What Donald Trump’s Presidential Election Means For Marijuana Reform

Former President Donald Trump has won a second term in office, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the race for the White House on a platform that included support for state-level marijuana legalization and limited federal cannabis reforms.

While Trump used harsh anti-drug rhetoric on the campaign trial—at several points calling for people who sell illegal drugs to be executed—he took many by surprise when he endorsed a Florida cannabis legalization ballot initiative that ultimately failed on Tuesday. He also voiced support for marijuana industry access to the banking system and the federal cannabis rescheduling process initiated by the Biden administration.

Whether that stated support will translate into action on reform legislation after Trump takes office in January is uncertain. Republicans have reclaimed a majority in the Senate, and the political composition of the House is still to be determined. The president’s power to unilaterally change federal marijuana laws is limited, and GOP congressional lawmakers have historically resisted cannabis reform.

During his first term in office, Trump made limited comments about marijuana policy, tentatively backing legislation to let states set their own policies but taking no administrative steps to codify that policy. In fact, his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, rescinded Obama-era guidance that urged prosecutorial discretion in federal cannabis enforcement.

On the campaign trail, meanwhile, Trump, also went after Harris over her prosecutorial record on marijuana, claiming that she put “thousands and thousands of Black people in jail” for cannabis offenses—but the full record of her time in office is more nuanced.

In August, he incorrectly predicted that Florida voters would approve the legalization initiative, arguing that “someone should not be a criminal in Florida, when this is legal in so many other States.”

“We need the State Legislature to responsibly create laws that prohibit the use of it in public spaces, so we do not smell marijuana everywhere we go, like we do in many of the Democrat run Cities,” Trump said at the time. “At the same time, someone should not be a criminal in Florida, when this is legal in so many other States. We do not need to ruin lives & waste Taxpayer Dollars arresting adults with personal amounts of it on them, and no one should grieve a loved one because they died from fentanyl laced marijuana.”

“In Florida, like so many other States that have already given their approval, personal amounts of marijuana will be legalized for adults with Amendment 3,” he said. “Whether people like it or not, this will happen through the approval of the Voters, so it should be done correctly.”

He further said that medical marijuana has been “absolutely amazing” for patients, and that the Florida initiative was “going to be very good” for the state if it passed. But while a majority of Floridians did vote in favor of the measure, it did not reach the 60 percent threshold required to pass a constitutional amendment at the ballot.

In a speech announcing his candidacy, Trump had initially signaled that drug policy would be a focal point of his campaign—but not by advocating for reform. He talked about waging “war on the cartels” and working with Congress to pass legislation to impose the death penalty on “drug dealers” who are “responsible for death, carnage and crime.”

While in office, Trump also signed a large-scale agriculture bill that included provisions federally legalizing hemp following decades of its prohibition.

In 2018, the then-president gave advocates another reason to celebrate. Asked whether he supports a bipartisan bill filed by then-Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), which would allow states to set their own marijuana policies, Trump said “I really do.”

He reiterated his support for a states’ rights approach to marijuana in August 2019, saying it’s “a very big subject and right now we are allowing states to make that decision. A lot of states are making that decision, but we’re allowing states to make that decision.”

Despite his pledged support for states’ rights to legalize, Trump evidently holds some negative views toward cannabis consumption, as evidenced in a recording from 2018 that was leaked two years later. In that recording, he said that using marijuana makes people “lose IQ points.”

Also, while he backed Florida’s legalization measure, he previously urged Republicans not to place marijuana reform initiatives on state ballots out of concern that it could increase Democratic turnout in elections.

Trump met with the head of a major cannabis company, Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers, ahead of announcing his support for the cannabis legalization initiative on Florida’s ballot, as well as with a GOP state senator who backed the measure, several sources confirmed to Marijuana Moment.

He followed up on his initial remarks on cannabis reform by saying in September that, as president, his administration would “continue to focus on research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana to a Schedule 3 drug, and work with Congress to pass common sense laws, including safe banking for state authorized companies, and supporting states rights to pass marijuana laws, like in Florida, that work so well for their citizens.”

The former president has also pledged to commute the sentence of dark web drug market Silk Road operator Russ Ulbricht if elected—despite his overall position that people who sell illegal drugs should face the death penalty.

Also, while it might come as a surprise, 30 years ago Trump argued in favor of legalizing all drugs.

“We’re losing badly the war on drugs. You have to legalize drugs to win that war. You have to take the profit away from these drug czars,” he said. “What I’d like to do maybe by bringing it up is cause enough controversy that you get into a dialogue on the issue of drugs so people will start to realize that this is the only answer; there is no other answer.”

Tuesday’s election was historic on several levels, but it was also the first time in U.S. history that both major party presidential nominees were aligned in support of legalization—with Harris going further than Trump by calling for legalizing cannabis on a  federal level.

Sone have argued that if Trump was elected and continued to push the issue, that could embolden Republican lawmakers who’ve previously held up cannabis legislation to get in line. That remains to be seen.

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