The GOP-led House Committee held an hearing Thursday on the Chinese criminal groups behind massive illicit marijuana crops. A group of law-enforcement officials and a researches each tried to connect this issue with state-level legalization.
A Democratic member of Congress took this opportunity to advocate for federal reform and cannabis reclassification to help mitigate the issue.
The House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, & Accountability hearing was titled “Invasion of the Homeland: How China is Using Illegal Marijuana to Build a Criminal Network Across America.”
Although there were some discussions among lawmakers and experts about the difference between state-sanctioned marijuana cultivation and the illegal market, they tended to be prohibitionist. A former Drug Enforcement Administration agent (DEA), a top Oklahoma law enforcement officer and a Heritage Foundation researcher were among the witnesses.
Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-OK, said during his opening remarks: “We’ve allowed these foreign groups with potential connections to the [Chinese Community Party, or CCP] To build up an advanced network in the United States that facilitates other criminal activities and poses a threat to national security.”
“This is a convergence of organized crime, human drug trafficking, public health risks—all operating at scale and sophistication crossing the state national lines beyond the normal capabilities of state and local law enforcement to combat,” he said. These agencies require federal assistance to dismantle these criminal networks.
Rep. Troy Carter, a Democrat from Louisiana, however, brought up the negative collateral effects of the federal government’s prohibition of marijuana, stating that “the decision by the federal government to criminalize cannabis has been disastrous for the economy, our communities and justice in America.”
“The failed campaign against cannabis has devastated Black and Brown Communities in particular.” He said that the arrest and imprisonment rates for marijuana crimes were wildly disproportionate. Today, when most Americans are in favor of legalization, we must admit that the marijuana prohibition is a failure.
Carter stated that “if we are to protect American citizens and dismantle criminal foreign networks, we must strengthen the regulation of markets, rather than weaken it.”
A congressman noted also that “even Trump expressed support” for the reclassification of marijuana on a federal level.
“Like President Trump, I believe we should end endless arrests for cannabis conduct and focus on the real bad guys—those who are pushing fentanyl and other deadly forms of drugs,” he said.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA, said “Chinese TCOs are dominating the illicit marijuana market in America, setting up highly sophisticated multi-state operations.”
“This is largely believed, especially in younger generations, that marijuana is a good thing–that it helps relieve stress, helps them sleep at night, and then there’s also people that use it for PTSD and have success with it,” the congresswoman said. There are some medical applications for marijuana. However, the American people don’t know that Chinese criminal groups have taken part in this and it has lead to other very terrible and dangerous crimes.
Donnie Anderson is the director of Oklahoma’s Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control. He said that in his written testimonies he had “dedicated more than 34 years to public security and narcotics law enforcement and that I am unable to deny that the black market pot in Oklahoma has been unlike anything else I have seen in my career.” Anderson also noted that his state’s medical cannabis laws has no limits as far as the number of operations and the amount of plants that each can cultivate
The growing involvement and influence of Chinese Communist Party CCP in this illegal industry is alarming, he added.
Anderson stated that “Oklahoma’s law requires owners of marijuana businesses to have lived in the state for at least 2 years.” Nearly all Chinese-operated growers circumvent the requirement by fraud and using straw owners. A single Oklahoman owner was listed in one case as having owned approximately 300 farms.
He added that “consulting firms, real-estate agents and lawyers who assist in the establishment of these shell operations facilitate this widespread fraud.” The fact that so many growers are near infrastructure like military bases or pipelines is alarming.
Paul Larkin, a senior legal research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, testified at the hearing that “Chinese organized crime has been able to move into the American cannabis industry because—contrary to what cannabis reform advocates have told us for the last 60-plus years—the legalization of cannabis has not eliminated a black (or grey) market for that plant.”
The states, as well as the Executive Branch, can do a number of things to solve this issue. For example, if a state has not yet adopted a medical- or recreational use cannabis régime, the state should not do so,” he said.
Christopher Urben is a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent. He said, that since the legalization of marijuana in some states, the money has been invested “into cannabis cultivation and distribution operations.”
“Legalization by states has been tied to the growth of illicit Chinese-linked grow and distribution operations for several reasons,” he said, asserting that high tax prices for cannabis in the legal market and strict regulations “has allowed the black market for the drug to persist, as it offers a less expensive product—untaxed marijuana grown without regulation—delivered more conveniently, via street transactions or unlicensed channels, and quickly than government-approved alternatives.”
In addition, the CMLN president said, legalization “created an authorized channel,” and that it “reduced risks for criminals to face severe sanctions in relation to their criminal operations” as a direct result. This allowed them to spend their illicit earnings on marijuana distribution and grow operations.
He said that “third, legalization increased market demand because it made marijuana more acceptable to consumers.” It not only helps the legal marijuana market but increases demand for illegal cannabis, which is sold by CMLNs.
Meanwhile, in a recent report attached to a House spending bill covering Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) bill, members directed federal agencies to investigate illicit marijuana grows–with a specific requirement to look into “any connections or links to Chinese transnational criminal organizations and/or the government of the People’s Republic of China.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) separately claimed in 2024 that there’s been a proliferation of illegal cannabis activity in the U.S. associated with China. He said there are thousands of medial marijuana licenses in Oklahoma that have been “flagged as suspicious over the last 12 months” and had a Chinese link.
Susan Collins (R, ME) raised her concern with federal officials in hearings regarding Chinese-linked grow houses located in Maine.
Leveraging the increasing attention to the issue, the prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) put out an ad in July arguing that if President Donald Trump moved forward with a pending cannabis rescheduling proposal, it would empower Chinese cartels.
In 2023, a major marijuana lobbying firm apologized after sending a letter to Senate committee leadership concerning a bipartisan cannabis banking bill that contained “inappropriate” references to investments from China in a “misguided attempt” to push for amendments expanding the legislation.
It’s unclear why the House committee is choosing to address the issue now, but it comes at a pivotal moment for federal marijuana policy developments. Advocates and other stakeholders await the decision of President Obama on whether to change cannabis’s Schedule I classification to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act.
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Last week, the House Appropriations Committee passed a bill that includes provisions that prevent the Justice Department reclassifying marijuana.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted last week to repeal Washington, D.C.’s law that expanded expungements of marijuana possession.
Side Pocket Images. Image courtesy Chris Wallis.
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