Trump’s Pick To Oversee Marijuana Rescheduling At DEA Pushed For ‘Equitable’ Cannabis Laws And Said Broader War On Drugs ‘Didn’t Work’

President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a Florida sheriff who has strongly advocated for marijuana decriminalization, calling it the “right thing to do” as “society is evolving.” And in little-noticed comments, he also argued more broadly that criminalization under the war on drugs “didn’t work.”

As DEA moves forward in the current federal marijuana rescheduling process, Hillsborough County, Florida Sheriff Chad Chronister’s past emphasis of the need for an “equitable” and consistent approach to cannabis laws is especially notable.

Trump announced last week that he intends to nominate Chronister for DEA administrator. If confirmed, he’d likely be tasked with overseeing the final rulemaking effort for the reclassification of cannabis. And while rescheduling wouldn’t legalize marijuana, it would help close the existing policy gap between the federal government and the majority of states that have enacted some form of legalization.

Advocates and industry stakeholders have been closely monitoring Trump’s cabinet selections as they try to assess what the marijuana policy landscape will look like under the incoming administration. The president-election’s choices so far have run the gamut with respect to their individual cannabis records, but DEA administrator is an especially relevant position to fill.

To that end, it would represent a major shift in the agency’s history to have a vocal proponent of decriminalization take the wheel. And it comes at a time when DEA’s stance on the Biden administration’s rescheduling proposal remains unclear—with certain signals that current leadership disagrees with the reform.

While it doesn’t appear Chronister has publicly commented on the proposal to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), he personally promoted local reform, including a 2020 move by the Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners to treat possession of up to 20 grams of marijuana as a civil offense instead of a misdemeanor.

“The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is in full support and will enforce the ordinance, which will make small amounts of marijuana possession a civil infraction,” he said in testimony in front of the board before it voted to enact the reform. “This proposed ordinance will ensure fair and equitable enforcement throughout the county, whether within a city jurisdiction or unincorporated Hillsborough County.”

“The ordinance would further serve as a learning opportunity without saddling the individual with an arrest, involvement with the criminal justice system and a criminal record,” he said, adding that the measure “provides a more efficient utilization of our law enforcement resources.”

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Following the vote, Chronister touted the policy change in a radio interview.

“The most important thing when it comes to marijuana enforcement now is the fact that it’s fair and equitable anywhere you go in Hillsborough County,” he said on WiLD 94.1’s Orlando & The Freakshow. The sheriff was referring to the alignment of county-wide marijuana laws with those of individual jurisdictions within the county such as Tampa Bay that had already implemented decriminalization policies.

The sheriff said he wasn’t surprised by the unanimous vote after he’d reached out to the county commission chair and advised that “this is what I think we need to do—it’s a better utilization of law enforcement resources.”

“It’s the right thing to do for a laundry list of reasons. Everybody was on board. I talked to most of the commissioners, and it was phenomenal how supportive everybody was,” he said. “I hated the fact that we were putting too many people in jail for misdemeanor amounts of marijuana, especially this next generation.”

“There’s too many people going to jail that are being saddled with the criminal history—that can’t get a job because of a misdemeanor amounts of marijuana—and then we sit back and wonder why we’re not thriving as a community. That’s not hard to figure out… You have to evolve. You know, society is evolving at a blistering pace. As a law enforcement agency, you have to evolve along with it or you’re going to be antiquated.”

The sheriff also took credit for implementing an internal cannabis policy change at his department, making it so prospective employees would not be disqualified for marijuana use that took place more than one year before they applied. Previously, that standard was three years.

In an interview with The Tampa Bay Times, Chronister also said the local decriminalization law “will “further serve as a learning opportunity without saddling the individual with an arrest, involvement with the criminal justice system and a criminal record.”

The county’s policy that Chronister has promoted stipulates that a first offense for possession of cannabis under 20 grams is punishable by a $100 fine. There’s a sliding scale for subsequent offenses, but the maximum fine for a third offense would be $500—as well as potential mandates for drug screening, education and treatment—before criminal penalties could be imposed. Previously, the law made it so simple possession, even on the first offense, could carry up to a $1,000 fine or a year in jail.

