President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is an independently wealthy Florida sheriff who favored decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana in 2020.
But it’s still too early to say exactly how Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister – whom Trump nominated on Saturday night to lead the DEA, according to Miami-based WLRN Public Media – might handle major pending issues such as the ongoing marijuana rescheduling process.
Fentanyl a bigger priority than marijuana?
If Chronister is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he would replace DEA Administrator Anne Milgram, a former New Jersey attorney general and law professor who was put in the role by the Biden administration.
Chronister is a lifelong law enforcement officer who in 2018 was elected sheriff of Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa and surrounding areas.
Most Capitol Hill observers agree that Chronister and Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, will be more concerned with fentanyl than marijuana when it comes to drug enforcement.
Chronister would oversee marijuana rescheduling
Trump previously signaled his support for the proposal by the Biden administration’s Justice Department to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule 1 drug to Schedule 1.
DEA attorneys appeared before an agency administrative law judge on Monday to confirm future arguments favoring rescheduling.
Exactly how long the hearings will last is unclear, but it seems certain the process will last beyond Inauguration Day and will be inherited by Chronister.
There are a few data points in Chronister’s record that indicate he’s cautiously supportive of reform but wary of potential consequences.
In February 2020, Chronister testified in support of decriminalizing possession in Hillsborough County of 20 grams or less of marijuana.
“This ordinance allows our Sheriff’s Office and the State Attorney’s Office to focus our resources on arresting and prosecuting violent offenders,” Chronister said in a statement at the time.
Impaired driving, opioids have been focus
However, Chronister noted in 2019 that his office had ramped up enforcement of driving under the influence in light of Florida launching medical marijuana sales in 2017.
The perils of marijuana-induced “drugged driving” are the argument of at least one of the designated participants selected to testify against rescheduling marijuana.
Chronister was “progressive” on one front: He advocated for treatment and education as tools to combat the opioid-overdose crisis.
“We know we’re not going to be able to arrest our way out of the opioid crisis,” he said at a 2019 joint news conference held with the DEA.
“It takes treatment.”
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