GOP Congressman Says ‘I Don’t Care’ If Rolling Back Marijuana Rescheduling Would Hurt Republican Party

A GOP congressman says “I don’t care” whether rolling back the Biden administration’s marijuana rescheduling move under a potential Trump presidency would hurt the Republican party, because he feels more strongly that the modest reform would endanger public health.

At the Republican National Committee conference last week, longtime prohibitionist Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) was asked about the potential political ramifications of a rescheduling reversal under a second Trump administration and GOP-controlled Congress.

He put it bluntly: “I don’t care whether it’s good for the party or not. I don’t care. It’s not good for your health.”

“My opinion is always the same: It’s not healthy for you. It’s bad. I think it’s bad policy,” Harris told Marijuana Moment.

The congressman is well known for his opposition to cannabis reform. In addition to championing a long-standing appropriations rider that’s blocked Washington, D.C. from legalizing marijuana sales for a decade, he’s also pushed the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to reject the Justice Department proposal to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), for example.

But while Harris suggested that the rescheduling move would increase access to a substance he views as dangerous, a Schedule III reclassification would not federally legalize marijuana. The main effects of the policy change would be removing research barriers linked to Schedule I drugs and allowing state-licensed cannabis businesses to take federal tax deductions available to other industries.

The congressman said in the new interview with Marijuana Moment that he has “no idea” how former President Donald Trump, who was officially named the party’s presidential nominee for the third time at the GOP convention, will approach marijuana policy issues. “You’ve got to ask Mr. Trump,” he said.

Pressed on the fact that red and blue states alike have increasingly moved to enact legalization, Harris claimed that he’s “in the company” of experts such as National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director Nora Volkow in opposing the policy.

“If we’re outliers, well, you know, sometimes outliers are right,” he said.

Harris has previously suggested that the NIDA director “adamantly opposed” the rescheduling proposal—despite the fact that her agency officially concurred with the recommended policy change, as well as the Volkow’s repeated public comments criticizing research barriers imposed by cannabis’s current Schedule I status.

In the new interview, the congressman also seemed to misstate where the Biden administration has come down on his controversial spending bill rider blocking D.C. marijuana sales, suggesting at one point that the president’s latest budget omitted that language when, in fact, it maintained it. It was, however, removed from the base bill of the latest House version of the legislation in a GOP committee—but the rider was re-added via amendment later in the legislative process.

The House Rules Committee will be taking up a proposed amendment to the bill next week that would eliminate the provision, but that panel has blocked numerous cannabis reform proposals over the past session and is not expected to clear it for floor consideration.

Multiple GOP lawmakers spoke to Marijuana Moment last week about how they feel marijuana policy will be addressed under another Trump administration if the former president is reelected. Most deferred to Trump, though they offered competing visions of what they would like to see happen.

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At the convention, the former president also formally announced his vice presidential running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), whose record on marijuana policy includes opposition to bipartisan cannabis banking reform legislation and adult-use legalization but support for states’ rights to enact their own marijuana laws.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC), meanwhile, is touting Biden’s marijuana pardons and rescheduling moves, while calling for broader reform to expunge prior records. However, unlike in 2020, the party’s latest draft platform that was approved by a party committee on Tuesday doesn’t promote broader cannabis decriminalization.

The Biden campaign has also been stepping up its push to draw a contrast between the president’s marijuana policies at those of Trump.

The LCB contributed reporting from Milwaukee. 

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Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.