Republican presidential contenders burnish their anti-drug reform credentials, and more.

There is some tarnish on that DEA badge after a new Justice Department Office of the Inspector General report. (DEA.gov)

DeSantis Doubles Down on Opposition to Marijuana Legalization. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a 2024 Republican presidential contender, reaffirmed his opposition to marijuana legalization as he campaigned in Iowa on Saturday. He argued—contrary to the facts—that legalization has increased the size of the black market in Colorado, the first state to legalize it.

Responding to a question about children experiencing "cannabis inducted psychosis," DeSantis clarified that he "would not legalize" in an echo of earlier comments on the topic. "I think what’s happened is this stuff is very potent now. I think when young people get it, I think it’s a real, real problem, and I think it’s a lot different than stuff that people were using 30, 40 years ago," DeSantis said. "I think when kids get on that, I think it causs a lot of problems and then, of course, you know, they can throw fentanyl in any of this stuff now."

While fentanyl has been encountered as a contaminant in various powder drug substances, every case of alleged fentanyl contamination of marijuana has so far been shown to be false. It, too, is a white powder, which could not be easily disguised in marijuana buds.

He also said he would opposed a proposed marijuana legalization initiative poised to make the ballot in Florida. "I would not do that," DeSantis said on Saturday. "And the places that legalized it like Colorado and California, you know, the argument was—and honestly it wasn’t a crazy argument—’Look, we know people are going to use marijuana. It is a drug. If you legalize it, then you can tax it, regulate it, and it’s going to end up being safer for people."But what’s happened in Colorado, the black market for marijuana is bigger and more lucrative than it was before they did the legalization," the governor said. "So the legalization I don’t think has worked."

But one report on the marijuana industry in Colorado found to the contrary that 99 percent of marijuana sales in the state took place within the legal framework.

Foreign Policy

Nikki Haley Calls for Siccing US Special Forces on Mexican Cartels in Mexico..Former UN Ambassador and current Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley has doubled down on earlier calls to use US military forces inside Mexico to go after Mexican drug trafficking organizations.

"When it comes to the cartels, we should treat them like the terrorists that they are," Haley said. "I would send special operations in there and eliminate them just like we eliminated ISIS and make sure that they know there's no place for them. If Mexico won't deal with it, I'll make sure I deal with it," she added.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has firmly rejected any use of US military forces inside Mexico.

Haley also took aim at China for its role in the production of fentanyl, saying the US president has to "go to the true source" of the problem. "China knows exactly what they're doing when they're sending that fentanyl across the border. And we need to tell them we will stop all normal trade relations with you until you stop killing Americans," Haley said. "We lost 75,000 Americans last year, and we can't continue to allow that to happen."

Law Enforcement

DEA Hired "Legacy" Job Applicants Despite Failed Lie Detector Tests. According to a new report from the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General (OIG), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has hired dozens of job applicants who failed lie detector tests as its polygraph unit faced pressure to approve "legacy" candidates related to senior officials.

Besides favoritism toward friends and family members of DEA officials, the report found that agency bosses ignored admissions of criminal behavior that should have been reported for further investigation, including one case where the applicant "admitted to pedophiliac tendencies" during the lie detector exam.

Also providing evidence about DEA lie detector practices is an agency whistleblower who has filed a federal lawsuit alleging misconduct within the DEA. The whistleblower alleged that when the pedophiliac applicant made his incriminating statements, supervisors pooh-poohed them, saying "there was nothing that could be done" and that the whistleblower "would be liable" for making an anonymous complaint to local law enforcement.

In a letter sent to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram last week, the OIG said it had "identified numerous concerns," including the use of loopholes to avoid complying with a policy enacted in 2019 that specifically bars the agency from hiring applicants who fail a polygraph or show signs of "countermeasures" to cheat the test.

(This article was prepared by StoptheDrugWar.org's 501(c)(4) lobbying nonprofit, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, which also pays the cost of maintaining this website. DRCNet Foundation takes no positions on candidates for public office, in compliance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and does not pay for reporting that could be interpreted or misinterpreted as doing so.)

