Trump’s Drug Czar Pick Exposed For Being on Big Pharma’s Payroll

By: Annabelle Bamforth, The Free Thought Project |

President Donald Trump’s reported choice to serve as Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy has raised alarm concerning conflict of interest, as his top pick has been criticized for protecting and benefiting from the pharmaceutical industry.

The ONDCP is responsible for most of the shaping of U.S. drug policy and will also be “providing administrative support” for Trump’s newly-created special commission to combat the opiate crisis. Trump’s top choice, Pennsylvania Congressman Tom Marino, is expected to resign from Congress to become the country’s “drug czar.

For those who seek to genuinely hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable for its role in the country’s opiate crisis, Marino is a perilous choice. The International Business Times has uncovered troubling background of Marino’s relationship with the pharmaceutical industry, particularly regarding donations.

According to IBT, Marino “would come to the job after pulling in big money from an industry that is producing and distributing the nation’s most deadly legal drugs. Marino has received more than $150,000 in donations from the pharmaceutical industry in his political career, including $71,000 for the 2016 election, according to records at Maplight.org and Opensecrets.org. The data show Marino has received more money from the pharmaceutical industry than any other sector.”

While he has yet to comment on his reception of those hefty donations, Marino is also responsible for establishing the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act, which essentially hinders the DEA’s ability to go after drug companies that have made profits in the midst of the opiate epidemic.

Before its passage, DEA Deputy Assistant Administrator Joseph Rannazzisi was vocal about his opposition to the bill, warning that if the bill “passes the way it’s written we won’t be able to get immediate suspension orders, we won’t be able to stop the hemorrhaging of these drugs out of these bad pharmacies and these bad corporations.”

Following Rannazzisi’s criticisms, Marino sought to have the Justice Department investigate Rannazzisi and “whether Rannazzisi had tried to ‘intimidate’ members of Congress,” according to IBT. The Los Angeles Times reported that the bill “allows companies accused of failing to report suspicious orders of dangerous drugs to submit a ‘corrective action plan’ to persuade the Drug Enforcement Administration to postpone or abandon proceedings against them. The law also raises the bar for the DEA to temporarily suspend their licenses.”

The Los Angeles Times added that this bill was well supported by “manufacturers, wholesalers and pharmacy chains, including some targeted by the DEA in recent years for not doing enough to keep drugs from addicts and drug dealers.”

It’s quite clear that Marino has benefitted from big pharma’s large donations and has experience in helping shape drug policy that effectively protects the industry.

In addition to his political cordiality with the industry, Marino has shown through his time in Congress that he is opposed to pro-cannabis legislation. “In Congress, Marino voted multiple times against a bipartisan measure to prevent the Justice Department from going after state-legal medical marijuana businesses,” The Cannabist reported.

“Similarly, he voted against a measure to allow Veterans Affairs doctors to recommend medical marijuana to their patients, as well as against a separate measure to loosen federal restrictions on hemp,” the publication noted, and “also voted against a measure that would loosen some restrictions on CBD oil, a non-psychoactive derivative of the cannabis plant that holds promise for treating severe forms of childhood epilepsy.” Marino has been quoted as showing support for continued research of cannabis, but ignorantly remains opposed to legalization without “a really in depth-medical scientific study.”

Maj. Neill Franklin (Ret.), a 34-year Baltimore and Maryland State Police Department veteran and the executive director of Law Enforcement Action Partnership, offered the following statement in response to Marino’s tentative appointment: “Any drug czar in-step with the majority of Americans would end the War on Drugs and invest in treatment and harm reduction. Our top priority should be funding supervised injection facilities and heroin maintenance programs, and making treatment and other harm reduction services widely available and affordable. If done properly, it’ll be cheaper and more effective than any drug enforcement efforts of the past 50 years.”

Trump’s Drug Czar Pick Exposed For Being on Big Pharma’s Payroll

By: Annabelle Bamforth, The Free Thought Project |

President Donald Trump’s reported choice to serve as Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy has raised alarm concerning conflict of interest, as his top pick has been criticized for protecting and benefiting from the pharmaceutical industry.

The ONDCP is responsible for most of the shaping of U.S. drug policy and will also be “providing administrative support” for Trump’s newly-created special commission to combat the opiate crisis. Trump’s top choice, Pennsylvania Congressman Tom Marino, is expected to resign from Congress to become the country’s “drug czar.

For those who seek to genuinely hold the pharmaceutical industry accountable for its role in the country’s opiate crisis, Marino is a perilous choice. The International Business Times has uncovered troubling background of Marino’s relationship with the pharmaceutical industry, particularly regarding donations.

According to IBT, Marino “would come to the job after pulling in big money from an industry that is producing and distributing the nation’s most deadly legal drugs. Marino has received more than $150,000 in donations from the pharmaceutical industry in his political career, including $71,000 for the 2016 election, according to records at Maplight.org and Opensecrets.org. The data show Marino has received more money from the pharmaceutical industry than any other sector.”

While he has yet to comment on his reception of those hefty donations, Marino is also responsible for establishing the Ensuring Patient Access and Effective Drug Enforcement Act, which essentially hinders the DEA’s ability to go after drug companies that have made profits in the midst of the opiate epidemic.

