DEA chief grilled on Biden’s plans to deschedule marijuana

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) demanded further information from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) about its plan to remove marijuana from the list of Schedule 1 drugs during a House Judiciary hearing Thursday.

DEA Administrator Anne Milgram testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Federal Government Surveillance during which she informed committee members that the agency has "not been given a specific timeline” to review and reevaluate marijuana’s classification.

President Biden put out a marijuana reform statement in October 2022 that called on the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the attorney general to reevaluate the federal law’s scheduling of marijuana.

The DEA must receive HHS’s review and recommendation to conduct its own evaluation process before coming to a scheduling decision, according to Milgram.

To Gaetz’s dismay, the DEA has yet to receive any such materials from HHS.

“That's unsettling, isn't it? When you don't even know a timeline, it doesn't really make it seem like something's front of mind,” Gaetz said to Milgram after she disclosed the status of this procedure.

Cohen supported Gaetz’s stance on the matter, forming a rare bipartisan agreement in the House.

Cohen claimed that the federal discourse around marijuana has always been “governmental gibberish,” and that “the government has messed this up forever.”

Drug scheduling is used by the DEA to create lists of substances ranked by their acceptable medical use and the level of use considered abusive. 

Marijuana currently stands on the Schedule 1 list, the classification meant for the world’s most dangerous drugs. Other substances on this list include heroin, LSD and ecstasy.

“What I will say to you, not specific to marijuana, but just overall, is that I am committed on trying to move things as quickly as we can,” Milgram said in response to Cohen’s question whether the department can do anything to speed up the process.

After hearing Milgram’s answer, Cohen told the administrator that he would help her out by calling his former colleague, the HHS secretary, today.

“We’re going to get this moving,” he added.

Gaetz also mentioned that marijuana’s current status provokes opioid dependencies and accidental fentanyl overdoses. 

The Florida Republican explained that without medical marijuana, patients with chronic pain are more likely to turn to opioids to manage their symptoms, which is often the gateway to an addiction.

Fentanyl, which Milgram said is one of the deadliest drugs to exist, was not classified as a Schedule 1 substance when Biden put out his marijuana reform statement in 2022.

Fentanyl related substances were moved to the Schedule 1 list in 2018, but fentanyl itself remains under a Schedule 2 classification on account of its medical value.

“I really hope we get this done,” Gaetz told Milgram. “We're two years into the Biden administration. And I honestly had hoped that by now, we would have already descheduled marijuana from the Schedule 1 list.”

CBP seized drugs and weapons valued at nearly $440 million at Texas ports of entry, no thanks to GOP

Cocaine seizures by U.S. officials at ports of entry rose nearly 20% compared to the previous fiscal year, official government data reveals. Border Report said that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers seized more than five tons of cocaine at ports of entry along southern Texas. “That was a 19% increase from Fiscal Year 2021,” the report said. What’s all that about so-called “open borders” again?

RELATED STORY: Huge amounts of drugs have been seized at the border and Republicans are very mad about it

Officials also seized large amounts of other illegal drugs, including more than 30,000 pounds of meth, and hundreds of pounds of fentanyl and heroin. Additionally, hundreds of guns and nearly 80,000 rounds of ammunition were also confiscated. All in all, U.S. border officials estimated the street value of all the seizures coming to nearly $440 million.

“As nonessential traffic resumed early in Fiscal Year 2022, overall workload volumes returned to normal but CBP officers continued to experience the ongoing trend of hard narcotics, particularly cocaine and significant gains in encounters of individuals without valid entry documents,” Eugene Crawford, CBP Acting Director of Field Operations for the Laredo Field Office, told Border Report.

In a separate release, CBP said that officers found cocaine valuing more than $154,000 hidden in a 2015 Ford during a crossing at the Brownsville and Matamoros International Bridge.

“The seizure took place on Saturday, Jan. 7, at the Brownsville and Matamoros International Bridge when a 22-year-old female United States citizen who resides in Brownsville, Texas, attempted entry into the United States driving a 2015 Ford,” the release said. The packages were found when the driver was sent to a secondary inspection area, where officials found the stash with “the aid of a non-intrusive inspection system” and a canine unit. Good doggie.

