Trump’s New DEA Leader Has A ‘Just Say No’ Stance On Marijuana, Linking Cannabis Use To Suicide Risk And Schizophrenia

President Donald Trump has officially named his pick to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)—selecting a decades-long agency veteran and top Virginia official who’s voiced concerns about the dangers of marijuana and linked its use to higher suicide risk among youth.

On Tuesday, Trump announced that he’s nominating Terrance Cole to serve as DEA administrator in place of Acting Administrator Derek Maltz.

Cole worked at DEA for 21 years and currently serves as Virginia’s secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security (PSHS), where part of his responsibility is to oversee the state Cannabis Control Authority (CCA).

After a visit to CCA’s office last year, Cole posted on LinkedIn: “Everybody knows my stance on marijuana after 30 plus years in law enforcement, so don’t even ask!”

For those who aren’t familiar with his position on the issue however, the post was accompanied by hashtags including #justsayno, #disorders, #notlegal4distribution, #healthissues, #thinblueline and #backtheblue.

Last February, he also shared a link to an article posed on a DEA website titled “NOT ‘Just Weed’: Four Times More Dangerous in Three Decades” that links high THC content in cannabis to “increased problems with memory and learning, distorted perception, difficulty in thinking and problem-solving, and loss of coordination.”

Spend enough time at parties or clubs? Please read this article from the @DEAHQ to learn the dangers of peer pressure and marijuana use: https://t.co/uuj0YcscXP

— Secretary Terrance Cole (@VA_PSHS) February 21, 2024

“Even more disturbingly, all too often, people are unaware that marijuana, especially when it contains more THC, is a risk factor for psychosis and schizophrenia, as well as the fact that it stunts brain growth, sometimes includes lead and mercury, and can alter male sperm DNA linked to autism,” the post says.

Also last February, Cole shared a study finding “higher suicide risks linked to marijuana and alcohol use in high school.”

Concerned about our youth? Recent study shows higher suicide risks linked to marijuana and alcohol use in high school.

To educate and support our youth, please read the full article here: https://t.co/XaALZQPfqZ

— Secretary Terrance Cole (@VA_PSHS) February 13, 2024

It doesn’t appear that Cole has publicly weighed in on the Biden administration-initiated marijuana rescheduling proposal, which was also endorsed by Trump on the campaign trail. If confirmed by the Senate, the official will inherit that administrative process.

For advocates, the new selection to lead DEA is hardly more encouraging for the prospects of reform compared to the acting administrator, Maltz, who subscribes to the “gateway drug” theory for marijuana and believes most people living in states that have legalized cannabis will continue to obtain it from illicit sources such as cartels due to high taxes in regulated markets.

Maltz has been particularly critical of the current marijuana rescheduling effort, claiming that the Justice Department “hijacked” the process from DEA when it advanced a recommendation from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

Historically it has been the DEA administrator to sign off on drug scheduling moves, but in this case the cannabis proposed rule was signed by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland.

For now, administrative hearings on the rescheduling proposal that were scheduled to begin last month have been delayed, with an agency judge recently granting an appeal motion from pro-reform witnesses that will set the clock back at least three months amid allegations of improper communications between DEA and rescheduling opponents and more.

Trump initially chose Hillsborough County, Florida Sheriff Chad Chronister to lead DEA, but the prospective nominee—who strongly advocated for marijuana decriminalization—withdrew from consideration last month amid scrutiny from conservative lawmakers over the sheriff’s record on COVID-related public safety enforcement actions.

Meanwhile, Trump’s choice for U.S. attorney general, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R), is declining to say how she plans to navigate key marijuana policy issues—including the ongoing rescheduling process and renewing federal enforcement guidance—if she’s ultimately confirmed.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee to lead HHS, said recently that he will defer to DEA on marijuana rescheduling if confirmed. And he’d “like to review the data” that led to the health agency’s recommendation for the reform before he potentially embraces it—despite his previous, repeated calls for cannabis legalization.

Meanwhile, in Virginia, Cole also served as an ex officio member of the state’s Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Board.

Cole was appointed to lead the PSHS by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who strongly opposes marijuana legalization and is currently threatening to veto a bill that was recently approved in the House and awaits final approval in the Senate to create a system of regulated, adult-use sales. He vetoed similar legislation that reached his desk last year.

Youngkin emphasized during his State of the Commonwealth address last month that he’s not interested in cooperating with lawmakers to legalize marijuana sales in the state, claiming that doing so would hurt children, worsen mental health and increase violent crime.

It’s not clear to what extent, if at all, Cole has been consulted, or weighed in on, the governor’s cannabis platform or any recent legalization proposals behind the scenes.

Federal Agency Will Host ‘Open And Candid Discussion’ On Marijuana Breathalyzer Technology

Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.

Federal Drug Cops Conflate Synthetic Cannabinoids With Marijuana (Deliberately?)

