Arizona Tribune - Is The DEA in Systemic Collapse: Corruption, Constitutional Violations, and a Seven-Year War Against Marijuana Medical Science

WASHINGTON, D.C. / ACCESS Newswire / December 7, 2025 / The Drug Enforcement Administration is facing the most profound institutional crisis in its 52-year history. Recent federal indictments, Supreme Court rulings, Department of Justice admissions, and extensive investigative reporting reveal an agency that has not merely failed its mission-it has actively inverted it.

The DEA was created to combat cartel trafficking, protect public health, and ensure researchers have access to controlled substances for legitimate medical use. Today, the evidence shows the opposite:

• DEA officials laundering cartel money

• DEA lawyers defending unconstitutional judicial processes

• DEA policies obstructing legitimate FDA authorized medical research

• DEA executives cycling into industry roles they once regulated

No law enforcement agency can survive this level of structural collapse-and no American patient can afford the life and death consequences of DEA dysfunction.

Federal Indictment Reveals a Mission in Freefall

The December 2025 arrest of former DEA Deputy Chief Paul Campo is not a scandal-it is a diagnostic autopsy.

According to prosecutors, Campo conspired to:

• Launder up to $12 million for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG)

• Purchase 220 kilograms of cocaine

• Discuss weapons and explosives procurement for cartel operations

• Convert cash into cryptocurrency to evade law enforcement

• Flash his DEA badge to cartel intermediaries

This was not misconduct.
It was operational treason.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams stated:

"Campo betrayed the mission he was entrusted with pursuing for his 25-year career with the DEA."

Campo is not alone. The DEA acknowledges at least 16 agents and officials have been criminally charged in the past decade.

The agency assigned to dismantle cartels now stands accused of being infiltrated by them.

While Agents Worked With Cartels, DEA Blocked Medical Research for Seven Years

While DEA insiders were allegedly facilitating cartel operations, the agency was simultaneously crippling legitimate medical science-most notably MMJ BioPharma Cultivation's seven-year struggle to obtain a basic bulk manufacturing registration to produce natural cannabis extracts for FDA-approved clinical trials in Huntington's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis.

The systemic failures include:

1. A Deliberate, Impossible Requirement

DEA demanded MMJ secure a "bona fide supply agreement"before licensure-
even though federal law prohibits any buyer from signing such an agreement until after licensure.

A regulatory trap.
A circular impossibility.
A designed failure.

2. An Unconstitutional Judicial Process

In 2024, MMJ was forced through a DEA administrative hearing-
a system the Department of Justice later admitted was unconstitutional.

In February 2025, DOJ formally declared:

• DEA ALJ removal protections violate the Constitution

• DEA's tribunal structure lacked lawful authority

• MMJ's hearing was conducted under a system invalid from the start

The Supreme Court's rulings in Axon v. FTC and Jarkesy v. SEC confirmed these violations.

3. Defiance of Congressional Mandates

Federal law requires DEA to process medical marijuana research applications within 60 days.

MMJ has been waiting:
2,500+ days.

That is not delay.
It is defiance of Congress.

The Structural Cause: A Collapse of Scientific Governance

A 2023 Yale Law Journal analysis found that the Controlled Substances Act's design-intended to split power between:

• HHS (science, medical evaluation)

• DEA (law enforcement)

has collapsed.

HHS deferred.
DEA overreached.
Science was subordinated to enforcement ideology.

As Yale concluded:

"The separation of scheduling powers has collapsed."

The DEA has assumed scientific control it was never equipped-or legally authorized-to wield, resulting in an agency that actively blocks medical research it is legally required to facilitate.

A Broken Agency That Fails Everyone Except Criminals and Consultants

The failures compound:

• DEA officials laundering cartel money

• Former DEA executives consulting for opioid manufacturers

• DEA leaders joining the first federally registered cannabis companies they helped regulate

• Anti-marijuana architect Matthew Strait now selling "controlled substance strategy" services after crafting the very policies that obstructed research

Meanwhile, MMJ International Holdings, the only company with:

• FDA INDs

• FDA Orphan Drug Designation

• DEA Schedule I import authorization

• GMP-manufactured pharmaceutical softgel capsules

has waited seven years for a simple administrative signature.

The DEA failed to stop cartels.
Failed to protect public health with state vape shops sell THC.
Failed to uphold the Constitution.
Failed to follow Congress's laws.
Failed to support medical science.

Its only consistent success has been obstruction.

A Constitutional, Regulatory, and Moral Mandate

In 2025, DOJ conceded that the DEA's ALJ system-the very mechanism used to stall MMJ's application-was unconstitutional.

Meaning:

• MMJ's hearing was invalid

• The judge lacked lawful authority

• The process had no constitutional foundation

For seven years, MMJ has been trapped inside a tribunal the federal government itself now admits was illegal.

"The DEA cannot claim authority over public safety while simultaneously blocking the only safe, FDA-regulated alternative to the products causing national concern," said MMJ CEO Duane Boise.
"Patients with Huntington's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis are paying the price."

High Potency Marijuana Isn't a Reason to Delay MMJ - It's the Reason to Approve It Now

As recreational cannabis products exceed 90% THC, hemp-derived synthetics collapse under new federal bans, and ERs fill with psychosis cases, policymakers are demanding stronger public health guardrails.

MMJ offers the solution the DEA has blocked:

• Standardized, pharmaceutical dosing

• FDA oversight

• Clinical precision

• Non-intoxicating therapeutic formulations

• A fully federally legal pathway

America needs pharmaceutical cannabinoid medicine.
MMJ is ready now.

"We urge DEA Administrator Terrance Cole to issue our final order immediately," Boise concluded.
"The science is ready. The medicine is manufactured. Clinical trials are prepared. Patients cannot wait."

About MMJ International Holdings

MMJ International Holdings is a U.S.-based biopharmaceutical company developing natural, plant-derived cannabinoid medicines for FDA approval. Its subsidiaries-MMJ BioPharma Cultivation and MMJ BioPharma Labs-operate entirely within federal law to advance pharmaceutical soft-gel capsule formulations 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

M.White--AT