This week the acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced that he would be resigning at the end of this week. Chuck Rosenberg, the soon-to-be former head of the DEA said that he was basically fed up with President Trump and felt that he had “little respect for the law.” It should be noted that Rosenberg is still a close friend of former FBI director James Comey, who was fired by Trump earlier this year. First of all, good riddance. Rosenberg was no fan of cannabis. In 2015 he called medical cannabis “a joke”.
So, the question on a lot of people’s minds is: how is this going to affect legal cannabis? It’s no secret that the Trump administration is not in favor of legalization. Luckily Congress renewed the Rorhabacher-Bluemenauer amendment which prevents the feds from going after medical cannabis in legal states, so we don’t have to worry about this again until December.
With this shakeup at the DEA it’s possible that big changes are on the horizon. For one, things are going to be a bit hectic at the DEA for a while. With head no head of the DEA, they can hardly be expected to expend energy gong after cannabis, at least not for a while. Who is going to replace Rosenberg though?
The DEA is headed up by the Justice Department, we can expect that the new head of the DEA will have similar views to Jeff Sessions. That would not bode well for the cannabis industry. On the other hand, Trump has had eight months to nominate someone and he still hasn’t. It’s likely that he doesn’t even realize that he’s supposed to pick someone else. As with all things related to this wacky administration, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Source: New York Times
Image Source: NBC News
Who will be the new head of the DEA? Share your picks in the comments!