Before its passage, DEA Deputy Assistant Administrator Joseph Rannazzisi was vocal about his opposition to the bill, warning that if the bill “passes the way it’s written we won’t be able to get immediate suspension orders, we won’t be able to stop the hemorrhaging of these drugs out of these bad pharmacies and these bad corporations.”

Following Rannazzisi’s criticisms, Marino sought to have the Justice Department investigate Rannazzisi and “whether Rannazzisi had tried to ‘intimidate’ members of Congress,” according to IBT. The Los Angeles Times reported that the bill “allows companies accused of failing to report suspicious orders of dangerous drugs to submit a ‘corrective action plan’ to persuade the Drug Enforcement Administration to postpone or abandon proceedings against them. The law also raises the bar for the DEA to temporarily suspend their licenses.”

The Los Angeles Times added that this bill was well supported by “manufacturers, wholesalers and pharmacy chains, including some targeted by the DEA in recent years for not doing enough to keep drugs from addicts and drug dealers.”

It’s quite clear that Marino has benefitted from big pharma’s large donations and has experience in helping shape drug policy that effectively protects the industry.

In addition to his political cordiality with the industry, Marino has shown through his time in Congress that he is opposed to pro-cannabis legislation. “In Congress, Marino voted multiple times against a bipartisan measure to prevent the Justice Department from going after state-legal medical marijuana businesses,” The Cannabist reported.

“Similarly, he voted against a measure to allow Veterans Affairs doctors to recommend medical marijuana to their patients, as well as against a separate measure to loosen federal restrictions on hemp,” the publication noted, and “also voted against a measure that would loosen some restrictions on CBD oil, a non-psychoactive derivative of the cannabis plant that holds promise for treating severe forms of childhood epilepsy.” Marino has been quoted as showing support for continued research of cannabis, but ignorantly remains opposed to legalization without “a really in depth-medical scientific study.”

Maj. Neill Franklin (Ret.), a 34-year Baltimore and Maryland State Police Department veteran and the executive director of Law Enforcement Action Partnership, offered the following statement in response to Marino’s tentative appointment: “Any drug czar in-step with the majority of Americans would end the War on Drugs and invest in treatment and harm reduction. Our top priority should be funding supervised injection facilities and heroin maintenance programs, and making treatment and other harm reduction services widely available and affordable. If done properly, it’ll be cheaper and more effective than any drug enforcement efforts of the past 50 years.”

This Won’t End Well, Trump Names Rabid Cannabis Prohibitionist as Drug Czar

Washington, DC – In a move likely indicative of a coming resurgence in the long-running “war on drugs,” the Trump administration has appointed extreme marijuana prohibitionist, Pennsylvania Rep. Tom Marino to serve as U.S. drug czar, according to a report by CBS News. As drug czar, Marino would be responsible for coordinating drug control strategy and federal government funding of the “drug war.”

Marino is known as a rabid hardliner on drug policy, going so far as to proclaim that nonviolent drug offenders should be placed in a “hospital-slash-prison.” Congressman Marino is set to resign his position in the House to direct the Office of National Drug Policy Control, which advises President Trump on drug policy.

Since 2011, Marino has voted against amendments on three different occasions that would have prohibited the U.S Department of Justice from interfering with state medical cannabis laws and allowed Department of Veterans Affairs doctors to give military veterans medical cannabis recommendations, according to MassRoots.

Additionally, Marino voted against a law to protect state-controlled CBD programs from federal crackdowns and has at least twice opposed industrial hemp legislation. Perhaps the biggest irony here is the fact that Marino, in an October interview with the Sun-Gazette, had the nerve to absurdly claim he’s a “states’ rights guy.”

In the same interview, he noted that the only way he would ever agree to legalizing cannabis would be after “a really in-depth medical scientific study.” Revealing his extreme level of ignorance about the veracity of medicinal cannabis, Marino said:

“If it does help people one way or another, then produce it in pill form … You can’t smoke it for this, but you take a pill. But don’t make an excuse because you want to smoke marijuana. Look what’s happening to states and cities who are legalizing it. They are running into a lot of problems.”

Revealing his extremist views on drug policy in testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee, Marino noted:

“One treatment option I have advocated for years would be placing nondealer, nonviolent drug abusers in a secured hospital-type setting under the constant care of health professionals. Once the person agrees to plead guilty to possession, he or she will be placed in an intensive treatment program until experts determine that they should be released under intense supervision. If this is accomplished, then the charges are dropped against that person. The charges are only filed to have an incentive for that person to enter the hospital-slash-prison, if you want to call it.”

The appointment of a rapid prohibitionist as drug czar, in addition to having Attorney General Jeff “good people don’t smoke marijuana” Sessions helming the DOJ, seemingly indicates that we will see states’ rights rolled back in favor of allowing federal interference in state policy.

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There is a clear and present danger of the combination of Sessions at the helm of the DOJ, and Marino as drug czar. They can attempt to usher in major policy changes that will likely result in a crackdown in states that have legalized the recreational, and even the medicinal use, of cannabis.

If Jeff Sessions appointment to Attorney General wasn’t enough of a wake-up call regarding the extreme danger legal cannabis currently faces, the appointment of Marino should elucidate that a major crackdown on marijuana is on the horizon.

Make no mistake that all available evidence suggests the federal government is preparing to turn the clock back on cannabis policy. Please share this extremely important information, as the fate of legal cannabis in the United States likely hangs in the balance.