.

Queried about one of the biggest issues facing the agency -- marijuana rescheduling -- Cole has said examining the rescheduling proposal would be "one of my first priorities," but he has not said what result he wants and has been known to make comments worrying about the health effects of marijuana.

Initiated under the Biden administration, the move to reschedule marijuana has been stalled in the early months of the Trump era. DEA Administrative Law Judge John Mulrooney, who is handling the case, paused hearings on the issue amid charges of improper behavior by the DEA six months ago, and last month, the DEA and rescheduling proponents told him they remained at an impasse.

The issue had not advanced under two acting DEA administrators, but there is hope it will move with a new administrator now in place. [Ed: Whether reformers will like the decision is another question.]

Opiates and Opioids

Regressive Fentanyl Bill Becomes Law

In mid-July, President Trump signed into law the regressive Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl (HALT) Act (S. 331). The new law permanently places fentanyl and its analogs on Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act and imposes mandatory minimum sentences of five years in federal prison for dealing 10 grams of the drugs and 10 years for 100 grams.

Fentanyl had been temporarily assigned to Schedule I since 2018. The synthetic opioid has been implicated in hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths since initially appearing in the US opioid black market a decade ago. But those deaths have declined in the past couple of years.

Over objections from the research community, the bill makes all fentanyl-related substances Schedule I even though not all have been tested for medical benefits. To be placed on Schedule I, substances must have "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." Researchers fear that the move could block research leading to new overdose treatments.

But President Trump touted the law as a victory in his war on the fentanyl trade.

"Today we strike a righteous blow to the drug dealers, narcotic traffickers and criminal cartels," Trump said. "We take a historic step toward justice for every family touched by the fentanyl scourge. We are delivering another defeat for the savage drug smugglers and criminals and the cartels," Trump said.

While some relatives of overdose victims attended the bill signing and praised the legislation, that sentiment was not unanimous.

"I lost my son to a fentanyl overdose and don't want another parent to experience that pain," said Susan Ousterman, founder of the Vilomah Memorial Foundation. "My son died because he couldn't access the care he needed. It is deeply hypocritical for Congress to claim a commitment to reducing overdose deaths while continuing to pass legislation that prioritizes punitive measures over meaningful solutions. Instead of perpetuating cycles of stigma and incarceration, we should create pathways to healing and recovery by focusing on treatment, harm reduction, and the underlying social determinants of health. The actions of Congress must align with the commitments they made to families like mine to reduce these preventable deaths."

The Drug Policy Alliance also criticized the new law as misguided and emphasizing law enforcement over public health and harm reduction.

"Congress should address Americans' very valid concerns about fentanyl by prioritizing bills that advance health approaches that save lives and give people who are struggling a chance at recovery. Health and harm reduction interventions are responsible for the recent decrease in overdose deaths," said Maritza Perez Medina, the group's federal affairs director. This includes expanded access to evidence-based treatment and overdose prevention tools like naloxone which can reverse opioid/fentanyl overdose, fentanyl test strips which can detect fentanyl in drugs, and medications for opioid use disorder which can cut overdose risk in half and reduce cravings so people can stay alive and have a shot at recovery," she added.

"Our elected leaders must invest more in these lifesaving health approaches, yet Congress is doing the opposite. Instead, they are set to make catastrophic funding cuts to essential health and addiction services to prioritize immigration enforcement -- to the tune of $2 trillion. And they are doubling down on failed drug war approaches by passing misguided bills like the HALT Fentanyl Act. We are deeply disappointed to see Congress take this step backward."

Obituary

Richard Lee, Founder of Oaksterdam University and California Marijuana Legalization Proponent, Dies at 62

Wheelchair-bound Richard Lee, who became a major player in the California marijuana legalization scene in the 2000s and 2010s, died July 27 in his hometown of Houston, Texas. He was only 62.

Lee founded Oaksterdam University, which has trained more than a hundred thousand students in cannabis production, law, and policy over the years, as well as creating the Blue Sky Coffeeshop, the Bulldog Coffeeshop, and the Oaksterdam Gift Shop. Lee used profits from his marijuana-related enterprises to fund activism around marijuana law reform and social justice.

Those profits helped him become the moving force behind the Proposition 19 statewide marijuana legalization initiative in 2010. That effort garnered nearly 47% of the popular vote, but could not get over the top. Still, it paved the way for successful marijuana legalization initiatives in Colorado and Washington two years later and a successful California legalization initiative in 2016.

But by that time, Lee was out of the scene. After a 2012 raid on Oaksterdam and his own home, Lee retired from Oaksterdam and returned to Houston, where he was the primary caregiver for his mother Anne Lee. At her son's behest, she founded Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition (RAMP) in 2012.

Lee helped bring medical marijuana, adult use, and marijuana reform into the mainstream by the openness of his advocacy and the generosity of his spirit. He was publicly proud to be a cannabis entrepreneur and invited the media to come watch him do his good works. Lee didn’t wait for change to occur; he made it happen.

"Richard was an inspiration to so many," said his younger brother Donald after his death. "No less so for his family. That inspiration will never fade."

And his legacy lives on, both in a revitalized Oakland and in a national and global policy landscape where marijuana legalization is rapidly becoming the norm, not the exception.