Elizabeth Warren Pushes Trump To End Federal Marijuana Criminalization After Elon Musk’s ‘Failures’ To Stop Wasteful Spending With DOGE

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is calling out President Donald Trump over his
administration’s “failures” to “identify and eliminate waste” in federal
government spending, while recommending a series of ways he could cut
costs—including ending marijuana criminalization.

In a letter sent to Trump on Wednesday, Warren and Rep. Melanie Stansbury
(D-NM) said that, as Elon Musk departs the administration following a
public feud over a budget reconciliation bill, they wanted to share a plan
to “eliminate $2 trillion in wasteful government spending without incurring
harm on essential government programs that lower costs for millions of
Americans.”

In January, Warren sent a similar letter to Musk, who was helming the
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) at the time. He “ignored these
recommendations—but you could choose to reverse course, abandon Mr. Musk’s
inefficient and harmful DOGE actions, and instead carefully review and
implement our policy proposals,” the lawmakers said.

Among their recommendations is a proposal to reduce spending by ending
“unnecessary federal arrests and detention programs.”

“The government spends billions of dollars each year on unnecessary federal
enforcement actions and detention, like costly marijuana arrests despite
the fact that almost half of states have legalized recreational marijuana,
imprisoning elderly and terminally ill patients who pose little risk to
public safety, and incarcerating people for minor technical violations of
probation and parole,” they said. “By ending these practices, the
government could save billions of dollars.”

“It is time to eliminate the real waste, fraud, and abuse in government
spending, rather than ravaging programs that keep Americans safe, secure,
and healthy just to pay for tax cuts for billionaires and large
corporations,” the letter says. “You should learn from Elon Musk and DOGE’s
mistakes, end your attacks on critical federal programs, and instead act on
these recommendations.”

In her previous letter to Musk, Warren cited reporting from Marijuana
Moment and other outlets on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA)
ongoing cannabis seizures, with the agency reporting that it eradicated
more than 5.7 million marijuana plants in 2022, for example.

However, DEA has faced more recent criticism after failing to release
updated annual data on marijuana-related arrests and seizures in 2024 as it
has done in prior years.

Warren has been proactive in her outreach to the Trump administration,
seeking clarification and making policy recommendations as cabinet nominees
are in the confirmation process.

In January, the senator pressed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—Trump’s
since-confirmed choice to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS)—to reiterate his position on marijuana legalization amid the
ongoing effort to federally reschedule cannabis.

Meanwhile, rather than decriminalize cannabis to lower costs, Congress has
sent a bill to Trump’s desk that would permanently ban analogues of fentanyl—though
it also contains provisions that one GOP lawmaker said would remove
barriers to conducting research into the risks and benefits of marijuana
and other Schedule I drugs.

A Democratic congresswoman separately said this week that the Trump
administration’s push to make states pay a larger share for public services
such as food assistance and health care amid his efforts to cut federal
spending might ultimately “push them in the direction of legalizing
marijuana” so they can offset those costs with cannabis tax revenue.

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The post Elizabeth Warren Pushes Trump To End Federal Marijuana
Criminalization After Elon Musk’s ‘Failures’ To Stop Wasteful Spending With
DOGE appeared first on Marijuana Moment.