On Wednesday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “The Record,” Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy Sara Carter stated that while there has been “some progress” from China on narcotic exports, but “we need more progress. We need

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Virginia state Senator Lillie Louise Lucas was indicted Thursday on five charges that include drug trafficking, money laundering, fraud and firearms charges after being accused of running a marijuana distribution enterprise, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. 

Lucas is among seven indicted in the sprawling racketeering scheme, a group that includes her two daughters, Lisa Lucas-Burke and Theresa Lucas-Lamb, and her grandson Ryan Eichelberger, Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a Thursday press conference.

"Louise Lucas has served in a position of public trust in the Commonwealth of Virginia for over three decades," Blanche said in a DOJ statement. 

"The charges alleged in this indictment reveal the behavior of a public servant who put her own financial interests before the people she was elected to serve. Our federal prosecutors will continue to be guided by the facts and evidence that led a grand jury to indict Ms. Lucas and her alleged co-conspirators."

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The 82-year-old Lucas has served as a Virginia state senator since 1991, and as the president pro tempore of the state's Senate since 2020. As president pro tempore, she is the presiding member of the state senate in the absence of the state's lieutenant governor. 

She has also served as chair of the state's Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee since 2024.

"During that time, as alleged in the indictment, her and her six co-conspirators, instead of serving the public as was her job, manufactured and created a criminal enterprise to illicitly enrich themselves by procuring sales and stores and divisions through the marijuana and CBD enterprise," FBI Director Kash Patel said Thursday.

"Through her elected office, Senator Lucas has been a public servant of the people of Virginia. Her first duty should have been looking out for her constituents before herself, but the charges listed in the indictment reflect the alleged behavior of a public servant who put her own financial interests before the people she was elected to serve," Blanche also said Thursday. 

The DOJ said Lucas led the Lucas Enterprise with a close-knit group of friends and family that included her two daughters and a grandson. 

"[They] orchestrated a multi-year scheme to enrich their own criminal marijuana enterprise, 'the Lucas Enterprise,' using Lucas' position as Chairwoman of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee to insulate the enterprise from criminal scrutiny and influencing legislation to financially benefit themselves," FBI Director Kash Patel said in the statement. 

Lucas was directly involved in a wide range of activities within the enterprise, including the acquisition and distribution of 100 kilograms or more of marijuana and for the laundering of the drug sales proceeds, the DOJ said.

The state senator opened The CBD Shoppe and The Cannabis Outlet in 2019, according to the indictment. The pot shops' openings came nearly two years before Virginia officially legalized marijuana for recreational use on July 1, 2021.

In 2021, Lucas and her daughter Lisa Lucas-Burke, who is currently running for mayor in Portsmouth, Virginia, also opened The Cannabis Outlet in Portsmouth. 

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During a conversation with an unindicted co-conspirator, Lucas pushed for favorable language in a Virginia state bill on marijuana reform, telling the co-conspirator, "This is our last chance at generational wealth…I've got too old to not be greedy," the indictment stated. 

The FBI raided Lucas' office and businesses in May.

Lucas responded to the indictment Thursday morning with a post on X.

"Today, the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the full weight of the federal government have been wielded against an 82-year-old great-grandmother," she wrote.

"I grew up under Jim Crow. I've seen what happens when people in power try to silence those who stand up to them. I spent my life fighting back, and I'm not stopping now," she continued.

"I'm not new to this. I'm true to this. I will not be intimidated. I will not be bullied. And I will not back down," she concluded. 

Lucas has a history of emphatically antagonizing President Donald Trump, his administration and Virginia Republicans broadly. 

In March 2023, following a New York grand jury's indictment of Trump, Lucas wrote in a post on X "Donald Trump just learned no one is above the law!"

She has also been a central figure in her state's faked redistricting effort, taking to social media to brag about the redrawn legislative map Virginia Democrats tried to push through. In an April post on X she wrote "Ten f----- one," in reference to the proposed partisan breakdown which would have given the state's Democrats 10 of the state's 11 legislative districts. 