A federal bill to fund university research on medical maerijuana gets filed, a federal asset forfeiture reform bill moves, and more.

Overdose deaths are prompting old punitive responses and possible new, more effective responses. (Pixabay)

SAFE Banking Act to Get Senate Committee Vote Within Weeks, Chairman Says. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, has said that the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act (S. 1323) would get a committee vote within weeks. "We’re looking at markup on the fentanyl issue, the executive compensation issue, and the Safe Banking Act issue and we want to do all that in the next two or three weeks,"Brown said.

The bill would give state-legal marijuana businesses access to the American banking system. Previous efforts to advance the bill stalled in the last few congressional sessions. But Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Steve Daines (R-MT), and Reps. Dave Joyce (R-OH) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) refiled the bill in their respective chambers in April.

Medical Marijuana

New Federal Bill Would Appropriate Millions for Medical Marijuana Research. This week Congresswoman Dina Titus (D-NV) and Congressman Joe Neguse (D-CO) introduced the Higher Education Marijuana Research Act of 2023, legislation that would eliminate obstacles to the academic research of cannabis, protect universities and researchers who study it, and promote the responsible study of marijuana.

While 38 states have legalized marijuana for medicinal use and 23 states including Nevada and Colorado have legalized it for recreational use, myriad federal rules and regulations create barriers to academic research. The bill would establish a new grant program within the National Institutes of Health to fund studies assessing cannabis’ medical benefits. It would appropriate up to $150 million in federal funding for university-sponsored medical cannabis research. The legislation also permits academic institutions to purchase state-licensed cannabis products for the purpose of "biological, chemical, agricultural, or public health research."

Asset Forfeiture

House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee Approves Asset Forfeiture Reform Bill. The House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government on Tuesday voted to advance the Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration (FAIR) Act of 2023 (HR 1525). The bill passed the subcommittee with bipartisan support and now awaits a full committee vote.

The bill would require that before seizing cash or property law enforcement show "a substantial connection between the property and the offense" and that the owner "used the property with intent to facilitate the offense" or "knowingly consented or was willfully blind to the use of the property by another in connection with the offense."

The bill would also eliminate the "equitable sharing" program under which state and local law enforcement agencies circumvent state asset forfeiture laws by turning cases over to the feds, who return 85 percent of the proceeds to the state or local law enforcement agency. And it would require that seizures be approved by a federal judge, not an administrative agency, such as the DEA, and that any funds go to the Treasury's general fund, not the fund of the seizing agency.

Drug Policy                                                       

Wisconsin Legislature Approves Bill to Increase Penalties in Overdose Deaths. With a final vote in the Assembly Wednesday, the legislature has approved a bill that increases maximum prison sentences for people who produce or sell drugs that cause another person's death, Senate Bill101. The bill would increase the maximum penalty from 25 years to 40 years in prison and increase the maximum period of supervision from 15 years to 20 years.

The bill comes as the state reported a record high number of overdose deaths in 2021 and easily passed both chambers. The only opposition to the bill comes from the ACLU of Wisconsin

"While reducing rates of overdose deaths is certainly an urgent priority, SB 101 won't alleviate the crisis," ACLU of Wisconsin policy analyst Jon McCray Jones said. "An extensive body of research - as well as our own lived experiences - tells us that punitive drug laws don't reduce drug use, substance abuse disorder, or overdoses."

Law Enforcement

. A new study found that when law enforcement agencies seize illicit opioids, fatal overdoses in the vicinity of the seizure increase over the next three weeks.

"This casts doubt on the core assumption of state and federal drug policy and suggests that police officers intending to protect the public’s health and safety may be inadvertently exacerbating harms such as fatal overdose," the study’s authors wrote.

The report does not say that drug raids caused the uptick in overdoses, but one of the study’s authors laid out a potential reasoning in a tweet: a person addicted to drugs does not simply stop using because police disrupt their supply. Instead, they go into withdrawal. They get more and more desperate, more willing to acquire drugs from dealers they don’t know. By the time they get new drugs, their tolerance likely decreased, putting them at risk of an overdose.

