Politics
Anti-Marijuana Physician Who Criticized Rescheduling Proposal Joins Trump White House’s Drug Office
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is adding to its team a medical professional who has linked marijuana use to suicide, advocated against a Florida legalization measure and criticized health agencies’ move to reschedule cannabis.
She has also said it is an “insult” to refer to cannabis as “medical.”
Roneet Lev—an emergency medicine and addition physician who previously served as chief medical officer at ONDCP under the first Trump administration—announced on Monday that she’ll be rejoining the office for the chance to “save lives on a much bigger scale.”
While she didn’t mention marijuana in the announcement on her podcast “High Truths on Drugs and Addiction,” Lev has previously spoken extensively about her issues with cannabis—describing it as an understated public health risk and arguing that commercial interests are the driving force behind the legalization movement.
In one episode of her podcast from June 2024, she dedicated over an hour to a discussion with prohibitionist advocates about the marijuana rescheduling process that was initiated under the Biden administration, making clear she strongly disagrees with the top federal health agency’s recommendation to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
She said that people who are accepting the scientific findings that led to the recommendation,”including some in the medical community,” are “drinking that same Kool Aid again” with marijuana as they did with prescription opioids. And she claimed that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) produced a flawed report on cannabis, with mistakes in “like every single sentence.”
“When it comes to marijuana, the harms are right in front of our eyes—but we ignore the data and follow the industry talking points just like we did in the oxycontin days,” Lev said during the segment, which featured prominent prohibitionists such as Bertha Madras, who also previously served as an ONDCP official.
The revised review process that HHS relied on to reach its Schedule III determination for marijuana posts a “threat to the entire way of approving medications and to the medical community at large,” Lev said, adding that her primary contention is the idea that cannabis possesses medical value.
Cannabis is “a plant with 500 different chemicals—60 different cannabinoids—many of which have not been studied, and that includes toxins and carcinogens and other things,” she said.
“I really feel sorry for the public—not just for marijuana—because if you have a 90-page document from the Health and Human Services saying, ‘this is medicine, this is safe, this is monitored’ and all the things that we see in this document, they’re false to us physicians and scientists who review this material,” Lev said. “None of the science used the high-potency products. There was no consideration to the severe mental health impacts.”
“But that’s just for marijuana. What is the public supposed to think when it comes to vaccines or COVID or any other public health,” she said. “I mean, there’s a loss of trust in medicine because of this process for politics and for money.”
She also cast doubts on the idea that the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) supported HHS’s findings, as was expressed in a letter attached to the federal rescheduling recommendation. Lev said she personally knows people at NIDA, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who oppose the rescheduling proposal.
Further, she disputed the claim that moving marijuana to Schedule III would increase research opportunities for the plant and its constituents, saying “that’s not true.”
“I don’t have hope that, if this is [rescheduled], it’ll be better regulated, because we could look at all the states now that have quote-unquote medical cannabis, and they’re run by the cannabis industry—not by independent public health people,” Lev claimed. “And we know it’s not working, because we see all the pediatric poisoning and emergency department visits and older people who are poisoned, and that those numbers are going exponentially high. And so we’ve seen that failed process.”
“I think the public has lost confidence in medicine and public health after COVID and all the vaccines—and with this, we’re going to have laws that further deteriorate public health credibility, and this is an example of that,” she said, adding that it also poses an “international threat and weakness of the United States not following international laws.”
That latter comment referenced potential violations of obligations on drug scheduling under United Nations treaties to which the U.S. is a party that some claim mandate the country keep cannabis in either Schedule I or Schedule II.
“The U.S. will be in conflict with international law. That makes things messy,” Lev said earlier in the episode. “We have the right to withdraw from the international treaty, but then if we don’t want to follow international law, how can we expect China and Mexico to follow the law and stop pushing fentanyl on the United States? If the U.S. withdraws from international drug treaties, how does that affect other international treaties like the ones for, say, nuclear weapons?”
On another episode of the podcast that was released in October 2024, Lev took on Amendment 3, a 2024 Florida ballot initiative that sought to legalize adult-use cannabis and that received an endorsement from President Donald Trump while he was campaigning. The measure ultimately failed to meet a steep 60 percent threshold for passage.
Despite Trump’s public endorsement, Lev said she wondered if the then-candidate “really read the amendment or really understands the impact of it.” And she said she wished she could have “two minutes with President Trump, because I feel like I could convince him on that.”
Now as she returns to ONDCP, Lev might have the opportunity to try—though Trump has been notably silent on the issue since taking office for his second term so his current views remain unclear.
Marijuana Moment reached out to the White House and Lev for comment on the apparent policy disconnect between Trump and the incoming ONDCP official, but representatives did not respond by the time of publication.
In the episode, Lev also dismissed the notion that legalization is smart, quipping that the campaign behind the Florida initiative—Smart & Safe Florida—is a misnomer and “it seems like you can’t always go by the names of these organizations.”
“We need to learn from history,” she said. “And would we want big tobacco to be in charge of the rules and marketing and nicotine potency? Would we want Purdue Pharma to be in charge of opioid overprescribing?” And if not, why are we allowing big marijuana to control the rules and regulations on public health?”
Separately, during a presentation in Missouri last year, Lev reportedly said that “it’s an insult to our profession” to call marijuana “medical.”
In 2018, Lev attended an event hosted by prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, tweeting a photo of herself with the group’s president, Kevin Sabet, along with the phrase “Marijuana Death Diaries.”
