A group of Republican senators are pressing the attorney general to “investigate the growing role of Chinese transnational criminal organizations in America’s cannabis and intoxicating-hemp markets.”
The lawmakers, led by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), sent a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche on Wednesday expressing concerns that criminal networks linked to China are “exploiting vulnerabilities in federal law to operate expansive illicit drug enterprises that threaten our communities and national security.”
Citing a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) report that found that Chinese criminal organizations “dominate marijuana cultivation and distribution in the United States, especially in states with legal cannabis markets,” the GOP senators are asking the Department of Justice to “fully investigate these criminal networks, including their financing, land usage, chemical imports, and any connections to the Chinese Communist Party.”
Chinese-linked criminal organizations are purchasing and leasing land on U.S. soil to conduct “illegal grow operations, traffic foreign workers, and use toxic pesticides and fertilizers shipped from China, including chemicals banned in the United States,” the lawmakers wrote.
The letter, which was also signed by Sens. Ted Budd (R-NC), Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Susan Collins (R-ME), notes the planned federal recriminalization of hemp THC products that is currently set to
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