"Unknown tolerance, unknown potency, reduced risk aversion, and no margin for error in safely dosing fentanyl can all lead to increased fatal overdose observed in our study," Brandon del Pozo, an assistant professor of health services, policy and practice and an assistant professor of research at Brown University, wrote on Twitter.

Almost 1 million people have died from an overdose across the US in the past 20 years. The report proposes forming public safety partnerships where organizations can step in and assist people who use drugs after police perform a seizure; such groups could provide overdose prevention services, outreach and refer people to care.

"As drug markets become less predictable and morbidity and mortality among people who use drugs increases, it is critical that communities not only create low barrier access to evidence-based treatment but also implement harm reduction strategies that directly address supply-side drivers of accidental overdose," the report reads. "Naloxone distribution, drug-checking, and overdose prevention sites are strategies first developed and implemented by people who use drugs that can be facilitated or enhanced by law enforcement cooperation through exceptions or ‘carve-outs’ of drug criminalization to protect public health."

An Ohio signature-gathering campaign to put marijuana legalization on the November ballot is about to get underway, Wisconsin Republicans kill the governor's marijuana legalization proposal and a whole bunch more, and more.

The DEA is rolling back a pandemic-era rule that eased access to buprenorphine, and doctors and advocates are worried.

Ohio Activists Ready for Marijuana Legalization Initiative Campaign. The legislature has until tomorrow to act on a petition to legalize marijuana. It is not expected to do so, clearing the way for the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol to conduct a signature gathering campaign to put its marijuana legalization initiative on the November ballot. A successful initial round of signature gathering put the issue before the legislature, and the legislature's failure to approve it gives proponents one more chance to take the issue directly to the voters. The campaign will have until July 5 to come up with 124,000 valid voter signatures from at least half of the state's counties to qualify for the November ballot. The initiative would legalize and regulate marijuana commerce, allow for the home cultivation of six plants per adult or 12 per residence, and impose a 10 percent retail sales tax.

Wisconsin Republicans Kill Marijuana Legalization Amid Mass Slaughter of Democratic Governor's Budget Proposals. The legislature's Republican-controlled budget committee on Tuesday killed off more than 500 budget proposals from Gov. Tony Evers (D), including marijuana legalization, with a single vote Tuesday. The state has a $7 billion budget surplus, but the Republicans refused to allow it to be used for renovations to the Milwaukee Brewers' stadium, a paid family leave program, a 10 percent income tax cut targeting middle- and low-income earners, spending $270 million to add more mental health providers in schools, or to freeze enrollment in the state's private school voucher program, let alone marijuana legalization.

"These aren't fringe ideas, controversial concepts, or Republican or Democratic priorities -- they're about doing the right thing," Evers said as he listed more than a dozen items being killed. "With a historic surplus comes historic responsibility, and today, when we can afford to do more, this vote is foolish and a wasted opportunity."

Opiates and Opioids

DEA's Proposed Rollback of Pandemic-Era Loosening of Restrictions on Buprenorphine Has Doctors, Advocates Worried. With the pandemic public health emergency set to end in 10 days, doctors and advocates worry that a DEA proposal to roll back a pandemic policy allowing people taking the opioid substitute medication buprenorphine to get it prescribed remotely will harm people recovering from addiction. More than a million Americans use bupe to stop cravings for opiates and block withdrawal symptoms, and since 2020, the federal government has allowed them to have it prescribed via telehealth. The DEA wants to reimpose a requirement that an in-person visit first take place before allowing re-prescribing via telehealth. DEA has received more than 2,900 public comments on the proposed rule, and says it will consider them before it releases final rules after the public health emergency ends next week.

Psychedelics

California Natural Psychedelic Legalization Bill Heads for Senate Floor Vote. A bill that would legalize the possession of small amounts of natural psychedelics, Senate Bill 58, is now headed for a Senate floor vote after clearing the Senate Appropriations Committee without a hearing. The chairman of the committee invoked a rule allowing him to send it directly to the floor because it would have a negligible fiscal impact. The bill was earlier approved by the Senate Public Safety Committee. The bill would legalize the "possession, preparation, obtaining, transfer as specified, or transportation of" personal use amounts of psilocybin, psilocin, DMT, ibogaine, and mescaline, but not synthetics such as LSD or MDMA. A similar bill passed the Senate last session, only to be pulled by its sponsor, Sen. Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) after being watered down in the Assembly.