Other posts she made from the event said advocates “need to get message out about marijuana public health crisis” and that “marijuana victims” speaking there told “heart breaking stories.”
In 2020 she quote-tweeted a post from Sabet about a teen whose parents say he died by suicide after taking up cannabis use, adding, “marijuana hijacks your brain.”
In her announcement about rejoining ONDCP on Monday, Lev also gave a hat tip to the office’s incoming director, Sara Carter, despite the two seemingly departing on the question of the medical efficacy of marijuana.
Carter, unlike Lev, has called medical marijuana a “fantastic” treatment option for seriously ill patients and said she doesn’t have a “problem” with legalization, even if she might not personally agree with the policy.
However, under longstanding federal statute, the drug czar is prohibited from endorsing the legalization of Schedule I drugs in the CSA, including marijuana.
On social media, Lev has posted extensively about cannabis laws and science, making repeated suggestions tying marijuana use to mental and physical health conditions such as schizophrenia, suicide risk, lung issues and more.
Trump, for his part, has previously expressed support for medical cannabis, as well as rescheduling of marijuana under federal law.
Meanwhile, the Senate is poised to take an initial step toward confirming Trump’s pick to lead DEA on Monday—a development that many cannabis industry observers believe is necessary for the stalled marijuana rescheduling process to proceed.
Terrance Cole was selected to serve as administrator of DEA, but the agency during Trump’s second term has so far been run by interim leaders.
Notably, while Cole has said that examining the rescheduling proposal would be “one of my first priorities” if he’s confirmed for the role, he has refused to say what he wants the result to be and has in the past made comments expressing concerns about the health effects of cannabis.
In May, a Senate committee advanced the nomination of Cole to become DEA administrator amid the ongoing review of the marijuana rescheduling proposal that he has so far refused to commit to enacting.
Cole—who has previously voiced concerns about the dangers of marijuana and linked its use to higher suicide risk among youth—said in response to senators’ written questions that he would “give the matter careful consideration after consulting with appropriate personnel within the Drug Enforcement Administration, familiarizing myself with the current status of the regulatory process, and reviewing all relevant information.”
Meanwhile, last week DEA again notified an agency judge that the marijuana rescheduling process remains stalled under the Trump administration.
It’s been six months since DEA Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) John Mulrooney temporarily paused hearings on a proposal to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) that was initiated under the Biden administration. And in a joint report to the judge submitted on Monday, DEA attorneys and rescheduling proponents said they’re still at an impasse.
For the time being, any action on the proposed rule to reschedule marijuana is evidently contingent on DEA Acting Administrator Robert Murphy. More likely, according to some, is that it will not move forward until a permanent DEA administration is confirmed.
Murphy’s appointment as acting administrator wasn’t widely publicized, but he’s replaced Derek Maltz—who subscribes to the “gateway drug” theory for marijuana—in the role.
DEA Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) John Mulrooney initially agreed to delay the rescheduling proceedings after several pro-reform parties requested a leave to file an interlocutory appeal amid allegations that certain DEA officials conspired with anti-rescheduling witnesses who were selected for the hearing.
Originally, hearings on the proposed rescheduling rule were set to commence on January 21, but those were cancelled when Mulrooney granted the appeal motion.
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Meanwhile, two GOP senators introduced a bill in February that would continue to block marijuana businesses from taking federal tax deductions under Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code 280E—even if it’s ultimately rescheduled.
Beyond the hearing delays, another complicating factor is the change in leadership at DEA under the Trump administration.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was previously vocal about his support for legalizing cannabis, as well as psychedelics therapy. But during his Senate confirmation process in February, he said that he would defer to DEA on marijuana rescheduling in his new role.
Separately, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was reportedly photographed reviewing a document that appears to be a draft contract to provide services—including “administration-related guidance”—to a firm affiliated with the major marijuana company Trulieve. The visible portion of the document describes a lucrative bonus if a certain “matter resolves,” with an “additional ‘Super Success Fee’” for other “exclusive policy remedies.”
Last month, the former congressman reiterated his own support for rescheduling cannabis—suggesting in an interview with a Florida Republican lawmaker that the GOP could win more of the youth vote by embracing marijuana reform.
Gaetz also said last month that Trump’s endorsement of a Schedule III reclassification was essentially an attempt to shore up support among young voters rather than a sincere reflection of his personal views about cannabis.
A survey conducted by a GOP pollster affiliated with Trump that was released in April found that a majority of Republicans back a variety of cannabis reforms, including rescheduling. And, notably, they’re even more supportive of allowing states to legalize marijuana without federal interference compared to the average voter.
Meanwhile, Trump picked former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) to run DOJ, and the Senate confirmed that choice. During her confirmation hearings, Bondi declined to say how she planned to navigate key marijuana policy issues. And as state attorney general, she opposed efforts to legalize medical cannabis.
Amid the stalled marijuana rescheduling process that’s carried over from the last presidential administration, congressional researchers recently reiterated that lawmakers could enact the reform themselves with “greater speed and flexibility” if they so choose, while potentially avoiding judicial challenges.
Meanwhile, a newly formed coalition of professional athletes and entertainers, led by retired boxer Mike Tyson, sent a letter to Trump on Friday—thanking him for past clemency actions while emphasizing the opportunity he has to best former President Joe Biden by rescheduling marijuana, expanding pardons and freeing up banking services for licensed cannabis businesses.
Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.
