Trump Is Ready to Take Credit for Biden’s Loosening of Cannabis Restrictions

Fans of cannabis might recall how the Biden administration first ordered a review of the drug in October of 2022, to study the potential effects of federal rescheduling. They might likewise remember how this led to an August 2023 recommendation to move cannabis from being classified as a Schedule I (no medical use, high abuse) drug to a Schedule III (accepted medical use) drug. They certainly might recall how the DEA formally proposed that reclassification in May of 2024 following recommendations from the Biden-era Department of Health and Human Services, and the way the DOJ subsequently officially submitted their own proposal to reschedule cannabis in in 2024, to begin the process of collecting public feedback and hearings. At the same time, Biden officially pardoned thousands of people who had been convicted on marijuana charges on federal lands and in the District of Columbia.

But fuck all that, here comes Donald Trump at the finish line to claim credit! Yes, sensing a potential opportunity to score a few cheap political points with younger voters, Trump is pulling one of his classic embraces of predominantly liberal-coded policy to swoop in and take credit for slow-moving policy writing and study that the Biden administration had been working at for more than three years. GOP operative Roger Stone didn’t even try to pretend that the issue of cannabis rescheduling was being proffered for any reason other than attempting to buy some younger votes: speaking recently with cannabis publication Marijuana Moment, he said that it’s “vitally important to get this done before the next election,” saying that the Republican party needed to use cannabis as a tool to win over younger or libertarian-leaning voters in an effort to get them to turn out for the November midterm elections, which look to be shaping up as a bloodbath for the GOP.

A rare case in which Trump finished something positive started under Biden. And Trump probably profits somehow. But definitely a step in the right direction. I’m not a cannabis user, but I support its full legalization (which I assume would require a congressional act).

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— Melissa Mallou (@melissamallou.bsky.social) Apr 23, 2026 at 10:14 AM

Stone likewise complained that someone in the Trump administration had been “holding up” the rescheduling process, with the implication being that recently fired U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi had been a cannabis-opposer, given her longtime anti-cannabis stance and actions as Florida’s state AG. Her ouster likely opened the doors for Acting Attorney General and noted Trump bootlick Todd Blanche to take the reins and get serious about acting on the President’s December executive order that was designed to speed up cannabis rescheduling to Schedule III. On Thursday, the DOJ announced that he had signed off on Trump’s executive order “to immediate reschedule FDA-approved marijuana and state-licensed marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III and ordered an expedited hearing to fully reschedule the drug.” Notably, this does not actually “legalize” cannabis or recreationalize it nationally, something that 24 states have individually done at this point.

“The Department of Justice is delivering on President Trump’s promise to expand Americans’ access to medical treatment options,” said Blanche in a statement, focusing entirely on medical marijuana applications. “This rescheduling action allows for research on the safety and efficacy of this substance, ultimately providing patients with better care and doctors with more reliable information.”

For the average consumer, however, one could argue that this entire process is more symbolic than anything. A wary Trump has stopped short of ever suggesting actual legalization of recreational weed at the federal level, meaning that the mere changing of the scheduling would not be likely to meaningfully increase access to anyone who didn’t already have access to medical cannabis in states where recreational has not been legalized. Nor will this have any effect on those already sentenced or incarcerated on a state level for possession or dealing. The biggest effects from the rescheduling are likely to be on the side of research and medical science, allowing wider access to the drug in various government-funded research settings. Rescheduling could also drive down the price of medical cannabis by placing it under less punishing taxes that are assessed on Schedule I substances–although prices have already been suppressed in some places by a massive oversupply of marijuana that users cheekily refer to as an ongoing “ganja glut.”

The most amusing aspect of this entire process, though, is that although the country as a whole continues to overwhelmingly support (88% of Americans, according to Pew) either medical or recreational cannabis use, and nearly 60% now supports full recreational use for all, it’s Trump’s own MAGA Republican base that remains weed’s most concentrated bloc of foes. Recent polling, in fact, found that merely 35% of Republicans overall supported the legalization of cannabis, a figure that is unsurprisingly higher among younger voters and then steadily lower as ages ascend. Trump, suffice to say, does not care that this is a generally unpopular issue among his own base that he’s backing, because all that matters to him is the political calculus of hoping that he can somehow gain more of the youth vote … despite the fact that merely rescheduling cannabis doesn’t really do much of anything for them, and despite the fact that there will not actually be anything cannabis-related for them to vote on in the 2026 midterm elections. Hey, nobody said the man was particularly intelligent.

That said, there is certainly a pro-cannabis corner to the Trump/MAGA coalition, particularly in the libertarian sector, and the archetype represented by personal freedom advocates/galaxy brained conspiracists like Joe Rogan, who have long championed marijuana. Traditional “law and order” Republicans, on the other hand, generally still vociferously oppose loosening of cannabis restrictions, and and they’re joined by the newer wave of MAHA-style conservative health influencers, who are often too busy mainlining beef tallow and off-label medication to have much interest in cannabis. RFK Jr., for what it’s worth, went from preaching full federal legalization during his own Presidential campaign in 2024, to now saying that recreational marijuana has “catastrophic impacts” on consumers, presumably because he believes that is what Trump wants him to say. The saga of the saddest man in the entire Trump administration rolls on.

In the end, even just the rescheduling of cannabis could end up costing Trump more Republican support than he stands to gain anywhere else, particularly among the cantankerous senior Republican voters already turned off by the President’s litany of broken campaign promises and entanglement in foreign conflicts such as the Iran War. After all, merely 13% of Republicans say that the legalization of cannabis makes communities “more safe” than they were before, while nearly half say it actively makes those communities more dangerous.

If those retired, formerly MAGA voters have a problem with our Pot President pushing cannabis further toward legalization, they can take it up with him. After all, he’s claiming credit, so clearly he must want everything that comes with it, right?