The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says that federal legalization of hemp is creating complications in law enforcement, claiming that the policy is covering criminal organizations that traffic marijuana that is still illegal.
In its annual National Drug Threat Assessment report published on Tuesday, the agency gave a critical view of the bipartisan legislative measure to stop criminalizing the crop – departing from the position of other agencies such as the United States Department of Agriculture. States (USDA), which is overseeing the implementation of regulations for hemp.
“The 2018 Agricultural Law that legalizes hemp production at the federal level has further challenged law enforcement, particularly in states that have legalized marijuana,” said the DEA. “For example, investigations in some states where marijuana production is legal under state law have revealed a significant number of marijuana businesses and cultivation operations that are owned and operated by members of the [drug trafficking organizations] illegally producing and trafficking marijuana. ”
“According to law enforcement officials, traffickers use their state-issued marijuana documentation as cover for large-scale marijuana plantations and loads of marijuana transported between states,” he continues. “In addition, large hemp plantations are sometimes used to hide marijuana plants scattered around hemp plants.”
The report is short on details, however, instead it vaguely cites investigations and law enforcement reports of such activity. But the narrative offers some insights into why the DEA, according to the former USDA secretary, resisted the legalization of hemp and influenced regulation to make it more restrictive than stakeholders expected and intended by lawmakers.
Former Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said last year that the DEA “really didn’t like the whole program to start”, referring to the legalization of the crop, and the USDA “had some resistance from the DEA” when it was drafting rules for the market.
Jim Higdon, head of communications for Kentucky-based Cornbread Hemp, told Marijuana Moment that, in the new report, “it appears that the DEA is saying that they can no longer enforce the cannabis ban because hemp is legal.”
“If that’s the case, then the only solution is to further legalize marijuana to get the criminals out of business,” he said. “When cannabis is legal, these DEA concerns will no longer be an issue.”
Up to that point, the report noted a significant reduction in illicit marijuana seizures along the southern border amid the growing movement for legalization at the state level. These seizures “have decreased by more than 81 percent since 2013,” said the DEA.
The agency also notes that “marijuana seizures across the country decreased by 30 percent of total gross weight, from 441,037 kg in 2018 to 309,012 kg in 2019.”
Via DEA.
“Overall, DEA marijuana seizures have been decreasing since 2015, when 886,200 kg were seized,” notes the report.
And submissions of seized marijuana samples to forensic laboratories are also on the decline.
Via DEA.
Advocates for legalization argue that these declining indicators of illegal marijuana trafficking in the U.S. demonstrate that establishing regulated markets means less demand for illicit marijuana products.
“This dramatic change in the cannabis supply chain is a welcome development,” said NORML Political Director, Justin Strekal, in a press release. “As reformers predicted, when given the option, consumers choose their cannabis to be grown in America.”
“States’ decisions to legally regulate cannabis led, as expected, to an abrupt drop in demand for imported cannabis and significantly interrupted the illicit cannabis trade in Mexico,” he said. “These are important developments to be emphasized as other states continue to discuss replacing marijuana criminalization policies with those that seek to legalize and regulate the marijuana market.”
A US Senate report published on Wednesday also supports this case.
“However, the US cannabis industry is thriving,” he says. Farming and sales have largely shifted from Mexican cartels to companies based in the United States that operate in lawful state markets (although a considerable number [sic] black market remains). “
But the DEA, for its part, says that the policy change “creates opportunities for criminals looking to exploit state legalization, while presenting challenges to the application of federal law.”
“The state-approved recreational and personal use markets are provided by an increasing number of state-approved producers and retail stores,” says the report. “As with medical marijuana, each state that allows recreational or personal use of marijuana has created unique and often vague or evolving laws that blur the lines between what is legal under state law and what is not. “
Even so, in its presentation of the performance budget to Congress for fiscal year 2021, the DEA gave an overview of its oversight efforts and made predictions about future trends. Buried in the document is a subtle admission that giving consumers legal access to cannabis means that demand for marijuana products from the illegal market has declined.
The DEA wrote that “following the legalization of medical marijuana in 2017 in Florida resulted in retail distribution centers across the [area of responsibility], the legalization of low-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) medical marijuana (10%) for smoking in March 2019 should lead to a growing market for Florida’s low-THC marijuana. ”
“However, until high-pot marijuana is legalized in Florida, we believe the impact will be minimal on demand for high-THC marijuana from California and other states,” he continued. “Until then, the potential for abuse of the current law remains a possibility due to the difficulty in detecting the potency of THC by law enforcement authorities.”
Meanwhile, the DEA released an interim final rule for hemp in August and said the regulations were simply intended to comply with the Agricultural Law of 2018. But stakeholders and advocates expressed serious concerns about certain proposals, arguing that they could put the processors at risk of violating federal law and impeding the growth of the sector.
Some industry participants have even accused the agency of using its proposed hemp regulations to set the stage for repressing the new legal market.
The Senate report on marijuana highlights the popularity and risks of legalization, while criticizing the DEA’s research barriers
Photo courtesy of Brendan Cleak.
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