Sara Carter, the former investigative journalist and Fox News contributor now serving as White House drug czar, has spent her early months emphasizing fentanyl, trafficking and addiction, not marijuana reform. Cannabis may still move through federal channels, but it is clearly not the part of drug policy this White House wants to lead with.
If you wanted a clearer read on where the Trump administration is putting its drug-policy energy, Sara Carter just gave it to you. The former investigative journalist and Fox News contributor, now serving as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, has used her early public rollout to emphasize fentanyl interdiction, addiction treatment, trafficking networks and synthetic drug threats, not marijuana reform. In her interview with Bloomberg Government, that priority order came through clearly, and it matches how the White House itself introduced her after her January confirmation.
That does not mean cannabis is gone from the federal conversation. It does mean cannabis is not what this administration wants to lead its drug-policy story with. In December, Trump signed an executive order aimed at increasing medical marijuana and cannabidiol research, and the White House said the administration wanted the attorney general to move expeditiously on the still-pending rescheduling process. Those were real signals, and they mattered. But they arrived alongside a much louder message coming from the administration’s drug-policy apparatus: fentanyl, overdose, trafficking and recovery come first.
That distinction is more important than a lot of people in cannabis want to admit. A policy can still move without being politically central. An open file is not the same thing as a flagship issue. Right now, the White House appears comfortable letting marijuana reform continue through administrative channels while spending its most visible time and capital on a harder-edged drug narrative, one built around …
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Author: Javier Hasse / High Times