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Four other co-conspirators were charged in the indictment: Prince Albert William Hudson III, Theresa Lucas-Lamb, Carlton Upton Jr. and Tameka Johnson.

Lillie Louise Lucas and Lisa Lucas-Burke's mayoral campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital for comment. 

Fox News Digital's Charles Creitz and Robert Schmad contributed to this report.

A growing number of American parents are using cannabis, prompting questions about potential child exposure and safety, according to a new study.

Cannabis use increased substantially among parents between 2012 and 2024, with researchers estimating that at least 5.9 million U.S. children were living with a parent who used marijuana on most days in 2024.

By 2024, 8% of parents used cannabis on most days, 5.2% used it daily and 6.7% met the criteria for cannabis use disorder (CUD).

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Daily cannabis use among parents was about four times as common as daily alcohol use, the study found.

While increases occurred across nearly all demographic groups, some of the largest were seen among younger and unmarried parents, those in lower-income households and those without a four-year college degree.

Researchers from the University of California, San Diego, analyzed data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), involving nearly 482,000 U.S. individuals ages 12 and older.

The findings were published in the journal Addictive Behaviors.

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"Marijuana has become so socially acceptable that people are starting to overlook the risks," Dr. Jarid Pachter, who specializes in family medicine and addiction medicine at Stony Brook Medicine in New York, told Fox News Digital.

"Just because it's legal doesn't mean it's harmless," added Pachter, who was not involved in the study.

The physician also expressed concern about the example parents are setting for their children.

"If marijuana use is a regular part of life at home, children may start to see it as something that's normal and relatively harmless," he said, pointing to studies that show children whose parents use marijuana are more likely to use it themselves as they get older.

"That doesn't necessarily mean the parent's marijuana use is causing the child to use, but there's clearly an association."

The doctor also cautioned that THC, the main psychoactive chemical in the marijuana plant, is known to affect attention, memory, coordination and reaction time.

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"When you have young children, you need to be alert and able to respond to their needs," he said. "I'm not suggesting that someone who uses marijuana can't be a good parent. My concern is about being impaired when you're responsible for a child's safety."

"I also think we need to be careful about normalizing daily marijuana use," he went on. "We wouldn't automatically consider daily alcohol use harmless, and we shouldn't look at marijuana that way, either."

Pachter emphasized that accidental ingestion is another concern, especially with edibles like marijuana gummies or chocolate, which can look like regular candy to a young child.

"We've seen significant increases in emergency room visits involving children who accidentally consume marijuana," he told Fox News Digital.

CANNABIS COMPOUNDS COULD REVERSE DISEASE AFFECTING ONE-THIRD OF ADULTS

"Some develop severe sedation, confusion and difficulty walking. In more serious cases, children can have breathing problems and require hospitalization."

The more frequently someone uses marijuana, the greater risk of developing cannabis use disorder, the doctor cautioned.

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"We also know THC can affect memory, attention and coordination. Frequent use, particularly of high-potency products, is associated with an increased risk of certain psychiatric problems in susceptible individuals."

Smoking marijuana around children can also pose a risk of secondhand exposure.

"Marijuana smoke contains many of the same harmful chemicals found in tobacco smoke," the physician said. "We know children can be exposed to THC through secondhand smoke, although we're still learning about the long-term health effects."

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For those who use marijuana every day, Pachter suggests they ask themselves whether they can go without it, and whether it is affecting work, relationships or responsibilities.

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"And if you're a parent, you need to consider whether your marijuana use is affecting your ability to care for your children."

The study had some limitations. The researchers did not assess parenting quality or children’s health, and the findings do not establish that parental cannabis use causes adverse child outcomes.

Additionally, the data relied on self-reported substance use, which could be subject to recall or reporting bias.

The researchers called for further studies examining whether the frequency of parental cannabis use, cannabis use disorder, household exposure and storage practices are associated with children's health or developmental outcomes.

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The researchers reported funding support from the California Department of Cannabis Control, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.