-
James ties NBA record for most regular-season games in latest milestone
-
Trump's Mideast muddle could play into Xi's hands at planned summit
-
Wembanyama lifts playoff-bound Spurs, Doncic and James fuel Lakers
-
Japan ski paradise faces strains of global acclaim
-
Vinicius, Real Madrid must prove consistency in Atletico derby
-
Kane credits Kompany's Bayern 'evolution' as treble beckons
-
PSG look back to their best, but not yet out of sight in Ligue 1
-
Weakened WTO set for high-level meet under cloud of Mideast war
-
New BTS album to drop ahead of comeback mega-gig
-
Troubled Spurs face Forest showdown, Chelsea need top-four surge
-
Australia must be 'smart and adapt' to beat Japan in Asian Cup final: coach
-
From bats to bonds: Uganda's 'cricket grannies'
-
Turkey in cultural diplomacy push to bring history home
-
'The Bachelorette' canned after star's violent video emerges
-
Trump gets approval for gold coin in his likeness
-
Behind the BTS comeback, the dark side of K-pop
-
Crude sinks after Netanyahu tries to reassure on Iran war
-
Three charged with sneaking Nvidia AI chips from US into China
-
Swiatek stunned at Miami Open by 50th-ranked Linette
-
Italy, Germany and France offer help with Hormuz only after ceasefire
-
US-backed airstrikes leave Ecuador border communities in fear
-
'Blackmail': EU leaders round on Orban for stalling Ukraine loan
-
Displacement, bombs and air raid sirens weigh on Mideast Eid celebrations
-
James ties NBA record for most regular-season games played
-
BTS to drop new album ahead of comeback mega-gig
-
Netanyahu says Iran 'decimated,' Tehran targets Gulf petro-facilities
-
Carrick uncertain if Man Utd defender De Ligt will return this season
-
US, Israel tactics diverge on Iran as Trump's goals still 'fuzzy'
-
Japan PM placates Trump on Iran, but faces Pearl Harbor surprise
-
Brazil presidential hopeful Flavio Bolsonaro praises Bukele
-
The Iran war and the cost of killing 'bad guys'
-
US stocks cut losses on Netanyahu war comments as energy prices soar again
-
Forest beat Midtjylland on penalties to reach Europa League quarters
-
Netanyahu says Iran decimated as Tehran warns of 'zero restraint' in energy attacks
-
Salvadoran anti-corruption lawyer jailed to 'silence her', husband says
-
California to rename Cesar Chavez Day after sex abuse claims
-
Yazidi woman tells French court of rape, slavery and escape from IS
-
New FIFA ruling boosts prospects for women coaches
-
Megan Jones to captain England in Women's Six Nations
-
Trump says told Netanyahu not to attack Iran gas fields
-
MLS reveals shortened 2027 campaign details
-
FIFA planning for World Cup to 'go ahead as scheduled' amid Iran uncertainty
-
Braves outfielder Profar's full MLB season ban upheld: report
-
Mideast war exposing Europe's reliance on Gulf flights, airlines warn
-
Ghalibaf: Iran's new strongman running war effort
-
UN shipping body urges 'safe maritime corridor' in Gulf
-
Venezuelan student freed after months in US immigration custody
-
Trump to Japan PM: 'Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?'
-
US mulls lifting sanctions on Iranian oil at sea despite war on Tehran
-
IMF raises concern over global inflation, output over Iran war
President Trump's Executive Marijuana Action Exposes the Truth-How the DEA Delayed Medicine While Protecting Everything Else
WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESS Newswire / December 26, 2025 / This Holiday season, the contradictions at the heart of the DEA and U.S. drug policy have become impossible to ignore.

As psychedelic churches secure legal exemptions to administer Schedule I substances under federal law-and as well-funded anti-cannabis groups work to roll back voter-approved marijuana laws in Maine and Massachusetts-chronically ill patients continue to wait for something far more modest, far more regulated, and far more humane:
FDA-approved cannabinoid medicine.
The reason they are still waiting is not science.
It is not law.
It is not public safety.
