US President Donald Trump may reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug, the Wall Street Journal first reported on Saturday, in what seems like an unexpected step for an administration with a more conservative leaning.
Trump told the attendees at a $ million-a-plate fundraiser held at his New Jersey golf club earlier in August that he was interested in the change, according to the report. The change would make it easier to buy and sell marijuana and make the industry more profitable.
The guests at Trump’s fundraiser included Kim Rivers, the chief executive of Trulieve, one of the largest marijuana companies in the US, Pfizer’s CEO, cryptocurrency executives, and political advisers close to Trump, according to the report.
Rivers was among the ones who encouraged Trump to pursue the change and expand medical marijuana research, people present at the fundraiser told the American newspaper.
Trump himself has been perceived to have a more lenient view on marijuana criminalization.
Picking up where Biden left off
The Trump administration perceives the marijuana situation as “80-20 cultural issues,” according to the report, which means that a strong majority of the public supports decriminalizing the drug.
In this particular instance, lobbyists do not aim for full decriminalization of marijuana. Their main objective is to reclassify it as a Schedule III drug, which would not make the drug entirely legal but would ease restrictions on it.
This step was planned to be taken by the previous administration, but it was finally not delivered. Now, cannabis companies are trying to persuade Trump to pick up where the Biden team left off and reclassify the drug.
“All policy and legal requirements and implications are being considered. The only interest guiding the president’s policy decisions is what is in the best interest of the American people,” said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokesperson, to the report.
There are groups lobbying against this policy, including Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which has launched advertisements against the drug on Fox & Friends and Maria Bartiromo’s Fox Business show, hoping to appeal to Trump, according to the report.
“Discussions are ongoing in the administration, and it remains unknown what Trump will ultimately decide,” officials told the WSJ.