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<\/p>\n Email Link<\/p>\n \n Over a recent dinner at his private Bedminster, New Jersey, club, as President Donald Trump recounted his move against the country\u2019s top economic statistician and riffed on New York City politics, the conversation turned to a politically potent issue still in flux: loosening federal restrictions on marijuana.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe need to look at that,\u201d Trump acknowledged to the small gathering of donors, according to two people in attendance. \u201cThat\u2019s something we\u2019re going to look at.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Nearly a year ago, Trump suggested his return to the White House would usher in a new era for marijuana, one that would make it easier for adults to access safe products and give states greater leeway to pursue legalization. He signaled support for removing marijuana from the same legal category as dangerous narcotics like heroin. The pronouncement set him apart from many of his Republican predecessors and came as Trump courted younger Americans, minority groups and libertarian-leaning voters.\n <\/p>\n \n But seven months into his second term, Trump\u2019s inaction so far on marijuana remains a notable unkept commitment by a president who has acted swiftly on other campaign pledges.\n <\/p>\n \n Behind the scenes, the issue has exposed sharp fault lines within Trump\u2019s team. Trump\u2019s top political advisers, who have led an aggressive push to check off campaign promises, have urged action, according to two people familiar with the internal discussions. They have argued that such a move could help bolster Republican support ahead of the midterm elections.\n <\/p>\n \n Other policy advisers, though, remain wary, cautioning that the moral and legal ramifications of loosening marijuana restrictions could outweigh the potential gains and even backfire politically .\n <\/p>\n \n In a statement to CNN, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said that when it comes to marijuana, \u201call policy and legal requirements and implications are being considered.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe only interest guiding the president\u2019s policy decision is what is in the best interest of the American people,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n \n Intensifying deliberations are happening as mixed signals are being telegraphed publicly on what Trump might do next.\n <\/p>\n \n Scotts Miracle-Gro CEO James Hagedorn told Fox Business last week that Trump has privately assured him and others \u201cmultiple times\u201d that he plans to reclassify marijuana to a less controlled category of substances. The 157-year-old lawn and garden giant has become a leader in the nascent cannabis industry, with a fast-growing hydroponics business that Federal Election Commission records show donated $500,000 to a Trump-aligned super PAC last year.\n <\/p>\n \n But reforming marijuana policy was noticeably absent from the top objectives recently published by Trump\u2019s newly installed head of the Drug Enforcement Administration<\/a>, Terrance Cole.\n <\/p>\n \n Hagedorn said Cole\u2019s recent cannabis snub wasn\u2019t surprising coming from a \u201ccareer law enforcement guy.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI think what (Cole) needs to hear is a call from the president or the chief of staff saying, \u2018This is a promise he made during the campaign, and promises made are promises kept, \u2018\u201d he told Fox Business.\n <\/p>\n \n That \u201cpromise\u201d from Trump, as Hagedorn cast it, arrived in a social media message last year during the closing months of his presidential campaign, when he was aggressively pushing to expand his coalition beyond traditional GOP voters.\n <\/p>\n \n Writing on Truth Social in September<\/a>, Trump announced he intended to vote for a ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana in his home state of Florida. Trump then added that, as president, he would \u201ccontinue to focus on research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana to a Schedule 3 drug.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule 1 drug \u2013 the federal category for illicit substances with \u201cno currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.\u201d Moving it to Schedule 3, which the DEA defines as \u201cdrugs with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence,\u201d is something Trump has said he supports.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cAs 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,\u201d Trump also wrote in the post.\n <\/p>\n \n He even discussed the topic with Joseph Edgar Foreman<\/a>, the pro-pot rapper better known as Afroman, when the two both appeared last summer at the Libertarian Party Convention in Washington, DC.\n <\/p>\n \n For a time, it seemed change could come before the 2024 election.\n <\/p>\n \n In 2022, President Joe Biden ordered the departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to review whether marijuana should be reclassified. The next year<\/a>, HHS recommended moving marijuana to Schedule 3 and in 2024 the Department of Justice initiated a new rule to codify the proposal<\/a>. Biden called the move \u201cmonumental\u201d and a \u201cmajor step.\u201d<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n But momentum stalled and Biden left office before the rule could be finalized. A hearing the DEA scheduled for the day after Trump took office was canceled and hasn\u2019t been rescheduled.\n <\/p>\n \n In her statement, Jackson, the White House spokeswoman, noted that the current administration is still contending with the process initiated under Biden. One White House official suggested that executive action is unlikely until that is settled. The DEA did not respond to questions from CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n Trump\u2019s remarks at the recent Bedminster donor dinner underscore the expectation that the president, not anyone else, will ultimately decide whether to overhaul decades of marijuana policy in the United States.\n <\/p>\n \n Privately, the White House has spent months researching whether and how to move ahead. Chief of Staff Susie Wiles requested affected agencies to weigh in and their responses, compiled by Trump\u2019s Domestic Policy Council, now sit in a report on her desk, two people with knowledge of the report told CNN.\n <\/p>\n \n One issue raised in ongoing deliberations is whether reclassifying marijuana would undermine law enforcement\u2019s ability to use the smell of marijuana as probable cause for stops and searches, one of the people said. For Trump, whose tough-on-crime platform has emphasized empowering police to pursue drug offenders, that concern could emerge as a flashpoint.\n <\/p>\n \n Then there\u2019s Trump\u2019s personal views. While Trump\u2019s public posture on marijuana use has softened in recent years, he remains a known teetotaler whose opinions on drug use were dramatically shaped by his late brother\u2019s alcohol addiction.\n <\/p>\n \n In remarks captured on video<\/a> in 2018, Trump shared other \u2013 unproven \u2013 concerns about the drug.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIn Colorado, they have more accidents,\u201d Trump said in the video. \u201cIt does cause an I.Q. problem.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Proponents of a change have been publicly and privately urging Trump to commit to rescheduling marijuana, arguing it would open research opportunities, create jobs and give clarity to millions of patients in states that have legalized medicinal marijuana, including many veterans.\n <\/p>\n \n In April, CNN reported<\/a> that a group backed by the cannabis industry, American Rights and Reform PAC, aired pro-marijuana ads specifically targeting Trump\u2019s TVs at the White House and Mar-a-Lago. The PAC also donated $1 million in March to MAGA, Inc., a Trump aligned super PAC, recent FEC records show. In 2024, the marijuana company Trulieve and the US Cannabis Council contributed a combined $1 million to Trump\u2019s inauguration<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Other influential voices have urged action as well. Podcaster Joe Rogan, a key supporter during the presidential campaign, reiterated his call to legalize marijuana on his show last month. And Alex Bruesewitz, the Gen Z Trump adviser who spearheaded the Republican\u2019s courtship of young men last year, has also taken to social media lately to urge for a policy change on marijuana, suggesting it has widespread support. He called rescheduling marijuana a \u201cno brainer<\/a>.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Nearly 60% of Americans support legalization of recreational marijuana against just 11% of people who think it shouldn\u2019t be legal for any purpose, according to a 2024 Pew Research Center survey<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n
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