A Pattern of Obstruction, Not Protection
For years, an internal faction within the DEA-led or enabled by Anne Milgram, Thomas Prevoznik, Matthew Strait, Aarathi Haig, and Diversion Investigator Thomas Cook-systematically blocked FDA-authorized clinical cannabis programs despite:
Congressional mandates (including the Marijuana Research Act)
HHS scientific recommendations
FDA-reviewed IND applications
Clear statutory timelines measured in days, not years
Instead, the DEA imposed impossible conditions, including "bona fide supply agreements" that could not exist without the very registrations the agency refused to grant. Applicants were forced into an administrative law system later acknowledged by the Department of Justice itself to be constitutionally defective.
This was not caution.
This was bureaucratic sabotage.
Patient Harm Was the Outcome
The consequences were not theoretical.
They were human.
Patients with Huntington's Disease, a fatal neurodegenerative condition with no cure
Patients with Multiple Sclerosis, enduring progressive disability, pain, and spasticity
Veterans with service-related neurological injuries
Cancer patients struggling with anxiety, nausea, and pain
All waited-while paperwork was weaponized.
While these patients were denied access to clinical trials using standardized, non-smoked, pharmaceutical-grade cannabinoid medicines, the DEA claimed it was acting in the name of public safety.
Meanwhile, Everything Else Moved Forward
The hypocrisy is staggering.
Psychedelic Churches Win-Because the DEA Keeps Losing
Under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), psychedelic churches have repeatedly defeated the DEA in court-or bypassed litigation entirely-securing exemptions to administer Schedule I substances such as ayahuasca and psilocybin.
The Church of Gaia and others now legally distribute powerful psychedelics in ceremonial settings, with DEA acknowledgment that it cannot meet the legal burden to stop them.
Churches are protected.
Patients were not.
Dark Money Campaigns Target Voters-Not Science
At the same time, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM)-a well-funded anti-legalization organization-has openly claimed responsibility for multi-million-dollar efforts to end adult-use cannabis sales in Massachusetts and Maine, potentially eliminating $1.8 billion in annual legal commerce.
These campaigns operate through opaque funding channels, alleged deceptive signature-gathering tactics, and ideological messaging-while the same voices oppose rescheduling, research expansion, and FDA-based drug development.
Yet FDA-guided pharmaceutical cannabis programs are repeatedly painted with the same brush as unregulated retail products.
That is not policy.
That is propaganda.
The Question No One at the DEA Will Answer
If churches can receive exemptions to use Schedule I substances...
If dark-money groups can rewrite voter approved law...
Why were dying patients denied the right to clinical trials using FDA-manufactured medicine?
Why was a pharmaceutical pathway-designed precisely to protect safety, dosing, and efficacy-treated as more dangerous than underground markets, synthetic cannabinoids, or religious loopholes?
President Trump's Executive Action Exposes the Truth
President Trump's recent Executive Order directing expedited rescheduling and modernized medical research standards did not create this problem.
It exposed it.
The Order confirms what patients, physicians, and scientists have long known:
Marijuana has accepted medical use
Research barriers were political, not scientific
The absence of FDA-approved cannabinoid medicines harmed patients
History is now rendering its verdict.
The research will proceed.
The medicine will be studied.
The patients will no longer be ignored.
A Christmas Message-and a Reckoning
So yes-Merry Christmas.
And with it comes a hope that the spirit of the season does what bureaucratic power never could:
Force reflection on the damage caused
Demand accountability for delay
Separate ideology from medicine
Redemption is still possible.
It begins with acknowledging harm.
It continues with humility.
And it ends-perhaps-with an apology not to companies, but to patients.
Because churches were protected.
Markets were manipulated.
And patients waited far too long.
About MMJ International Holdings
MMJ International Holdings, Inc. is a U.S.-based biopharmaceutical company developing DEA-licensed, pharmaceutical-grade, plant-derived cannabinoid medicines for FDA approval. MMJ has manufactured validated, reproducible final dose form soft-gel capsules under FDA guidance for use in clinical trials targeting Huntington's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis.
MMJ is represented by attorney Megan Sheehan.
CONTACT:
Madison Hisey
[email protected]
203-231-8583
SOURCE: MMJ International Holdings
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
A.Jones--AMWN