The sheriff has also talked more broadly about the consequences of criminalizing drug use, signaling that he may be open to scaling back prohibition enfocement for substances beyond cannabis as well. He argued that law enforcement should take a more “holistic approach—a more preventative approach.”

“The days of, ‘hey, listen, we’re law enforcement so we’re gonna lock everybody up—when I started back in the height of the crack-cocaine era, it didn’t work,” he said. “We put everyone in jail, and we couldn’t understand why we still had a problem.”

“It’s not just being tough on crime. It’s being smart on crime—being smarter on how we deploy our resources and being more preventative, taking this more holistic approach,” he said. “And it’s working.”

When the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners approved the local cannabis decriminalization ordinance, Chronister issued a press release saying the reform “allows our Sheriff’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office to focus our resources on arresting and prosecuting violent offenders.”

“I commend and thank Commissioner Les Miller and all of the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners who worked with us to create fair enforcement and less financially burdensome penalties in regards to marijuana possession. Having consistent enforcement all throughout Hillsborough County is vital. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the city of Tampa, Temple Terrace, Plant City or in Unincorporated Hillsborough County, the same rules will now apply across the board.”

In January 2020, the sheriff joined the Hillsborough chapter of the NAACP to discuss cannabis decriminalization.

Marijuana Conversation, Thu 1/16/20 6:30pm, Greater New Salem PBC, 1605 N Nebraska Ave, Tampa, FL 33602 | Panelists: @TampaPD @HCSOSheriff @PubDef13 @SAO13th | Follow @NAACP5139 | @ChowScottPhotos & @KetoThePhotoGuy #WeFightWeWin @ChadChronister pic.twitter.com/0X53sDM7wd

— NAACPHillsborough Chapter 5139 (@HillsbrghNAACP) January 8, 2020

Chronister also served on the Florida Drug Policy Advisory Council.

He was appointed to that job by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who vigorously campaigned against a marijuana legalization initiative on the November ballot that got 56 percent support—but fell short of the 60 percent supermajority needed to be enacted under state law.

It doesn’t appear that Chronister publicly endorsed or opposed Amendment 3, the recent statewide cannabis legalization measure.

Chronister was also in the news in 2023 after he announced the arrest of a deputy in his office who was accused of selling marijuana edibles to prison inmates that he was supervising.

In 2022, he was among 64 sheriffs who endorsed Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R), who later unsuccessfully sought to convince the state Supreme Court to prevent this year’s marijuana legalization initiative from qualifying for the ballot through a legal challenge.

Trump’s Team On Marijuana

In contrast to Chronister, Trump’s pick to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) could be a vociferous opponent of marijuana reform if the former GOP Florida congressman that Trump selected for the job, Dave Weldon, is ultimately confirmed.

Trump’s pick to run the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is also a medical marijuana skeptic, promoting claims that cannabis use is linked to cardiovascular issues and mental health problems for youth. He has also suggested that marijuana is a gateway drug.

In contrast, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the president-elect’s choice for secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that oversees FDA, supports ending marijuana prohibition and legalizing certain psychedelics for therapeutic purposes.

Trump’s choice for surgeon general has said she’s “all for” the use of medical cannabis for certain conditions, but she’s also promoted research linking cannabis smoking to cardiovascular issues.

Meanwhile, pro-legalization former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was recently replaced by former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R), who opposed medical cannabis legalization in the state, as Trump’s choice to for U.S. attorney general.

A non-governmental advisory body that Trump is putting together will have two familiar names helming the ship: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. And while both are proponents of marijuana and psychedelics reform, giving hope to some reformers that the new entity will recommend scaling back the costly war on drugs, Ramaswamy has previously insisted on expanding the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Federal Health Officials ‘Rejected’ DEA’s Request To Testify At Marijuana Rescheduling Hearing, Agency Tells Judge

Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.