Tag: the war on (some) drugs

$67 In France And $798 In US – Why Prescription Drug Prices Are So High In America

Prescription drugs cost more in the United States than anywhere else in the world. President Donald Trump and some bipartisan senators want to change that.

Trump has so far issued several actions related to prescription drug prices. The latest, announced May 12, is a Most Favored Nation Prescription Drug policy, requiring pharmaceutical companies to offer their lowest price to U.S. customers.

An earlier order aimed to ensure that the middlemen in the drug supply chain can’t hold on to rebates provided by pharmaceutical companies and instead must pass savings on to Medicare beneficiaries.

In all, the president has taken at least a dozen actions to reduce prescription drug costs, while no less than nine Senate bills aim for the same results.

Some of these ideas have been introduced before.

Trump’s Most Favored Nation pricing plan was introduced near the end of his first term.

The plan was stalled by court challenges, and President Joe Biden dropped it shortly after taking office.

A plan to make vendors pass manufacturer discounts on to Medicare beneficiaries was proposed in 2020. Biden rescinded it before it took effect.

There have been modest successes, including a pilot program begun by Trump in 2020 to cap insulin costs for Medicare Part B beneficiaries at $35 per month. At the time, a single vial of insulin cost about $100 in the United States.

That program was a success, and the idea was later broadened to include all Medicare beneficiaries through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. By 2024, most major drug companies had voluntarily limited out-of-pocket expenses for insulin for all U.S. customers to $35.

Yet Americans still pay nearly three times as much for prescription medication as any peer nation, often even more.

Trulicity, a medication for Type 2 diabetics, was listed for $67 in France, according to a 2021 Government Accountability Report. In the United States, it cost $798.

Meanwhile, Remlivid, an oral cancer medication, was listed for $4,723 in Australia. In the United States, it was listed at almost five times that price: $22,048.

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Nebraska Lawmakers Reject Amendment To Protect Doctors Who Recommend Medical Marijuana

A late legislative attempt Wednesday to give additional protections to health care practitioners who recommend medical cannabis to Nebraska patients fell well short of moving forward a day after a broader medical cannabis regulatory bill stalled.

State Sen. John Cavanaugh (D) of Omaha sought to add those physician liability protections Wednesday to a broader Health and Human Services Committee bill: Legislative Bill 376. The measure seeks to slash various reporting requirements and make other changes primarily in the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.

Cavanaugh said his effort was a “solution” that would be a “small but meaningful step” for some of the families who showed up Tuesday for LB 677, the medical cannabis regulatory bill from State Sen. Ben Hansen (R) of Blair. LB 677 failed 23–22, falling 10 votes short of overcoming an all-day filibuster.

“Give these families some hope, some opportunity to get access to what the voters approved at over 70 percent,” Cavanaugh told his colleagues. “Vote to give doctors some small protection if they follow their conscience and their training.”

Under the ballot measures approved in November, a patient can possess up to 5 ounces of medical cannabis for any condition with a health care practitioner’s recommendation.

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GOP Senator Who Opposes Marijuana Legalization Complains About Federal Alcohol Guidelines Recommending Americans Drink Less

A GOP senator is complaining about pending revisions to federal guidelines that could recommend Americans drink less alcohol, even as he maintains his strong opposition to legalizing marijuana.

As the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) works to finalize updated dietary guidance for Americans, which will be partly informed by a study that some expect will recommend further reducing alcohol intake, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is standing strong in defense of alcohol’s legal status.

“Wasting taxpayer dollars on studies to ban alcohol is exactly why [former President Joe Biden] and his cronies were voted out of the White House,” he told The Washington Reporter.

To be clear, the study that’s being carried out by SAMHSA’s Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD) isn’t intended to impose a “ban” on alcohol. Rather, it’s meant to provide updated data on the potential risks of alcohol use, with findings that could be incorporated into the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which is not legally binding for consumers.

