Politics
White House Announces Withdrawal Of Trump’s Drug Czar Nominee Who Embraced Medical Marijuana
The White House has notified Congress that President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)—who has publicly backed medical marijuana access—is being withdrawn.
About three months after Trump picked Sara Carter to become the next White House drug czar, the administration told lawmakers on Thursday that she’s no longer up for consideration for the position.
It’s currently unclear whether Carter withdrew from consideration herself or if it was a decision made by the president. Marijuana Moment reached out to the White House for comment, but a representative did not respond by the time of publication.
The notice published in the Congressional Record about the withdrawal of the nomination reads:
“WITHDRAWAL
Executive Message transmitted by the President to the Senate on June 26, 2025 withdrawing from further Senate consideration the following nomination:
SARA CARTER, OF TEXAS, TO BE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY, VICE RAHUL GUPTA, RESIGNED, WHICH WAS SENT TO THE SENATE ON MAY 6, 2025.”
There was some enthusiasm about Carter’s nomination among cannabis reform advocates, as she’s previously 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.
Given the role of ONDCP director in setting and carrying out the administrative agenda on drug policy issues, the fact that Carter went on the record enthusiastically endorsing medical cannabis represented a welcome development for advocates amid Senate confirmations of other officials with a mixed bag of marijuana records.
Under longstanding federal statute, the drug czar is prohibited from endorsing the legalization of Schedule I drugs in the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), including marijuana. However, Democratic congressional lawmakers in April filed a bill that would remove that restriction.
While Carter 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 are 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 Carter had been confirmed by the Senate, she would have 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.
Gupta separately said last month that the process to reschedule marijuana as initiated under the last administration may have been compromised by officials with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which was supposed to be defending the proposed policy change.
Meanwhile, a newly formed coalition of professional athletes and entertainers, led by retired boxer Mike Tyson, has sent a letter to Trump—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.
Recently, Trump’s first pick for attorney general in the current administration, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), 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.
On marijuana rescheduling, the president did endorse the policy change on the campaign trail. But he’s been publicly silent on the issue since taking office. Gaetz 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.
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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.
Adding to the uncertainty around the fate of the rescheduling proposal, Trump’s nominee to lead DEA, Terrance Cole, has previously voiced concerns about the dangers of marijuana and linked its use to higher suicide risk among youth.
During an in-person hearing before the Judiciary Committee in April, Cole said examining the rescheduling proposal will be “one of my first priorities” if he was 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.
DEA recently notified an agency judge that the proceedings are still on hold—with no future actions currently scheduled. The matter sat without action before an acting administrator, Derek Maltz, who has called cannabis a “gateway drug” and linked its use to psychosis. Maltz has since left the position.
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.
