Dear Friend,
Today is a new day at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) as a longtime friend of SAM Regina LaBelle was sworn in as the Acting Director and Deputy Director of the White House’s drug policy office. I was honored to work side-by-side with Regina during my time in the Obama Administration when she served as ONDCP Chief of Staff.
With Regina taking the reins for now and with a new administration being sworn in today, we are hitting the ground running.
We sent a comprehensive roadmap for drug policy to our contacts in the Biden Administration that is centered on President Joe Biden’s marijuana policy stance and the platform of the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force. As you may remember, while the Democratic Primary was winding down, the campaigns of Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders sat down to develop a party platform. And despite pressure from the marijuana industry and its army of lobbyists and activists, the Biden camp refused to endorse legalization.
Chief among the list of policy and future action recommendations is the removal of criminal penalties for marijuana use and replacing them with directions to brief interventions, and, if necessary, treatment.
Sensible policies, like increasing research, removing barriers to data gathering, and reforming federal laws in these areas are tangible policy outcomes that can be accomplished without the establishment of a commercial marijuana industry.
Furthermore, given the widespread five-alarm fire that we are seeing with increases in substance use, the position of Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) must be re-elevated to its former status as a Cabinet-level position, with the Director’s position on marijuana mirroring that of the President-Elect.
We are also urging the Biden Administration to immediately implement a public awareness campaign seeking to discourage young people from using marijuana and educating parents on today’s high potency marijuana.
These policy proposals outline where our priorities will be focused this year at the federal level and given President Biden’s previous positions and his preference for listening to the science, we are hopeful that we will have success in seeing these policies implemented.
Friend, without your support, we would be unable to promote these policies and educate our lawmakers in Washington and in state legislatures across the country.
As a result, the marijuana industry would prosper.