But Cotton’s comment reflects a policy disconnect that has long frustrated cannabis reform advocates who’ve long argued that, if alcohol is legal and regulated, it’s nonsensical to continue prohibiting marijuana, which many studies show is comparably safer and therapeutically beneficial for many patients.

If pursuing a ban on alcohol is a waste of taxpayer dollar, as the senator suggested, it’s notable he doesn’t feel similarly about the millions of dollars that continue to be spent arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating people over cannabis. But instead, Cotton has long maintained opposition to legalizing marijuana, including through an initiative to end cannabis prohibition that appeared on Arkansas’s 2022 ballot.

While he said in 2018 that he respected the will of voters in his state to legalize medical cannabis, he didn’t think the federal government should as much as decriminalize it. And in 2023, he sharply criticized then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for proposing criminal justice provisions he wanted to add to a bipartisan marijuana banking bill, claiming Schumer was supporting “letting drug traffickers out of prison.”

In any case, Cotton isn’t the first senator to take a conflicting position on alcohol and marijuana as it concerns the SAMHSA study. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), another staunch cannabis prohibition, made headlines in 2023 said that federal officials “can kiss my ass” if they decide to reduce the recommended maximum consumption of alcohol to two drinks per week.

“What is it with liberals and wanting to control every damn aspect of your life?” he said during an interview with Newsmax.

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USDA Trade Committee That Promotes Hemp Internationally To Be Closed Under Trump Executive Order

The Trump administration is moving to terminate trade advisory committees under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), including one that had been expanded to include hemp industry representatives to promote the crop internationally.

In a notice published in the Federal Register on Monday, USDA advised that it will be going forward with the termination of the committees in compliance with an executive order President Donald Trump signed in February that’s meant to reduce the size of the federal government across multiple agencies. The plan has been paused, however, as USDA is now asking the White House to advise on how to most efficiently facilitate the terminations.

This means the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee (ATAC) for Trade in Tobacco, Cotton, Peanuts, and Hemp—among six other committees focused on different crops—will be shuttered. 

“It’s certainly a concern,” Jonathan Miller, general counsel at the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, told Marijuana Moment on Wednesday. “You know, the irony has been, for the past decade, we’ve wanted to be treated like every other commodity—and we got that when it comes to this commission. Now, with this broad focus we’re potentially being penalized.”

However, he said that in light of certain policy reversal amid the Trump administration’s efforts to cut spending, he remains “hopeful” that after a review, there will be “a real focus going forward on what’s meaningful and what’s not. And we think this is a meaningful program.”

The ATAC didn’t always have hemp in its title, nor representatives of the industry. But following the federal legalization of low-THC forms of the cannabis crop under the 2018 Farm Bill that Trump signed into law during his first term, USDA got to work incorporating hemp into its various policies and programs, which included its elevation within the ATAC in order to encourage international trade deals.

USDA and the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) have been gradually building up hemp industry representation within the ATAC. The first members were appointed in 2020, and the most recent joined this January, shortly before Trump took office for the second time. The name of the ATAC was changed to explicitly include hemp in 2023.

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The New Hampshire Senate Has Rejected Every Marijuana Bill Passed By The House This Session

The New Hampshire Senate on Thursday moved to scuttle two marijuana measures already passed by the House, including a proposal to allow medical cannabis businesses to cultivate in greenhouses and a separate bill to expand the state’s annulment process for past arrest and conviction records.

Senators also voted to delay consideration until next month of a separate bill that would decriminalize small amounts of psilocybin.

The actions reflect the chamber’s broad hostility toward drug reform measures this session. While a number of bills cleared the House of Representatives—including to legalize adult-use marijuana and allow medical marijuana patients to grow cannabis at home—nearly all have gone on to die in the Senate.

“These outcomes are disappointing, but unfortunately, they aren’t surprising,” Matt Simon, director of public and government relations at the medical marijuana provider GraniteLeaf Cannabis, told Marijuana Moment.

