For Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, the drug-related deaths of two college students in Mississippi triggered his personal memories of a relative involved with synthetic drugs.
Mr. Mullin, speaking at a Breitbart forum this week, said his wife’s brother, Brandon, developed a drug addiction that led him to prison. Faced with drug testing when he got out, he turned to synthetics to try to beat the tests.
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“He had a drug problem, but when he got out, he started working on the ranch and got on the synthetics because he could pass drug tests,” Mr. Mullin said. “It led to him going back to prison.”
Two students at the University of Mississippi were found dead with packages of a synthetic kratom nearby. Kratom has not officially been linked to the deaths, but the incidents have spawned a spate of new warnings.
Kratom is an herbal product that can act as a stimulant or opioid, depending on the dose. But synthetic kratom can be more potent, such as by maximizing a compound known as 7-OH.
Mr. Mullin said DHS agents went around the Washington area recently, seeing what they could purchase. They found kratom at gas stations that had much higher potency than the traditional herbal product.
“Some of this stuff is 480 mg for four pills. That’s 13 times per pill [higher] than a dose of morphine and it’s technically legal as of right now, but I believe that is going to be pulled down and we are working with the states but that synthetic has become a new opioid crisis,” Mr. Mullin said.
The Drug Enforcement Administration has proposed a rule that would ban synthetic kratom.
Lawmakers have pushed the DEA for a crackdown.
And some have questioned Mr. Mullin’s role after The New York Times reported in June that the secretary has an investment in a kratom company. A spokesperson for Mr. Mullin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In addition to Mr. Mullin’s story about his brother-in-law, he in the past has talked about his own life, which he said was headed down the wrong path.
He said it changed after he embraced Christianity and watched the movie “American History X.”
The 1998 movie is about an ex-skinhead who goes to prison for murder, suffering a brutal three years behind bars, then emerges to try to stop his younger brother from repeating his cycle of hate and violence.
“My life changed when I got saved and I was 20 years old. Until then, my dad said I was more likely to go to prison than I was to be successful,” Mr. Mullin recounted at a DHS event in May.
Ed Martin launches show to ’name and shame’ Biden’s lawfare leaders
Ed Martin, President Trump’s former pardon attorney and briefly his U.S. attorney in Washington, is launching a new show Monday where he will call out the people in the Biden administration whom he believes weaponized the Justice Department against their opponents.
“The Early Bird” will air at 5 a.m. on weekdays on Real America’s Voice and Rumble.
His first show will feature an interview with a defendant from the Jan. 6, 2021, incursion at the Capitol.
Mr. Martin is also expected to share war stories from his time at the Justice Department.
He’ll also identify people he sees as part of a deep state resistance to Mr. Trump.
“He is going to name and shame them,” Mr. Martin’s spokesperson told “Seen, Heard & Whispered.”
The name of the program is taken from the daily internal Defense Department newsletter that compiled the previous day’s media stories, for consumption by the administration’s movers and shakers each morning. It was discontinued in 2013.
Alito and the ’Silver Glove’
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. doesn’t just defend the Constitution; he also defends the diamond.
In 1994, he attended baseball fantasy camp with the Philadelphia Phillies. That’s a chance for fans to dress and practice like the pros.
And while he admits he “couldn’t hit,” he did excel in the field, where he played a mean second base.
Proudly displayed in his chambers is the “Silver Glove” award he earned.
“I was the best defensive player. I couldn’t hit, but I was a good second baseman,” he said.
The plaque is part of a small shrine to baseball tucked in a corner of his office, with bats in a rack and balls in protective cases.
As a New Jersey native, he is a Phillies fan.
He attended a World Series game in 2022, when the Phillies lost to the Houston Astros.
And he recalled to “Seen, Heard & Whispered” one of his favorite moments, which came at his welcome dinner to the high court. The dinner is traditionally organized by the next most junior member, who at the time was Justice Stephen Breyer.
At the end of the dinner, Justice Breyer announced a special guest — and in walked the Phillies’ world-famous bright-green mascot, the Phillie Phanatic.
• Seen, Heard & Whispered is a weekly column taking you inside the conversations happening in Washington’s power corridors, the moves being made and the whispers that explain what’s really going on in the nation’s capital. Email tips to whispered@washingtontimes.com. Click here to receive this in your inbox every Friday morning.
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