Bennet blasts Trump administration for 'intentional effort to mislead' on legal marijuana

Nick Coltrain | The Coloradoan

Show Caption Hide Caption Working in the marijuana industry Amanda Woods, Compliance Officer for Choice Organics dispensary, has encountered problems with banking and finances because she works in the legal pot industry.

U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet attacked the Trump administration's "incoherent and backward-looking" marijuana policy following a news report that the White House formed a committee to push a negative narrative about the drug.

According to BuzzFeed News, the White House formed the Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee and instructed federal departments to provide “the most significant data demonstrating negative trends, with a statement describing the implications of such trends.”

A summary of a July 27 meeting with the White House and nine federal departments stated “the prevailing marijuana narrative in the U.S. is partial, one-sided, and inaccurate,” according to BuzzFeed News.

“Staff believe that if the administration is to turn the tide on increasing marijuana use there is an urgent need to message the facts about the negative impacts of marijuana use, production, and trafficking on national health, safety, and security,” according to the documents as quoted by BuzzFeed News.

Bennet, a Democrat who represents Colorado, called it an “intentional effort to mislead the American people.”

“At a time when we should be investing in objective and peer-reviewed scientific research on marijuana and the effects of legalization, the White House is instead using taxpayer money to spread a politically-driven narrative,” Bennet said in a statement. “What’s perhaps most unfortunate is that my state and others stand ready to work as partners with the federal government to gather the data and research necessary to ensure we are protecting public health and safety.”

A White House spokesperson told BuzzFeed News the committee is intended to align policy goals with President Donald Trump’s agenda. The news organization wrote that none of the documents it obtained showed the administration seeking any data about whether marijuana legalization serves any public benefit or reduces drug abuse.

“The Trump administration’s policy coordination process is an internal, deliberative process to craft the President’s policies on a number of important issues facing the American people, and ensure consistency with the President’s agenda," Lindsay Walters, deputy White House press secretary, told BuzzFeed News.

Bennet’s response included a letter to James Carroll, the acting director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which is part of the president’s office. Its head is commonly known as the nation’s drug czar.

"The only way to 'turn the tide' on any issue with the public is to be a credible voice,” Bennet wrote in the letter. “By cherry-picking data to support pre-ordained and misinformed conclusions on marijuana, the Trump administration has further eroded any credibility it had on the issue.”

Bennet sent the letter Thursday morning. The Office of National Drug Control Police did not immediately respond to the senator.

Read Sen. Michael Bennet's letter below.