In 2016, Taylor Weyeneth took a break from his studies as an undergrad law student at St John's University and used the skills he'd acquired organizing a single golf tournament and working in his father's chia seed factory (closed abruptly when his father went to jail for processing illegal Chinese steroids in the plant) to campaign for Donald Trump. Now Weyeneth, at 24 years old, is the deputy chief of staff for Office of National Drug Control Policy, in charge of billions of dollars in spending to curb the opioid epidemic and fight illegal drug use.



Since the ONDCP has no permanent director (thanks to the withdrawal of Trump nominee Rep Tom Marino [R-PA], who was forced to resign when the Washington Post and 60 Minutes revealed that he had sponsored legislation to increase the power of opioid manufacturers and to limit the power of the DEA to crack down on abuses), Weyeneth is now assistant to the country's acting Drug Czar, a job historically occupied by lawyers and government officials with many years of experience.





Weyeneth has no experience at all — even the fabrications on his resumes (there are three of these in the public domain, each giving a different, contradictory version of his working life) don't amount to anything that would justify giving this young frat guy administrative oversight of such an important role.





Trump officials explained that Weyeneth was qualified to combat the nation's opioid epidemic because he once lost a relative to an overdose and was "moved" by the incident.



When he was in high school, Weyeneth was "Director of Production" for Nature's Chemistry, a family firm in Skaneateles, N.Y., that specialized in processing chia seeds and other health products. One résumé said he served in that job from 2008 to 2013, and two others indicate he stopped working there in September 2011. In the summer and fall of 2011, the firm was secretly processing illegal steroids from China as part of a conspiracy involving people from Virginia, California and elsewhere in the United States and one person in China, federal court records show. Weyeneth's stepfather, Matthew Greacen, pleaded guilty to a felony conspiracy charge last year and received two years probation and a fine. Weyeneth was not charged in the investigation, known as Operation Grasshopper. His mother, Kim Weyeneth, said in an interview that neither she nor her son knew about the steroid production and that he provided information to help the federal prosecutors.

Meet the 24-year-old Trump campaign worker appointed to help lead the government's drug policy office [Robert O'Harrow Jr./Washington Post]

(via Naked Capitalism)





(Image: Grumpy Puddin, CC-BY)