President-elect Donald Trump has made his selection for another top Justice Department official: Harmeet Dhillon, who has peddled the gateway drug theory about marijuana and says cannabis makes people who consume it “silly, boring and smelly.”
Trump said on Monday that he intends to nominate Dhillon as assistant attorney general for civil rights. The lawyer has served in leadership roles with the Republican National Committee and California Republican Party, and she’s a frequent Fox News contributor.
For those following the marijuana policy positions of Trump’s cabinet picks, Dhillon’s comments on the issue reveal a staunch opposition to the use of cannabis, which she claimed is a “gateway drug and ambition-killer” following President Joe Biden’s mass marijuana pardons.
This choice for a key DOJ position also comes amid the final steps of the Biden administration’s efforts to reschedule marijuana—a task that the incoming Trump administration will inherit and which his Justice Department will play a pivotal role in facilitating.
Dhillon doesn’t seem expressly opposed to the idea of preventing people from going to jail over simple cannabis possession, however, and she’s pointed out that federal prosecutors rarely go after people over that low-level offense. At one point, she criticized Vice President Kamala Harris over her prosecutorial record on cannabis.
But she’s made her distaste for cannabis consumption clear on a number of occasions.
The prospective DOJ official also suggested that Biden’s marijuana pardons amounted to a political stunt that was meant to “get the stoners to the polls.”
“Can you ‘warm the line’ with free joints?” she said. “In all seriousness, [the mass pardon] affects very few people directly: feds almost never charge anyone *only* for simple MJ possession… it’s an add-on charge. This is for the feelz & the youth vote. The youth who are being told marijuana is fine when it’s a gateway drug and ambition-killer.”
“The real locus of most drug possession crimes is in state laws. I agree that people should not be behind bars for being drug addicts,” Dhillon said. “I disagree that we should minimize or even glorify drug use, much less use it it pander for votes. Less stuff should be criminal in general.”
Like other prominent critics of cannabis reform, Dhillon has frequently complained about the smell of marijuana.
In a post on the unofficial cannabis holiday 4/20 in 2021, the official cautioned people to “be safe out there today” because “marijuana makes you silly, boring, and smelly.”
She also said it’s “against my religion to smoke—but I have been around enough stoners to spot them at a distance!”
Dhillon has also been critical of former House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and former RNC Chair Michael Steele for becoming involved in marijuana industry lobbying.
One of her top concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic was the fact that certain jurisdictions allowed cannabis businesses to continue to operate as essential businesses while other institutions such as churches were closed to prevent the spread of the virus.
“One of the most egregious violations of our First Amendment freedoms was the treatment of religious Americans as second-class citizens, as vectors of disease,” she said in testimony before a House Judiciary subcommittee in April. “From the very beginning of the pandemic, governors across the country discriminately labeled houses of worship, and by extension the First Amendment, as ‘non-essential,’ while at the same time leaving their secular counterparts open for business. In my state, California, marijuana, liquor, and big-box retailers were deemed essential, but God was banned.”
In an interview with Fox News in 2018, she also condemned the city of Berkeley, California for passing legislation to prohibit local police from cooperating with the federal law enforcement in marijuana enforcement cases.
“What is awkward here is putting law enforcement officers who want to enforce the law because they have an obligation—they took an oath under the Constitution to support federal law, and now they are told not to do that,” she said. “It is chaos. It doesn’t really protect them. It is virtue signaling.”
If confirmed, Dhillon would be taking over the role from current U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who recently condemned the Memphis, Tennessee Police Department (MPD) following an investigation that discovered a “pattern” of civil rights violations—including racial disparities in marijuana-related arrests.
Trump’s Team On Marijuana
The selection of Dhillon came shortly after Trump’s first choice to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) withdrew from consideration. The Florida sheriff had strongly advocated for marijuana decriminalization, calling it the “right thing to do” as “society is evolving.”
Trump’s pick to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) could also be a vociferous opponent of marijuana reform if the former GOP Florida congressman that Trump selected for the job, Dave Weldon, is ultimately confirmed.
The president-elect’s choice 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 DEA.
GOP Congressman And D.C. Officials Push To End Federal Ban On Marijuana Sales In Nation’s Capitol
President-elect Donald Trump has made his selection for another top Justice Department official: Harmeet Dhillon, who has peddled the gateway drug theory about marijuana and says cannabis makes people who consume it “silly, boring and smelly.” Trump said on Monday that he intends to nominate Dhillon as assistant attorney general for civil rights. The lawyer Read More
