Trump’s Pick For Attorney General Refuses To Say Where She Stands On Marijuana Rescheduling Or Federal Enforcement Priorities

President Donald Trump’s choice for U.S. attorney general is declining to say how she plans to navigate key marijuana policy issues—including the ongoing rescheduling process and renewing federal enforcement guidance—if she’s ultimately confirmed.

Following her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi (R) responded to a series of written “questions for the record” from members across the aisle. That included several from Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Peter Welch (D-VT) that focused on cannabis.

For each of the four timely policy questions, Bondi offered the same elusive one-sentence refrain: “If confirmed, I will give the matter careful consideration after consulting with appropriate Department officials.”

Despite the fact that Trump last year voiced support for marijuana rescheduling and a Florida legalization ballot initiative that fell short in November, Bondi appears unwilling to commit to either the ongoing federal reform process or providing clarity regarding enforcement priorities at this stage.

Here are the questions from Booker and Bondi’s responses: 

25. In October 2022, President Biden directed the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to launch a scientific review of how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. In May 2024, DOJ published a notice of proposed rulemaking to move cannabis from schedule I to schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act. That rulemaking process has been delayed and postponed to later this year.

a. If you are confirmed as Attorney General, how will you work with the Drug Enforcement Administration to continue the rescheduling process and finalize a rule that will reschedule cannabis from schedule I to schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act?

RESPONSE: If confirmed, I will give the matter careful consideration after consulting with appropriate Department officials.

26. In January 2018, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions revoked the President Obama-era Cole Memorandum, which had directed Department prosecutors to deprioritize enforcing federal cannabis laws concerning marijuana businesses in states that had legalized the drug for adult-use.

a. If you are confirmed as Attorney General, how will the Department of Justice under your leadership approach enforcement of federal cannabis laws? How would the independence of states to regulate marijuana factor into your decisions?

RESPONSE: If confirmed, I will give the matter careful consideration after consulting with appropriate Department officials.

Here are Welch’s questions and the nominee’s answers: 

During the 2024 campaign, President Trump stated on Truth Social, “I believe it is time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use. We must also implement smart regulations, while providing access for adults, to safe, tested product.” In April 2024, the Biden Administration commenced a rescheduling process after the Department of Health and Human Services and Food and Drug Administration determined marijuana has “currently accepted medical uses.” It has proposed moving marijuana to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act.

35. Do you support placing marijuana on Schedule III?

a. If so, will you work to finalize rescheduling?

b. If not, please explain.

c. Do you support efforts to align federal and state marijuana laws?

RESPONSE: If confirmed, I will give the matter careful consideration after consulting with appropriate Department officials.

36. In what is known as the Cole memo, your predecessors have used prosecutorial discretion urging U.S. Attorneys to not prosecute low-level marijuana crimes and only go after major marijuana trafficking cases. Will you use your prosecutorial discretion authority in a similar manner?

RESPONSE: If confirmed, I will give the matter careful consideration after consulting with appropriate Department officials.

Bondi similarly declined to address another criminal justice question from Booker that broadly inquired about racial disparities in drug laws and incarceration.

While Trump initially selected pro-legalization former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to lead the Justice Department following the election, he withdrew from consideration amid largely unrelated scandals. Bondi’s selection has given more pause for advocates and stakeholders.

As Florida’s attorney general, for example, Bondi opposed efforts to legalize medical marijuana.

While serving in the top state law enforcement role from January 2011 to January 2019, she occasionally waded into other cannabis-related issues. And in at least some of those instances, she was defending laws passed by the legislature, which is generally standard practice for attorneys general.

In 2018, for example, Bondi as attorney general filed an appeals brief in state court defending the legislature’s ban on smoking medical marijuana, with her office citing “harms to patients and those exposed to secondhand smoke” as “ample reasons to exclude smoking from the statutory definition of ‘medical use.’”

But there are plenty of unknowns about how Bondi would deal with cannabis at the federal level if she’s confirmed. And the nominee declined to shed any additional light on her positions in her responses to the written questions from Senate committee members.

Meanwhile, a former deputy administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who says he’s being courted to potentially lead the agency under the newly inaugurated Trump administration has previously described marijuana as a “gateway drug.”

And though he’s said he feels that cannabis rescheduling could potentially help to more effectively allocate federal drug enforcement resources toward cracking down on other substances, he also previously made comments indicating that he doesn’t understand DEA’s role in making scheduling decisions.

In any case, whoever ultimately assumes the top DEA and Justice Department positions will be inheriting a years-long rulemaking process to reschedule marijuana initiated under the Biden administration, so advocates and stakeholders are closely following to see who might fill that role.

For now, administrative hearings on the rescheduling proposal that were scheduled to begin on Tuesday have been delayed, with an agency judge recently granting an appeal motion from pro-reform witnesses that will set the clock back at least three months amid allegations of improper communications between DEA and rescheduling opponents and more.

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