{"id":14086,"date":"2025-12-28T13:32:45","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T13:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=14086"},"modified":"2025-12-28T13:32:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T13:32:45","slug":"trump-admins-drug-policy-is-incoherent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=14086","title":{"rendered":"Trump admin’s drug policy is incoherent"},"content":{"rendered":"


By Tony Perkins<\/span><\/span>, CP Op-Ed Contributor Friday, December 26, 2025<\/span>An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent weighs a package of Fentanyl at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on October 2, 2019, in San Ysidro, California. – Fentanyl, a powerful painkiller approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a range of conditions, has been central to the American opioid crisis which began in the late 1990s. China was the first country to manufacture deadly illegal fentanyl for the U.S. market, but the problem surged when trafficking through Mexico began around 2005. <\/span> | SANDY HUFFAKER\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n

Has the Trump administration staked out a paradoxical position on illegal drugs?<\/p>\n

On December 15, President Trump issued an executive order declaring illicit fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction. With that declaration, the administration elevated fentanyl from a public health crisis to a national security threat \u2014 opening the door to expanded military engagement against drug traffickers and transnational cartels.<\/p>\n

That designation is not without justification. Over the last five years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has\u00a0linked\u00a0illicit fentanyl and related synthetic opioids to more than 300,000 American deaths. A CDC-cited\u00a0analysis\u00a0estimates the annual societal cost of illegal opioid use exceeds one trillion dollars, factoring in health care, lost productivity, criminal justice costs, and premature death. Few threats have inflicted this level of devastation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet just three days later, on December 18, the president signed another executive order reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I drug to Schedule III. While the move stops short of full decriminalization, it significantly loosens federal restrictions, reduces criminal penalties, and opens the door for banks and investors to more freely participate in the so-called medicinal cannabis industry. Wall Street reacted immediately \u2014 cannabis stocks surged following the announcement.<\/p>\n

This shift did not occur without warning. Prior to the order, nearly two dozen members of Congress\u00a0urged\u00a0the president not to move marijuana toward decriminalization. Several signatories were physicians. Their argument was direct: Schedule I drugs are addictive and lack accepted medical value, and marijuana, they said, still fits that definition.<\/p>\n

Their concerns are supported by extensive research. A\u00a0major review\u00a0by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine found substantial evidence that cannabis use increases the risk of developing other substance use disorders. For many users \u2014 especially adolescents \u2014 marijuana functions as a gateway drug, increasing for some the path to harder drugs, addictions fueling the demand that is at the core of the fentanyl crisis.<\/p>\n

Compounding the risk is the dramatic change in the drug itself. Today\u2019s marijuana averages four to five times the THC concentration of cannabis from the 1970s, undercutting claims that modern use is comparable to past recreational use. Studies also show adolescent cannabis use is linked to permanent IQ loss and altered brain development, particularly in areas governing impulse control, judgment, and risk assessment.<\/p>\n

The real-world consequences are already visible. States like Colorado that have legalized marijuana have seen increases in traffic fatalities involving drivers testing positive for THC. Emergency room visits tied to marijuana have also risen, especially for acute anxiety, paranoia, and psychotic episodes. And legalization has not eliminated criminal activity. According to DEA\u00a0reporting, major drug cartels remain deeply involved in marijuana trafficking \u2014 even in states with legalized markets \u2014 supplying untaxed and unregulated demand while using cannabis profits to fund broader criminal operations.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s drug policy is incoherent.<\/p>\n

The federal government is waging a shooting war against drug traffickers in the Caribbean while simultaneously decriminalizing marijuana and normalizing its use at home. You cannot tell our troops these substances are dangerous enough to light up drug boats with missile strikes, while suggesting to teenagers that lighting up a joint in the backyard is no big deal. That contradiction isn\u2019t just confusing \u2014 it\u2019s dangerous.<\/p>\n

Tony Perkins is president of Family Research Council and executive editor of The Washington Stand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tony Perkins, CP Op-Ed Contributor Friday, December 26, 2025An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent weighs a package of Fentanyl at the San Ysidro Port of Entry on October 2, 2019, in San Ysidro, California. – Fentanyl, a powerful painkiller approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a range of conditions, has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[3673,1364,4136,1169,174],"class_list":{"0":"post-14086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-christian-living","8":"tag-admins","9":"tag-drug","10":"tag-incoherent","11":"tag-policy","12":"tag-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}