Earlier this year, Simon said it appeared “that a few senators just want to kill every bill that deals with cannabis policy, no matter how modest and non-controversial.”

All told, senators have now moved to table or kill eight House-passed measures related to marijuana this session.

One of the bills taken up at Thursday’s Senate floor session—HB 301, from Rep. Suzanne Vail (D)—would have allowed medical marijuana operators (known in the state as alternative treatment centers, or ATCs) to each establish a single additional cultivation location, including in a greenhouse.

Under current law, all growing by ATCs must happen indoors, with greenhouse cultivation prohibited.

Though House lawmakers passed the bill in February, a Senate committee earlier this month marked the proposal “inexpedient to legislate,” effectively recommending it be abandoned. On Thursday, senators voted to table it.

Simon noted that in New Hampshire, there’s strong support for broader legalization of marijuana, “so it’s hard to understand why letting ATCs grow in secure greenhouses is even remotely controversial.”

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FBI Says Global Operation Led to 270 Arrests Targeting Dark-Web Drug Trafficking

The FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday announced that 270 people were arrested and that hundreds of pounds of fentanyl were seized as part of an operation targeting drug traffickers on darknet websites.

The arrests were made in Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States under “Operation RapTor,” according to the FBI. The name of the operation refers to the Tor software and browser that allows for anonymous web browsing and to access darkweb, or darknet, websites that are normally not accessible through standard browsers or search engines.

In a statement, the DOJ said that “more than $200 million in currency and digital assets, over two metric tons of drugs, 144 kilograms [317 lbs] of fentanyl or fentanyl-laced narcotics, and over 180 firearms” were also seized in the operation.

FBI officials noted that one kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of fentanyl has the potential to kill up to 500,000 people. That drug has led to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in the United States over the past decade or so, and it’s currently the leading cause of overdose deaths in the country, federal health officials say.

“By cowardly hiding online, these traffickers have wreaked havoc across our country and directly fueled the fentanyl crisis and gun violence impacting our American communities and neighborhoods,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement on Thursday. “But the ease and accessibility of their crimes ends today.”

An operation targeting an apartment in Los Angeles that was being used as a hub to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine on the dark web also led to the seizure of “large amounts of cash and suspected drugs,” the FBI said.

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French justice minister calls for abolishing cash

France’s Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin has proposed abolishing cash transactions, arguing that digital payments – including cryptocurrencies – are much easier to trace than physical money and would help authorities combat drug trafficking and other criminal activity.

Restrictions on cash transactions in France and across the EU have already tightened in recent years.

Speaking before a Senate commission on Thursday, Darmanin said that “a large part of daily delinquency and even criminal networks rely on cash,” and declared that “the end of cash would prevent the establishment of drug dealing points.”

Darmanin, who previously oversaw public finances as Minister of Public Action and Accounts, acknowledged that banning physical money wouldn’t eliminate the drug trade, but insisted that “once the money is traceable,” it becomes “more complicated” for both consumers and dealers to escape financial oversight.

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Texas Democrats Slam GOP Lieutenant Governor For Championing Hemp Product Ban That Has Now Passed The House

Lawmakers in the Texas House of Representatives have passed a measure to establish a statewide ban on consumable hemp products that contain any detectable amount of THC.

The House approved the bill, SB 3, on third reading vote of 87–54 on Thursday.

Under the latest version of the proposal, championed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), who presides over the Senate, adults could face a $500 fine for possessing a hemp product containing any THC—a penalty that would climb to up to 180 days in jail for subsequent offenses.

Earlier this week, Patrick wrote on social media that “we cannot in good conscience leave Austin without banning THC.”

“I’ve been here for 17 years at the Texas Capitol—10 years as your lieutenant governor,” he said in a video Monday evening. “I’ve never been more passionate about anything.”

Democrats have attacked the bill as an assault on personal liberty and gone after Patrick for his zeal around the ban.

“Dan Patrick is coming for your THC,” the party posted on social media. “Why doesn’t he bring this kind of energy to fully funding our public schools and raising teacher pay?”

