DEA Promotes Ad Campaign From Trump-Linked Group Blaming Marijuana Laced With Fentanyl For Overdose Deaths

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is promoting an anti-drug ad
campaign from a Trump-affiliated nonprofit—including one spot that links
fentanyl-contaminated marijuana to overdose deaths and depicts a lit
cannabis joint as part of the macabre PSA.

The ads, which were created by the organization Make America Fentanyl Free
(MAFF), reportedly received input from President Donald Trump, who insisted
that he wanted Americans to see more visceral portrayals of the fentanyl
crisis. The multi-million dollar campaign is targeting airwaves and social
media, including a spot during an NFL game on Monday.

While the president provided guidance on messaging for the campaign and
previewed the ads ahead of their release, the effort is not formally a
project of the federal government. A spokesperson for MAFF told Axios that
Trump “offered great advice, including the use of vivid imagery to show
Americans exactly how fentanyl destroys lives, families and communities.”

Even though the ads are not federally funded, DEA earlier this month gave a
signal boost to the campaign, sharing a Fox News story about the initiative
on its Get Smart About Drugs resource site that it’s also used to send
messages warning against marijuana use, linking it to depression and
suicidal thinking.

*Here’s the transcript for the MAFF ad on fentanyl and marijuana: *

*Actor 1:* Best birthday party ever. Well, except for the weed. Turns out
it was laced with fentanyl—and a birthday I’ll never forget, because it was
my last.

*Actor 2:* Just one mistake and you’re out of the game, forever.

*Narrator:* Taking fentanyl is like playing Russian roulette. Just a few
grains can kill you.

*Actor 3:* I had to pull an all nighter, so I took the pill my roommate
gave me. I swore it’d be the last time. It was.

*Actor 4:* I was immediately addicted to fentanyl, exactly like the drug
dealers wanted. My skin turned blue, I aged rapidly, my organs painfully
deteriorated, then I died. Alone.

*Narrator:* Fentanyl kills. Join President Trump’s fight to end the
fentanyl crisis.

Another ad says Trump is “taking bold actions to save American lives” and
depicts images of his administration’s military attacks on alleged drug
boats.

“He won’t let the radical left stop him,” the narrator says as on-screen
text shows a headline reading, “Democrats push back on Trump’s drug cartel
crackdown.”

In fact, a number of Republican senators have joined Democrats in
expressing concerns about the legality of the administration’s lethal
strike campaign.

Among those involved in the MAFF ads, according to Axios, were two former
senior advisors on Trump’s presidential campaigns—Chris LaCivita and
Danielle Alvarez—as well as GOP operative John Brabender.

The link between overdose deaths and fentanyl-contaminated marijuana has
proved contentious, with some advocates arguing that sourcing on news
reports about such incidents are over-reliant on law enforcement claims,
many of which are later walked back following additional testing. But
fentanyl has undoubtedly entered the illicit drug supply in other troubling
ways.

On the campaign trail, Vice President JD Vance also claimed that “marijuana
bags” are being laced with fentanyl, and he said the Biden administration’s
border policies made it so youth, including his own kids, couldn’t
experiment with cannabis or other drugs without risking fatal overdoses.

New York regulators have worked to debunk what they’ve called a “false”
narrative that cannabis is commonly contaminated with fentanyl—a
“misconception” that remains “widespread” despite a lack of evidence, they
said in 2023.

On the other side of the cannabis debate, another Trump-affiliated
political committee—America First Agriculture Action Inc.—recently pushed
the president to follow through on rescheduling marijuana, releasing ads
that highlight his previous endorsement of the reform on the campaign trail.

Trump said in late August that he’d make a decision on rescheduling within
weeks, but that’s yet to happen.

Earlier this year, a marijuana industry-funded political action committee
attacked former President Joe Biden’s cannabis policy record as well as the
nation of Canada, with ads promoting sometimes misleading claims about the
last administration while making the case that Trump can deliver on reform.

*Photo courtesy of Martin Alonso.*

The post DEA Promotes Ad Campaign From Trump-Linked Group Blaming Marijuana
Laced With Fentanyl For Overdose Deaths appeared first on Marijuana Moment.