Politics
Trump’s Drug Czar Pick Dodges Senators’ Marijuana Questions As Her Nomination Advances
President Donald Trump’s pick for White House drug czar dodged a series of written questions from senators about her position on marijuana rescheduling, medical cannabis legalization and racial disparities in drug enforcement.
Ahead of a Senate Judiciary Committee vote on Thursday to advance the nomination of Sara Carter Bailey as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the nominee submitted responses to a variety of questions from members, including multiple that dealt with cannabis.
Similar to how to navigated questions about rescheduling during an in-person hearing last month, Bailey provided largely vague answers about the topic when asked by Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Dick Durbin (D-IL). That’s despite her previous statements supporting medical cannabis access prior to her nomination.
Asked simply whether she supports the rescheduling of cannabis—as Trump previously endorsed on the campaign trail and said in late August he’d be deciding on within weeks—Bailey said, if confirmed, “I will comply with all federal laws and fulfill all statutory responsibilities of the ONDCP. I will also work with the interagency to ensure an examination of all facts and evidence as part of any scheduling or policy actions.”
Citing comments the nominee made on a podcast episode, where she acknowledged the medical benefits of cannabis, Durbin asked whether she intended to “work to legalize medical marijuana on the federal level.”
“If confirmed as Director, I will comply with all federal laws and fulfill all statutory responsibilities of the ONDCP,” she said, mirroring her response to the rescheduling question. “I will also work with the interagency to ensure an examination of all facts and evidence as part of any scheduling or policy actions.”
While there’s nothing in federal statute precluding the ONDCP director from supporting administrative rescheduling proposals, the law does dictate that the official is barred from promoting the legalization of any Schedule I drugs under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
In April, Democratic congressional lawmakers announced the filing of a bill that would remove that restriction. It has not yet advanced in the GOP-controlled Congress, however.
Durbin also asked the nominee if she agrees “people of color have been disproportionately harmed by drug prosecutions,” and she offered a curious response, seemingly disagreeing despite the preponderance of evidence that Black and brown people have been more aggressively targeted over drugs compared to white people.
“I believe that all communities have suffered as a result of illicit narcotics with data showing that certain drugs are more prevalent in some communities,” she said.
Then, asked what she would do about the racial disparity issue, Bailey said she would simply “commit to ensuring effective, timely, evidence-based treatment is available to all Americans.”
“At the same time, through collaboration with the Department of Justice, I will support U.S. Attorneys to hold all drug traffickers accountable,” she said.
Booker also leaned into the rescheduling issue in his questions for the record (QFRs). Specifically, he pressed the nominee on whether “prosecutors or scientists and doctors” are better qualified to “conduct the scientific and medical evaluations of drugs.”
“As stated at the hearing, if confirmed I will work with all relevant interagency stakeholders to ensure an examination of all facts and evidence,” she said. “Under the CSA, scientists and doctors use a comprehensive approach in balancing potential risks and benefits of any substance, and the HHS Secretary provides a recommendation to the Attorney General.”
Booker then asked if Bailey would “assign more weight to a scheduling recommendation from HHS based on its scientific and medical evaluation of a drug rather than DEA’s opinion.”
“As stated at the hearing, I support the process under the CSA, and if confirmed I will work with all relevant interagency stakeholders to ensure an examination of all facts and evidence,” she said.
The senator additionally inquired as to whether the nominee would “support additional federal funding for overdose prevention centers” if confirmed. But it’s not clear what he meant by that line of questioning, as advocates generally refer to overdose prevention centers as locations where people can safely use currently illicit drugs under medical supervision with treatment resources. The Justice Department has long maintained that statute prohibits such facilities, fighting local attempts to institute them in court.
In any case, Bailey said she doesn’t support additional funding; rather, she generally backs “preventing overdoses and all harms caused by drugs.”
“Each overdose save is an opportunity to connect a person to treatment and give them hope,” she said. “I also fully support the President’s executive orders.”