“Synthetic marijuana” is a broad term that’s used by much of the media to describe plant material sprayed with any number of lab-derived chemicals. These chemicals may be intended to mimic the effect of plant-based cannabinoids on the brain; they also may not be.

The similarities end there. The products, commonly sold under brand names like K2 or Spice (or “potpourri”) at head shops, gas stations and bodegas, is known to cause serious health complications, including death.

Plant-based cannabis, which has known health benefits, has never resulted in a known fatal overdose. Natural marijuana is legal for medical or recreational use in more than half of the United States. Synthetic cannabinoid products are universally banned.

Marijuana use is easily captured by urine and blood tests. Synthetic marijuana is not detected by these tests, making it popular among prisoners, members of the military and other people for whom marijuana use is a significant risk thanks to the nation’s drug laws—which in this way perversely encourage synthetic marijuana use.

About the only similarity between so-called “synthetic marijuana” and cannabis is that people smoke it. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seems to recognize this in its official agency fact sheet.

Yet following a significant number of overdoses in New Haven, Connecticut this week—70 people are believed to have been sickened after using synthetic cannabinoid products laced with an opiate—both the DEA and a United States attorney are conveniently forgetting these salient facts, and are conflating relatively benign cannabis with incredibly harmful synthetic products.

Late Wednesday, following the New Haven overdoses, the DEA’s Los Angeles field office tweeted an ominous and falsehood-riddled warning.

“[T]his is a good time to remember that #marijuana and #synthetics are very dangerous! #marijuana is illegal in #Cali. Don’t end up locked up!”

With synthetic marijuana possibly to blame for several overdoses in New Haven, this is a good time to remember that #marijuana and #synthetics are very dangerous! #marijuana is illegal in #Cali. Don’t end up locked up! #JustSayNo to #pot#drugwar

— DEALosAngeles (@DEALOSANGELES) August 16, 2018

In California, marijuana has been legal for all adults 21 and over to consume, possess and cultivate since Election Night 2016. It is also not clear what qualifies marijuana as “dangerous.”

Around the same time, Mike Stuart, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia, also chose to chime in. West Virginia has the highest rate of opiate overdose deaths of any state in the country. Stuart, too, managed to squeeze several alternative facts into a single tweet.

Synthetic pot mass overdose in CT. Earlier this year in Chicago, dozens died. Synthetic pot EXTREMELY dangerous. Wash Post says marijuana can be addictive. Marijuana is dangerous & a dangerous gateway (first step) to other dangerous illicit drugs. https://t.co/2klcww5WFT

— US Attorney Mike Stuart (@USAttyStuart) August 16, 2018

Most research has debunked “gateway theory.” Even the federal National Institute on Drug Abuse notes that “the majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use other, ‘harder’ substances.” It is not clear what data Stuart is using to claim that marijuana is either dangerous or a dangerous gateway—whatever it is, it’s data researchers do not have.

Stuart also severely misrepresented the severity of an synthetic cannabinoid “outbreak” in Chicago.

According to the Chicago Sun Times, as of the beginning of August, two people were known to have died after using synthetic products laced with a rat poison over the past six months. Media reports available a week later put the total number of people killed in the United States by related products in 2018 at around a dozen. Either way, this is far fewer than the “dozens” Stuart claims to have been killed by the substance.

At any rate, as per the Cook County medical examiner, it was the rat poison in the synthetic cannabinoid preparations that killed them—not anything remotely related to a cannabinoid.

The nation’s drug police are not alone in confusing marijuana with so-called “synthetic marijuana.” A headline posted earlier this summer by the Associated Press, the country’s leading wire service that provides content to thousands of news outlets coast-to-coast, recently claimed that six Florida prison inmates were sickened by smuggled “marijuana”—failing to recognize that the supposedly marijuana-like product was synthetic.

This is completely unacceptable, @APStylebook@AP

You just acted like authorities on cannabis journalism term usage by hosting an #APStyleChat this afternoon and now you’re pushing a header that refers to synthetic cannabinoids as just “marijuana.”

DELETE YOUR WIRE SERVICE pic.twitter.com/Q5tknmMdTr

— Tom Angell 🌳📰 (@tomangell) June 13, 2018

Aside from the mix-up of calling clearly synthetic products just plain “marijuana,” advocates have raised concerns that the term “synthetic marijuana” itself is dangerously misleading. They say that it sends the message that the products are chemically similar or identical to natural cannabis, just synthetically derived. That is not the case.

The AP’s error could be explained by ignorance or negligence. But Stuart and the DEA are supposed to be subject-matter experts when it comes to drugs. For the Justice Department and the nation’s drug enforcement agency to deliberately share “alternative facts,” especially at a time when a significant majority of Americans recognize that marijuana is less harmful than many legal substances like alcohol and tobacco, is a troubling development.

Photo courtesy of U.S. Air Force.