Please also note that the driver was a U.S. citizen. While available data has shown that its overwhelmingly U.S. citizens who’ve been caught with drugs at U.S. ports of entry, Republicans have sought to use this to further their nativist agenda, like RNC chair Ronna Romney McDaniel basically accusing migrants of personally stashing “rainbow fentanyl” into children’s mouths. Unfortunately, polling has shown way too many Americans have been successfully duped by these lies.

By the way, did anyone notice how quickly these outlandish rainbow fentanyl fears faded away after the midterm elections? I guess that means it’s fixed? Thanks, President Biden!

But Republicans have also sought to use the very serious issue of fentanyl use to further their retribution agenda. Among the grievances listed in the ridiculous impeachment resolution filed by a House Republican against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas cites in part fentanyl seizures at the southern border as justification. They want him out for stopping the drugs from coming in, apparently.

Republicans have done everything possible to create havoc at the border, in reality. That includes derailing an immigration compromise in the last session of Congress and voting against hundreds of millions of dollars in land ports of entry modernization. “Fentanyl seizures have increased under the Biden administration, which made cracking down on drug traffickers a major component of the White House plan,” immigrant rights advocacy group America’s Voice has said.

Last August, border officials seized more than $4 million dollars worth of fentanyl in one bust. That’s anything but “open borders.” Maybe all the Republican anger about these massive seizures is because it might be making the alleged partying less fun? Hmm.

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Most arrested for drug smuggling are U.S. citizens. Don't count on GOP to stop attacking migrants

Cruz: Only Billionaires, Human Traffickers, and Fentanyl Dealers Are Better Off Under Biden

Senator Ted Cruz analyzed the question of whether or not Americans are better off under President Biden than they were two years ago, concluding that the only people reaping the rewards of his administration are Big Tech billionaires, human traffickers, and fentanyl dealers.

Cruz made the comments during an interview with Fox News personality and former Director of the National Economic Council, Larry Kudlow.

The Texas congressman harkened back to one of the most pivotal debate questions ever uttered when Ronald Reagan asked in a 1980 debate: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”

By any economic measure today, it is objectively true that Americans are worse off than when President Biden entered the White House. Cruz, however, did find a quasi-silver lining for the Democrats.

RELATED: Ted Cruz: Biden Impeachment Likely If Republicans Win Back The House

Cruz: Who’s Better Off Under Biden?

Cruz had a “very simple question” for voters sitting at home as they consider their vote in the upcoming midterm elections.

“Are you better off now than you were two years ago when Joe Biden became President?” he asked.

It’s a rhetorical question, of course.

But Cruz added a twist. Watch:

“If you’re a Big Tech billionaire, if you’re a human trafficker, if you’re a fentanyl dealer – then the answer is yes,” Cruz surmised.

“And you probably better go vote for the Democrats.”

RELATED: GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy Pre-Surrenders, Saying GOP Won’t Impeach Biden

Predicts a Massive Red Wave

Elsewhere in the segment, Senator Cruz predicted a massive red wave precisely because the American people are not better off under the Biden regime.

“This election is going to be such a wave election, it’s going to be like 2010,” he predicted. “Republicans are going to take both Houses [of Congress].”

Democrats lost the House and ceded the majority of governorships in 2010.

That prediction in itself is newsworthy. Cruz has contended for some time that he sees the GOP regaining control of the House of Representatives, but acknowledged taking back the Senate would be less likely.

“I put our odds at 50/50,” he previously said of potentially winning control of the Senate. “I think it’s going to be a really good year but it’s a bad map.”

Polls have shifted of late for Republicans in several Senate polls and have grown even more bullish on their chances in the House.

Cruz has asserted that President Biden’s greatest weakness is the border crisis, which has been a boon for human traffickers and fentanyl dealers.

The Texas Republican has suggested the border crisis and Biden’s “decision to just defy immigration laws” are the most likely grounds for impeachment.

“If we take the House, which I said is overwhelmingly likely, then I think we will see serious investigations of the Biden administration,” Cruz has said.

“I do think there’s a chance of that,” he added, referencing impeachment proceedings. “Whether it’s justified or not, the Democrats weaponized impeachment. They used it for partisan purposes to go after Trump because they disagreed with him.”

“One of the real disadvantages of doing that is the more you weaponize it and turn it into a partisan cudgel, you know what’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” he continued.

Biden’s border crisis is having devastating impacts on American families, as cartels use the crisis to smuggle fentanyl and poison our communities at “record rates.”

According to the DEA, “fentanyl is the single deadliest drug threat our nation has ever encountered.”

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