The U.S. Senate has voted to confirm Sara Carter as director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, clearing the final hurdle for President Trump’s nominee to serve as the nation’s Drug Czar.
The confirmation vote follows weeks of procedural uncertainty after Carter’s nomination was briefly delayed in the Senate despite advancing out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. That delay stemmed from a dispute over floor procedure, temporarily preventing the nomination from moving forward even as bipartisan support appeared intact. The full Senate ultimately took up the nomination this week, approving Carter and formally sending her to lead the office.
Carter, a longtime journalist known for her reporting on the opioid epidemic, border security and drug trafficking, enters the role at a pivotal moment for federal drug policy. She has previously expressed support for medical marijuana and has indicated openness to broader reform under a regulated framework.
“I do believe that cannabis for medicinal purposes and medical reasons is a fantastic way of handling, especially for people with cancer and other illnesses, handling the illness and the side effects of the medication and those illnesses,” Carter has said. In separate remarks, she added, “I don’t have any problem if it’s legalized and it’s monitored.”
Her confirmation comes after President Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Justice to quickly reschedule cannabis to Schedule III, officially recognizing its medical value at the federal level for the first time since the enactment of the Controlled Substances Act in 1970. The move will ease research restrictions and allow FDA-approved cannabis-based medicines to be prescribed nationwide, among other changes.
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