“In the so-called ‘freedom state’,” it added, “adults should have the right to use cannabinoid products. We allow alcohol and tobacco—why not a gummy or oil to relax and ease pain?”

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Nevada Assembly Passes Resolution Urging Congress To Reschedule Psychedelics And Protect ‘Supervised Adult Use’ Of The Substances

The Nevada Assembly has amended and advanced a Senate-passed joint resolution calling on Congress to reschedule certain psychedelics, streamline research and provide protections for people using the substances in compliance with state law.

On the chamber floor on Thursday, lawmakers voted 36-6 to advance the measure—SJR 10, from Sen. Rochelle Nguyen (D)—which now returns to the Senate to consider changes made in the Assembly.

The resolution cites research demonstrating the therapeutic potential of psychedelics in the treatment of serious mental health conditions and calls on the federal government to “reschedule psilocybin, psilocin, DMT, ibogaine, mescaline and MDMA to a schedule that better reflects the therapeutic value, low potential for abuse and safety for use under medical supervision of those compounds.”

It also points out that there have been federal developments on the issue, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designation of certain psychedelics as “breakthrough therapies” and research that’s being funded to explore the substances at the Department of Defense (DOD) and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

The measure urges Congress to increase funding for further research, establish a “streamlined process for approving and conducting research with psychedelic compounds,” and reschedule psilocybin, psilocin, DMT, ibogaine, mescaline and MDMA under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

Further, it calls for the establishment of “legal protection against federal prosecution for individuals and entities complying with state law concerning the supervised adult use of psychedelic compounds and require states to enter research partnerships with the Attorney General under the Controlled Substances Act to study the public health outcomes of such state programs.”

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Congressional Bill Aimed At Protecting Kids Online Could Cause Headaches For Marijuana Businesses

A newly filed bill in Congress aimed at protecting children online could create headaches for advertisers trying to promote legal marijuana and other regulated substances.

Titled the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), the bipartisan proposal—from Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) as well as Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)—would create a “duty of care” for online platforms such as social media and streaming video services, requiring them to take steps to prevent access to potentially sensitive content by minors.

That includes advertisements for cannabis products and certain other drugs and services.

A factsheet from Blackburn’s office says the duty of care “requires social media companies to prevent and mitigate certain harms that they know their platforms and products are causing to young users.”

The sponsors say the legislation is necessary to protect children from pernicious practices that keep “kids glued to their screens” for hours a day, alleging that “Big Tech is trying every method possible to keep them scrolling, clicking ads, and sharing every detail of their life.”

The 63-page bill “targets the harms that online platforms cause through their own product and business decisions,” the factsheet says, “like how they design their products and applications to keep kids online for as long as possible, train their algorithms to exploit vulnerabilities, and target children with advertising.”

Much of the proposal is aimed at limiting content that fuels behavioral health disorders. Platforms would need to “exercise reasonable care in the creation and implementation of any design feature to prevent and mitigate the following harms to minors,” it says, listing eating and drug use disorders, suicidal ideation, violence and harassment, sexual exploitation, financial harm and others.

As for controlled substances, online platforms would be prohibited from facilitating the “advertising of narcotic drugs, cannabis products, tobacco products, gambling, or alcohol to an individual that the covered platform knows is a minor.”

The provision around drug use lists the “distribution, sale, or use of narcotic drugs, tobacco products, cannabis products, gambling, or alcohol” as risks that platforms would need to actively guard minors against.

Video streaming platforms meanwhile, would be required “to employ measures that safeguard against serving advertising for narcotic drugs, cannabis products, tobacco products, gambling, or alcohol directly to the account or profile of an individual that the service knows is a minor.”

“Big Tech platforms have shown time and time again they will always prioritize their bottom line over the safety of our children, and I’ve heard too many heartbreaking stories to count from parents who have lost a child because these companies have refused to make their platforms safer by default,” Blackburn said in a press release about the legislation.

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