Booker also asked whether the nominee believes the “war on drugs approach has failed to reduce overdose deaths.”
“Our approach will be balanced: preventing the production of illicit drugs overseas and their movement across our borders and into our communities; holding accountable those who traffic in illicit drugs and their raw materials, as well as those who facilitate the illicit drug trade; preventing drug use before it starts; saving the lives of those who overdose; and providing access to evidence-based treatment leading to long-term recovery for everyone who needs it,” Bailey said.
A former journalist known for her coverage of drug cartels, Bailey also recently advised senators that the administration is keeping “all options” on the table as it continues to consider a pending marijuana rescheduling proposal, while describing cannabis reform as a “bipartisan issue.”
Given the role of the ONDCP director in setting and carrying out the administrative agenda on drug policy issues, the fact that Bailey has gone on the record enthusiastically endorsing medical cannabis in the past is welcome news for advocates.
Trump endorsed rescheduling—as well as marijuana industry banking access and a Florida legalization ballot initiative–on the campaign trail ahead of his second term. But his most recent comments in late August about the timeline for a rescheduling decision gave a more ambiguous impression of his position on the issue.
While Bailey has spoken often about various marijuana policy issues—focusing attention on illicit trafficking and illegal grow operations on U.S. land, for example—her public comments on how she personally feels about the topic have been limited. What she did say last year in an episode of her podcast, The Sara Carter Show, signaled that she draws a distinction between legally regulated and illicitly supplied marijuana.
“I don’t have any problem if it’s legalized and it’s monitored,” she said. “I mean, I may have my own issues of how I feel about that, but I do believe that cannabis for medicinal purposes and medical reasons is a fantastic way of handling—especially for people with cancer and other illnesses, you know—of handling the illness and the side effects of the medication and those illnesses. So I’m not saying we’ve gotta make it illegal.”
If Bailey is ultimately confirmed by the Senate, she will become the second drug czar in a row who has voiced support for medical marijuana, following former President Joe Biden’s ONDCP director Rahul Gupta, who worked as a consultant for a cannabis businesses and also oversaw implementation of West Virginia’s medical marijuana program.
Bailey has separately sounded the alarm about the risk of pesticides and other contaminants in marijuana grown and sold by Chinese cartels—an issue that was recently taken up by a House committee.
Last year, the nominee talked about the issue with Derek Maltz, a then-retired Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official who is temporarily served as acting administrator of the agency prior to the confirmation of Trump’s permanent pick, Terrance Cole.
In an X post about the interview with Maltz, Bailey said he exposed how “Chinese marijuana grow operations are using hazardous chemicals as pesticides.”
In 2022, U.S. Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA) applauded Bailey, who worked with his office to bring attention to illicit grow operations in his district, leading to a local law enforcement investigation.
Bailey gave the congressman credit, saying “your work in taking down the illegal marijuana grows has stopped cartels from exploiting your community, those people forced to work on them and the [money].”
In an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity in 2021, she also talked about her work with Garcia—including accompanying him on a helicopter to survey “miles and miles and miles of vast, sophisticated illegal grows worth tens of millions of dollars.”
Cartels have “become extremely more brazen. They’re not afraid of hiding it,” she said. “They don’t hide it because they don’t feel that they’ll ever be held accountable for it.”
In a sense, Bailey has seemed to implicitly suggest at multiple times that she supports regulated access to cannabis as a means of promoting public safety and health. Whether and how that implied position would influence federal policy if she’s confirmed and assumes the ONDCP director role is yet to be seen.
On her social media, she’s previously shared links—without commentary—to news stories about a variety of marijuana-related issues. In addition to her focus on illicit cartel grows, she’s also posted about congressional and state-level legalization votes, staffers in the Biden administration being fired over past cannabis use, Democratic presidential candidates’ support for legalization, the advancement of cannabis banking legislation in Congress and state policy developments such as Alaska’s legalization of cannabis cafes.
