Politics
DEA Blames Legal Marijuana States For Inadvertently Aiding Cartels While Also Admitting That Prohibition States Create Illegal Market Opportunities
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says that states that have legalized marijuana are providing cover for illicit cultivation operations by foreign cartels—while at the same time implicitly acknowledging that ongoing prohibition in other states creates opportunities for that cannabis to be sold on the illegal market.
The agency’s 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment that was released on Thursday includes a section on marijuana trafficking, claiming that cartels and other organized crime groups “operate under business registrations granted by state licensing authorities in jurisdictions where marijuana cultivation and sales are ‘legal’ at the state level.”
“However, absent overt evidence such as the trafficking of marijuana across state lines or the commission of non-drug crimes such as money laundering and human trafficking, it can be difficult for law enforcement to immediately identify violations or discover an illegal grow,” the report says. “Asian [Transnational Criminal Organizations, or TSOs] defy restrictions on plant quantities, production quotas, and non-licensed sales, and hide behind state-by-state variations in laws governing plant counts, registration requirements, and accountability practices.”
DEA suggested that cartels are leveraging state cannabis markets by transporting “large amounts of marijuana directly from ‘legal’ states to states that have not legalized recreational use and those where state-level recreational approval is sufficiently recent to not yet have an established, regulated cannabis industry.”
Underlying that analysis seems to be a perhaps inadvertent acknowledgment by DEA that cartels are profiting off ongoing prohibition outside of legal states—indicating that the main demand for illicit marijuana isn’t coming from within states that provide regulated access to consumers but instead those where cannabis remains criminalized.
Implicit in that analysis is exactly what advocates have long argued: Legalization disrupts the illegal market.
Throughout the report, DEA notably put quotation marks around the words “legal” and “legally,” seemingly emphasizing the federal government’s position that state-regulated marijuana is still not considered legal. At the same time, however it’s notable that part of its analysis talks about states that have “not yet” created a legal marketplace, a seeming nod to the reality that public momentum continues to be behind enacting legalization in more and more places.
The agency also claimed in the report that, because of the potency of cannabis grown by Chinese trafficking operators, demand has grown in the U.S. and western Europe. “Overseas shipments commonly travel via commercial flights from the United States and Canada, or on container vessels departing from a U.S. port,” according to the report.
“DEA and our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners must continue to adapt and work together to attack global drug trafficking organizations at every level,” DEA Acting Administrator Robert Murphy said in a press release. “By joining forces to reduce supply and demand, we can destroy the drug trafficking networks and achieve a safer and healthier future for all Americans.”
The report’s mentions of marijuana seem to tell two seemingly contradictory stories: On the one hand, DEA is claiming that legal cannabis states are a hub for illicit trafficking; on the other hand, it’s recognizing that the marijuana products that are being grown illicitly outside of regulatory confines in those legal states are being trafficked to other states where cannabis remains prohibited, which advocates would point out is one of the key arguments in favor of enacting legalization in every state and federally.
This comes amid a Senate confirmation hearing process for President Donald Trump’s pick to lead DEA, Terrance Cole, who recently refused to commit to rescheduling marijuana, or to say how he’d approach federal enforcement in states that have legalized cannabis.
In written responses to questions from two Democratic senators as part of his confirmation, the nominee largely demurred on multiple questions around marijuana policy issues, including a pending proposal to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III that was initiated under the Biden administration.
Cole has previously voiced concerns about the dangers of marijuana and linked its use to higher suicide risk among youth.
While he gave noncommittal answers when asked about rescheduling in the written questions, Cole said during an in-person hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that examining the rescheduling proposal will be “one of my first priorities” if he’s confirmed for the role, saying it’s “time to move forward” on the stalled process—but again without clarifying what end result he would like to see.
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 in January amid scrutiny from conservative lawmakers over the sheriff’s record on COVID-related public safety enforcement actions.
As far as the marijuana rescheduling process is concerned, DEA recently notified an agency judge that the proceedings are still on hold—with no future actions currently scheduled as the matter sits before the acting administrator, Derek Maltz, who has called cannabis a “gateway drug” and linked its use to psychosis.
Meanwhile, although shutting down licensed marijuana dispensaries doesn’t “rise to the top” of his priorities, an interim U.S. attorney who recently warned a Washington, D.C. cannabis shop about potential federal law violations says his “instinct is that it shouldn’t be in the community.” He’s since rescinded his consideration for unrelated reasons, however.
Separately, last month, an activist who received a pardon for a marijuana-related conviction during Trump’s first term paid a visit to the White House, discussing future clemency options with the recently appointed “pardon czar.”
A marijuana industry-backed political action committee (PAC) has also released a series of ads over recent weeks that have attacked Biden’s cannabis policy record as well as the nation of Canada, promoting sometimes misleading claims about the last administration while making the case that Trump can deliver on reform.
Its latest ad accused former President Joe Biden and his DEA of waging a “deep state war” against medical cannabis patients—but without mentioning that the former president himself initiated the rescheduling process that marijuana companies want to see completed under Trump.
Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.
