ACCESS Newswire
23 Oct 2025, 22:31 GMT+10

Former DEA policy chief Matthew Strait , after stalling America's medical cannabis manufacturing program for years, rebrands himself as a 'consultant' - selling advice on how to navigate the very complex bureaucracy he built.

WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESS Newswire / October 23, 2025 / Matthew Strait, the longtime architect of the DEA's failed marijuana manufacturing policies, has reemerged in the private sector under a new banner - Controlled Substance Strategies. The company's mission statement promises to help clients 'cut through complexity, stay compliant, and achieve strategic goals.'

But behind that polished language lies a striking irony: Strait himself was one of the key officials responsible for creating that complexity in the first place.

As DEA's Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Diversion Control Division, Strait was responsible for overseeing the agency's licensing and quota programs - including the process for approving companies to manufacture Schedule I substances such as cannabis for scientific and medical research.

Under his watch, the DEA turned what should have been a transparent, time-limited licensing process into a seven-year bureaucratic quagmire that crippled innovation and left patients without access to federally approved cannabinoid medicines.

Companies like MMJ BioPharma Cultivation, which has FDA authorizations and Orphan Drug designations to produce cannabis-derived medicines for Huntington's disease and Multiple Sclerosis, were trapped in endless regulatory limbo while DEA insiders rewrote rules retroactively, shifting requirements mid-stream.

'Matthew Strait creates the problem, now he wants to profit from unraveling his own mess, stated Duane Boise CEO of MMJ.

Strait's new firm - Controlled Substance Strategies - bills itself as a guide for pharmaceutical manufacturers, prescribers, and researchers trying to navigate federal controlled-substance law. It advertises expertise in 'quota optimization,' 'DEA compliance,' and even 'research with Schedule I controlled substances.'

Yet every issue the company claims to solve - licensing backlogs, conflicting policy, outdated regulations - originated inside the very DEA office Strait helped run.