International

German Officials Circulate Draft Bill for First Part of Marijuana Legalization Plan. German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has distributed a draft bill to legalize marijuana possession, cultivation, and social clubs to cabinet officials. Once the cabinet weight in, the government will finalize the bill and send it to lawmakers. Under the proposal, adults could possess up to 25 grams via the social clubs and adults over 21 could purchase up to 50 grams a month. People 18 to 21 would be limited to 30 grams per month. People would also be allowed to grow up to three plants for personal use. The social clubs would not be allowed to offer on-site consumption but could distribute up to seven seeds or five clones per month to each member for home cultivation. Plans for a national legal commercial market for marijuana have been scaled back in the face of concerns from the European Union, but it is expected that a pilot program to allow marijuana sales in select jurisdictions will be a second phase of legalization.

A federal veterans' medical marijuana bill gets refiled, an Oklahoma fentanyl test strip bill advances, and more.

Bipartisan Bill to Legalize Medical Marijuana for Military Veterans Refiled. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and 12 bipartisan cosponsors refiled the Veterans Medical Marijuana Safe Harbor Act Wednesday. The bill would legalize medical marijuana for military veterans. The bill would amend federal law to allow vets to legally possess and use medical marijuana in accordance with state laws and with a doctor's recommendation. It would also allow doctors at the Department of Veterans Affairs to recommend medical marijuana. Earlier versions of the bill were filed in the last three Congresses.

Harm Reduction

Oklahoma Bill to Legalize Fentanyl Test Strips Heads for Senate Floor Vote. A bill to legalize fentanyl testing strips by declaring that they are no longer considered drug paraphernalia, House Bill 1987, has passed the Senate Health and Human Services Committee on a unanimous vote and is now headed for a Senate floor vote. The bill has already been approved by the House by a vote of 58-22.

Law Enforcement

DEA Head Investigated for No-Bid Contracts to Past Associates. In the latest scandal to rock the DEA, the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General is investigating whether DEA Administrator Anne Milgram improperly awarded no-bid contracts worth millions of dollars to past associates. Under scrutiny is $4.7 million the agency spent for "strategic planning and communication," much of which went to people Milgram knew in her capacity as New Jersey's attorney general and as a New York University law professor and who were paid at far higher rates than government officials.

Also under scrutiny is a $1.4 million contract given to a Washington, DC, law firm to review the DEA's scandal-plagued foreign operations. That review was widely panned for downplaying agent misbehavior. It was written by Boyd Johnson, a former assistant to former New York City US Attorney Preet Bharara, one of Milgram's closest friends.

Federal contracting is not supposed to bypass the government hiring process and is supposed to take place without preferential treatment for anyone. If the Inspector General finds wrongdoing, it could lead to administrative or even criminal charges.

Sentencing Policy

Push for California Ballot Initiative to Increase Penalties for Fentanyl Dealers Gets Underway. An Orange County group calling itself Fentanyl Solution has $2.2 million in initial funding and plan to draft a ballot initiative that would increase sentences for people convicted of fentanyl distribution. The groups says it will begin with a public opinion poll on the issue to help figure out the best way to draft the proposed initiative.

"We want to let the legislators, who voted against every form of penalty for these drug dealers, know that we are holding them accountable," said Janice M. Celeste, President & CEO of Fentanyl Solution.org. "We believe that drug dealers who sell fentanyl and murder their customers must pay the price for their actions. The Poll-to-Prop initiative is a crucial step in our efforts to raise awareness about the need for stricter penalties for these criminals."

It's a long way from here to an initiative qualifying for the 2024 ballot. Once an initiative is approved by state officials, backers will have 180 days to come up with more than half a million valid voter signatures, but that must happen by July 2024 to get on the November 2024 ballot.