Senate Confirms Fentanyl Conspiracy Theorist Sara Carter as “Drug Czar”
From our friends at Filter Magazine
By Kastalia Medrano
On January 6 the Senate confirmed Sara A. Carter Bailey as the new “drug czar,” the colloquial title for the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), by a vote of 52-48. The former Fox News contributor was nominated by President Donald Trump in March 2025 and is the first woman to lead the ONDCP. She will likely use the position to amplify fentanyl misinformation and conspiracy theories targeting immigrants.
“Under [Trump’s] leadership, we will reassert our fundamental right to live healthy lives,” Carter stated following her confirmation. “We will hold accountable the narco-terrorists who infringe upon this right, participating in the deliberate poisoning of tens of thousands of Americans each year. They will no longer kill our families, friends, neighbors and even children with impunity. At the same time, I will ensure that every parent, family member and child have the resources they need to prevent and combat addiction. I will stand with our brave law enforcement officials, and with every family who has lost a loved one to drug overdose.”
This rhetoric aligns with a series of Trump administration actions over the past year that position the drug war as a legally sanctioned war, including designating fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, transnational drug-trafficking organizations (DTOs) as terrorist groups and using military resources for drug interdiction operations previously confined (more or less) to law enforcement. Carter’s confirmation also comes just days after the US extraction of ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his subsequent indictment for “narco-terrorism.”
This is Carter’s first appointment to public office. Her reporting for Fox and other primarily right-wing outlets has focused on DTOs, work she described during her 2025 Senate Judiciary Committee nomination hearing as “mapping the enemy.”
“This is not just a public health crisis,” she told senators during that hearing, “it’s a chemical war being waged against the American people.”
At publication time her website is inactive, but she has previously used it to advance a range of pro-Trump conspiracy theories about fentanyl and the southern border, including widely debunked myths like “fentanyl-laced” gummy bears.
Trump slashed ONDCP funding by more than half in his 2026 budget submission.
As drug czar Carter is legally required to oppose legalization of any Schedule I controlled substance. But she is expected to support Trump’s executive order calling for the rescheduling of marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act, as she’s an avid proponent of medical cannabis programs and has previously stated that she’s not against legalization.
“I don’t have any problem if it’s legalized and it’s monitored,” she said on her podcast in 2024, according to Marijuana Moment. “I mean, I may have my own issues of how I feel about that, but 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, you know—of handling the illness and the side effects of the medication and those illnesses. So I’m not saying we’ve gotta make it illegal.”
The ONDCP is the federal agency that oversees the nation’s drug policy agenda. The drug czar advises the president directly, and influences how funding is allocated to law enforcement and public education campaigns.
Trump, however, slashed ONDCP funding by more than half in his 2026 budget submission, requesting just $21.785 million and shunting the office’s marquee grant programs to other agencies. This includes the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA), which would be transferred to the Department of Justice, and Drug-Free Communities Support Program, which would be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services. Congress has not yet finalized the appropriations. The transfer of HIDTA to DOJ has been proposed multiple times by previous administrations, including under Trump during his first term and by then-president George W. Bush in 2005.
The ONDCP has existed in its current form since 1989, with nine drug czars prior to Carter as well as half a dozen acting directors who served brief terms during periods of transition to a new administration.
Carter’s predecessor Rahul Gupta, appointed in 2021 by then-president Joe Biden, was the first medical doctor to serve in the position. Gupta stepped down in January 2025, since when ONDCP official Jon Rice has served as acting director.
About the Author: Kastalia Medrano
Kastalia is Filter‘s deputy editor. She previously worked at half a dozen mainstream digital media outlets and would not recommend the drug war coverage at any of them. For a while she was a syringe program peer worker in NYC, where she did outreach hep C testing and navigated participants through treatment. She also writes with Jon Kirkpatrick.
This article was originally published by Filter, an online magazine covering drug use, drug policy and human rights through a harm reduction lens. Follow Filter on Bluesky, X or Facebook, and sign up for its newsletter.
