Will President Trump Reschedule Marijuana? 

Unlike his trademark issues, such as immigration and trade policy, President Trump has not taken a strong stance on marijuana legalization over the course of his short career in public office. During his first presidential run, then-candidate Trump said he believed marijuana policy should be a state-by-state issue, and his first presidential administration made no moves to reclassify weed as a Schedule I drug under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act.

Last September, while campaigning against former Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump appeared to have evolved on the issue, signaling that he intended to vote for an amendment in Florida that would have legalized cannabis. “As I have previously stated, I believe it is time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “As a Floridian, I will be voting YES on Amendment 3 this November.”

Seven months into his second stint in the White House, the president confirmed that his administration is, in fact, considering a move on marijuana reclassification, and that a decision is forthcoming. “We’re looking at reclassification and we’ll make a determination over the next—I would say over the next few weeks, and that determination hopefully will be the right one. It’s (a) very complicated subject,” Trump said in a presser in the White House. During the press conference, the president muddied the water, appearing to contradict his 2024 statements, or perhaps simply reinforced the fact that a decision, one way or the other, has yet to be made. “I’ve heard great things having to do with medical, and I’ve heard bad things having to do with just about everything else. But medical, and, you know, for pain and various things… some people like it, some people hate it,” Trump said.

Marijuana legalization would be a political slam dunk. In 2023, Gallup found that 70% of Americans favor legalizing the drug, and that the support is bipartisan with 87% of Democrats, 70% of independents, and 55% of Republicans supporting the measure. A majority of voters in all fifty states support legalization, often by wide margins. The state with the lowest level of support for legalization is South Dakota, where 54% of respondents favored the measure with 38% opposed. In the electorally all-important Midwestern swing states, support for legalization is far higher. Voters in Pennsylvania and Michigan support ending the cannabis prohibition to the tune of 68% and 71%, respectively.

Certain groups of President Trump’s supporters appear to be all-in on opposing marijuana reclassification, although if issues like trade, foreign policy, and matters regarding Jeffrey Epstein are any indication, the MAGA base will likely fall in line behind the president regardless of his decision. Opposition to legalization is coming from within the Trump administration as well. The DOJ under Attorney General Pam Bondi recently asked the Supreme Court to uphold a ban on marijuana users owning firearms.

President Trump is ramping up his campaign against Latin American drug cartels after formally designating the groups as terrorist organizations shortly after his inauguration in January. In August, the president directed the military to target members of the cartels directly, which is certain to lead to both legal and logistical challenges. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in defense of the policy that the decision to classify the cartels as terrorist organizations allows the government “to use other elements of American power, intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense, whatever, to target these groups if we have an opportunity to do it.”

It is impossible to calculate how much money the cartels make trafficking drugs, including cannabis, to Americans; but, in 2006, the White House estimated that the groups made $8.5 billion per year from the drug. Twenty four states have legalized marijuana and that has cut into the cartels’ profits considerably, but marijuana trafficking still represents a significant portion of their income. The War on Drugs has consequences, namely the enrichment of the criminal organizations that Mr. Trump seeks to destroy. If the president is serious about cracking down on the cartels, especially if he earnestly intends to use military force, then it would be wise to hit them in the pocketbook first. Ending the marijuana prohibition would be a common-sense and wildly popular way to do just that.

President Trump will certainly be lobbied hard by both sides of the cannabis issue, but his instinct to “end the needless arrests and incarcerations” of marijuana users is spot on. Perhaps now that legalization would aid in his goal of damaging drug cartels, and could create inroads for his party with a new demographic of voters, we may finally see marijuana reclassified as a Schedule III drug.