DEA Report Underscores How Marijuana Legalization Actually Fuels the Black Market

Marijuana

A new report by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency underscores how marijuana’s legalization in some states has actually emboldened drug cartels and fueled the black market nationwide.

In its 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment released earlier this month, the DEA writes,

Cannabis growers in states where cultivation is legal are the main suppliers of illicit
marijuana markets in the rest of the United States, growing in excess of quotas and legal market
needs. . . .

Despite these measures, during the last two decades, the black market for marijuana has expanded significantly as Chinese and other Asian TCOs [transnational criminal organizations] have taken control of the marijuana trade. These organized crime groups, as well as Mexican cartels, are profiting from both illegal cultivation and sales, and from exploiting the “legal” market.

Over the past decade we have seen how legalization has actually emboldened drug cartels and increased the flow of illegal marijuana across America.

For example, last year, California’s Unified Cannabis Enforcement Task Force seized 154,000 pounds of illegal marijuana and destroyed some 236,000 illegal marijuana plants.

According to a recent news report out of Las Vegas, illegal marijuana sales in Nevada run approximately $242 million every year in the state.

Illegal marijuana operations often are believed to be tied to labor trafficking and violent crime — contributing to what some have dubbed “modern day slavery on American soil.”

Troublingly, Chinese organized crime is dominating black market marijuana in many states. The U.S. Department of Justice says Chinese drug cartels may be making millions of dollars from illegal marijuana in states like Maine, New York, Massachusetts, and elsewhere.

Much of the illegal marijuana that authorities in Arkansas seize on a regular basis actually comes from states that have legalized the drug.

Legalizing drugs — whether it’s marijuana itself or the THC and other substances extracted from cannabis — has not worked as intended in places like California. Arkansas should think twice before making the same mistakes these states have made.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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How Can a Public School Start Offering Elective Courses on the Bible?

Religious Freedom, , ,

We have written recently about how Arkansas law lets public schools offer elective courses on the Bible — and these courses have grown this year.

The Arkansas Department of Education has published standards that spell out what high schoolers can learn from these elective, one-semester courses.

These courses have been available since 2013, when Arkansas passed Act 1440 letting public schools offer elective, academic courses that study “the Bible and its influence on literature, art, music, culture, and politics.”

The law says the course must be objective and nonsectarian, and it must meet the same academic standards as other elective courses in public schools. Anyone wishing to teach the course must be licensed to teach in the State of Arkansas.

In 2019, the Arkansas Legislature passed Act 1016 making technical clarifications to Act 1440 of 2013, and this year lawmakers passed Act 400, the Religious Rights at Public School Act by Sen. Mark Johnson (R — Little Rock) and Rep. Alyssa Brown (R — Heber Springs) affirming public school students’ and teachers’ religious liberties — including the freedom schools have to offer academic courses on the Bible under state law.

So how can a public school offer an elective course on the Bible? Here are a few points to consider:

  • It’s up to the local school board. Local districts decide whether to offer the course and choose the curriculum. School boards may vote to offer the course and find a licensed teacher qualified to teach it.
  • Courses must be nonsectarian. They must be taught objectively. They cannot include “sectarian interpretations of the Bible,” and they cannot “disparage or encourage a commitment to a set of religious beliefs.”
  • The Arkansas Department of Education offers an academic framework schools can use for establishing Bible courses. The State of Arkansas does not have an approved curriculum for the academic study of the Bible, but the Department of Education has produced official standards that spell out what these courses should cover. School districts are free to offer courses and use curricula that meet this framework. School districts do not have to get their curriculum approved by the department before offering the course.

This year, 18 school districts in Arkansas offered academic courses on the Bible. Courts have said the U.S. Constitution does not prevent public school students from being taught about the Bible and its significance throughout human history, provided that the instruction is neutral and educational. In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1980 Stone v. Graham decision went so far as to say, “the Bible may constitutionally be used in an appropriate study of history, civilization, ethics, comparative religion, or the like.”

Family Council fully supports public school districts that offer academic courses on the Bible to students across the state. After all, no single book has been more influential over our civilization than the Bible.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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