WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESS Newswire / October 22, 2025 / Anne Milgram rose to prominence on a mission to "use data and algorithms to fight crime." As New Jersey's Attorney General from 2007 to 2010, she was praised for bringing analytics to law enforcement. But as DEA Administrator, Milgram's "data-driven" DEA became the very system of corruption, chaos, and incompetence she once claimed algorithms could prevent.
DEA Anne Milgram A Digital Reformer Turned Bureaucratic Relic
When President Biden appointed Anne Milgram to lead the DEA in 2021, she promised to modernize the agency with analytics and accountability. Instead, she presided over one of the most dysfunctional and scandal-ridden eras in its history.
Under her watch:
Chinese-backed illegal marijuana operations exploded across the U.S., from Oklahoma to Maine. The DEA's own field divisions were overwhelmed - yet leadership in Washington turned a blind eye.
DEA's Diversion Control office, led by Thomas Prevoznik and Matthew Strait, focused its fire not on international criminal networks, but on law-abiding pharmaceutical innovators like MMJ BioPharma Cultivation, which has waited over seven years for a bulk-manufacturing license to grow FDA-approved cannabis for clinical trials.
"Under Anne Milgram, the DEA ignored actual crime while criminalizing medicine," said Duane Boise, CEO of MMJ International Holdings. "They let illegal Chinese grows flourish while blocking American pharmaceutical research approved by the FDA. It's the definition of hypocrisy."
Milgram's academic brand - data science meets law enforcement - collapsed under the weight of her agency's failures. She promised a DEA guided by real time data, but the evidence shows her team ignored the numbers that mattered most:
Explosive growth in Chinese financed cartel grows operating openly across rural America.
A DEA licensing backlog that left scientific research frozen for nearly a decade.
A federal court system now rejecting the DEA's internal "tribunal" process as unconstitutional - a process her deputies weaponized to silence applicants.
Milgram's so-called algorithm became a feedback loop of failure - one that rewarded insiders, punished innovators, and allowed criminal enterprises to thrive in plain sight.
Deputies Running Rampant
Inside the agency, Milgram's inner circle functioned like an unchecked network of bureaucratic enforcers:
Matthew Strait, his deputy, engineered new "bona fide supply agreement" rules retroactively - a legal move now under scrutiny for violating administrative law.
Aarathi Haig, the agency's litigation counsel, continued representing DEA in court despite her bar-eligibility controversy, defending unconstitutional proceedings against legitimate pharmaceutical applicants.
All of it happened under Milgram's watch - and all of it reflects a DEA that lost sight of both science and law.
From Data to Damage
Ironically, Milgram's downfall mirrors the fatal flaw in her own algorithmic ideology: blind trust in systems without accountability. The DEA's data was clear - illegal foreign grows were multiplying while medical cannabis researchers languished. Yet Milgram's leadership ignored the evidence, weaponizing bureaucracy against legitimate progress.
In the end, the "data-driven DEA" turned into a data-blind dictatorship, one that measured everything except its own corruption.
A Message for Terry Cole
Now, new Administrator Terry Cole inherits the wreckage. His first 100 days will determine whether the DEA reforms or continues Milgram's legacy of deceit.
"Cole has a chance to rebuild an agency that has betrayed science, Congress, and patients," Boise said. "But if he doesn't act fast, he'll become part of the same algorithm of corruption that destroyed Milgram's credibility."
The Verdict
Anne Milgram once claimed she could predict criminal behavior through data. She may have succeeded - she just never realized the algorithm would identify her and her own agency.
MMJ is represented by attorney Megan Sheehan.
CONTACT:
Madison Hisey
mhisey@mmjih.com
203-231-8583
SOURCE: MMJ International Holdings
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