Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy: Here's An Agency You Might Want To Cut Back On And Save $40 Billion A Year

When the Drug Enforcement Administration marked its 50th anniversary last year, it had spent over $1 trillion partly to enforce Richard Nixon's 1970 Controlled Substances Act, the cornerstone of his War on Drugs, which is widely viewed as a failure.

Now, doesn't this sound like the type of government agency President-elect Donald Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) might want to take a closer look at? The DOGE initiative, co-led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, is meant to focus on dismantling bureaucracy, reducing regulations and cutting wasteful expenditures.

Both Musk and Ramaswamy have publicly acknowledged they are in favor of legalizing cannabis. In fact, so has Trump for that matter.

Read Also: DEA Denies Allegations Of Colluding With Anti-Marijuana Group While Involved In Cannabis Rescheduling Process

Meanwhile, the DEA, health officials and interested cannabis advocates are taking part in at times contentious marijuana rescheduling pre-hearings this week with the formal meeting scheduled to begin Dec. 2. The hearings stem from President Joe Biden‘s August 2023 directive to downgrade the status of cannabis in the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

The CSA, signed by Nixon in 1970, classifies drugs and sets criminal penalties for their use, possession and distribution.

While he was at it, Nixon launched the War on Drugs, which actually turned out to be an assault on anti-Vietnam-war protestors and the Black community.

How do we know that, you might ask? Someone who helped Nixon pull the project together named names.

John Ehrlichman Spills The Beans

"The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people," Nixon's top adviser, John Ehrlichman told the writer Dan Baum in a 1994 interview that Baum later used in a Harper's Magazine article.

“We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or blacks, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities,” said Ehrlichman who died in 1999.

“We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course, we did."

DEA’s Changing Attitude

The DEA’s focus, having shifted from its strident anti-marijuana goals, now includes among other things stemming the flow of fentanyl into the U.S.

Nevertheless, Musk and Ramaswamy, with scientific research confirming the health benefits of cannabis and the fact that it’s legal in some form in 40 states, it might be the moment to cut back on an agency that continues to spend billions on punitive actions against a substance both you and nearly 80% of the U.S. population either partake in or believe should be legal. What do you say, gentlemen?

Now Read:

• DEA Judge Blocks Researcher’s Motion In Cannabis Rescheduling Case

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