SAM FOIA’s Communications Between Marijuana Industry & Alcohol and Tobacco Trade and Tax Bureau

SAM FOIA’s Communications Between Marijuana Industry & Alcohol and Tobacco Trade and Tax Bureau

(Alexandria, VA) Today, following reporting that leadership of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) met with a litany of groups advocating or participating in the violation of federal law, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), the nation’s leading non-profit dedicated to keeping the marijuana industry accountable, submitted a FOIA request to the TTB seeking copies of all communications between marijuana industry representatives, groups, and associations and employees of the TTB from 2020 onward.

Dr. Kevin Sabet, president of SAM and a former senior drug policy advisor to the Obama Administration, released the following statement following the submission of the FOIA request:

“As a former government official, I know how important transparency is. We were perplexed to learn that a federal bureau is reaching out to industry lobbyists to inform a policy that is far from settled, and yet not asking for input from organizations who actually follow the law. Given President Joe Biden’s position against marijuana legalization, this is especially consequential.

“By submitting this FOIA, we hope to bring transparency to communications between federal regulators and marijuana industry lobbyists — many of whom are on record in support of the legalization of all drugs, and all of whom are in continual violation of federal law.”