{"id":82746,"date":"2025-08-12T08:24:54","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T16:24:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2025\/08\/12\/if-trump-reschedules-marijuana-the-game-is-over-for-democrats-presidents-first-pick-for-attorney-general-says\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T19:54:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T03:54:54","slug":"if-trump-reschedules-marijuana-the-game-is-over-for-democrats-presidents-first-pick-for-attorney-general-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2025\/08\/12\/if-trump-reschedules-marijuana-the-game-is-over-for-democrats-presidents-first-pick-for-attorney-general-says\/","title":{"rendered":"If Trump Reschedules Marijuana, \u2018The Game Is Over For Democrats,\u2019 President\u2019s First Pick For Attorney General Says"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

A former GOP congressman who President Donald Trump initially nominated to serve as U.S. attorney general during the current term is renewing his call for marijuana rescheduling\u2014saying the \u201cgame is over for Democrats at the ballot box\u201d if the president moves forward on the reform, which he said he\u2019d decide on within weeks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who withdrew from consideration for the AG position amid unrelated controversies, dedicated a significant portion of his One America News show on Monday to discussing federal cannabis laws.<\/p>\n

Gaetz, who was the sole GOP member to cosponsor a Democratic-led marijuana legalization bill while in Congress, said, \u201cIf there\u2019s one thing Americans love more than low gas prices and a secure border, it\u2019s making sure our laws at least make actual sense in the decade in which we live right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noting that marijuana currently remains in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), Gaetz said that effectively means \u201cthe federal government believes weed is just as bad as heroin and somehow worse than fentanyl.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under the rescheduling proposal that was initiated under the Biden administration and now sits before the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), marijuana would be moved to Schedule III of the CSA. That wouldn\u2019t federally legalize the plant, but it would free up licensed cannabis retailers to access banking services and help facilitate research.<\/p>\n

\u201cRescheduling is the government saying, \u2018okay, maybe this isn\u2019t the same as crack cocaine\u2014and maybe doctors should be allowed to prescribe it without acting like they\u2019re handing out plutonium,’\u201d he said. \u201cAnd here\u2019s the kicker: We already have half the country allowed to use cannabis under the color of state law.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Reschedule Marijuana! https:\/\/t.co\/BciFQV2qQw<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) August 12, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cStates like Florida, California, Colorado and so many others\u2014even red states, they\u2019ve got dispensaries that look like Apple stores. You walk in and it\u2019s like a Genius Bar for THC,\u201d Gaetz said. \u201cPeople are paying taxes on it. Landlords are getting profitable tenants. Jobs are being created. What\u2019s Uncle Sam doing? Pretending it\u2019s still a cartel product smuggled into the country in a hollowed-out coconut.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf President Trump does this, the game is over for Democrats at the ballot box. We could be the party that allows people to safely use marijuana without pretending it\u2019s for your glaucoma-ridden cat,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s populism meets practicality. Suddenly, MAGA hats in line at the dispensary, patriots buying prerolls called \u20181776 Freedom Kush.\u2019 Beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump made his first public comments on cannabis since taking office on Monday, but he didn\u2019t specify where he stood\u2014despite endorsing the policy change on the campaign trail. He said a decision would be coming within weeks, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow don\u2019t get me wrong: There are still people clutching their pearls saying buying marijuana is a gateway drug,\u201d Gaetz said. \u201cYeah, so is drinking Mountain Dew if you consume enough of it. In reality, marijuana is more like a gateway to eating three sleeves of Oreos and having deep thoughts about how ceiling fans work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRescheduling also has a law and order angle that nobody talks about. You clear the nonsense marijuana charges out of the system and you free up the courts, the police and prisons to deal with actual criminals. I\u2019d rather have the cops chasing MS-13 than some guy in a Phish t-shirt growing three plants in his garage. And let\u2019s not forget: the war on drugs has been a lot like many of the wars America has fought in my lifetime. We have battled for decades in the costliest and deadliest of ways, and the drugs have won in the war on drugs. Drugs won.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Trump reschedules marijuana, he can finally say, \u2018we\u2019re focusing on the real killers now and I fixed this ridiculous policy the swamp ignored for half a century.\u2019 Plus, imagine the trolling value,\u201d Gaetz said. \u201cEvery blue state governor who\u2019s been preaching legalization for years but never actually fixing anything. Trump can suddenly get it done. At CNN, heads will explode. Rachel Maddow will be so triggered not even the stickiest indica could calm her. The New York Times will run an op-ed titled \u2018Is Trump doing this just to win?\u2019 And the answer will, of course, be yes\u2014and that\u2019s because it is the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only real argument against it is, \u2018Well, we\u2019ve always done it this way.\u2019 And if we stuck to that logic, we\u2019d still be using rotary phones and thinking that margarine is health food. So here\u2019s my pitch: President Trump, reschedule marijuana. Do it big, do it loud. Sign the order with a gold Sharpie, hold it up for the cameras and say, \u2018this plant was treated more unfairly than I was.\u2019 And that\u2019s saying something. It\u2019s good politics, it\u2019s good economics, and it\u2019s about time the federal government stopped pretending that Snoop Dogg and El Chapo are in the same business. And if anyone is still clutching their pearls, hand them a CBD gummy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaetz\u2019s latest comments come months after he predicted that \u201cmeaningful\u201d marijuana reform is \u201con the horizon\u201d under the current administration, praising the president\u2019s \u201cleadership\u201d in supporting rescheduling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Advocates and stakeholders were generally encouraged when Trump picked Gaetz to lead the Justice Department following his election, even if the pick was controversial for unrelated reasons. Having an attorney general who proactively championed reform would have represented a major shift, and many felt it would have boded well for seeing through the rescheduling process.<\/p>\n

Since then, however, Trump picked former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to run DOJ, and the Senate confirmed that choice. During her confirmation hearings, Bondi declined to say how she planned to navigate key marijuana policy issues<\/a>. And as state attorney general, she opposed efforts to legalize medical cannabis.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, following the president\u2019s announcement about his intention to make a decision of cannabis rescheduling within weeks, bipartisan congressional lawmakers are urging Trump to get the job done<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Separately, a new political committee that shares the same treasurer as Trump\u2019s own super PAC is pushing the president to follow through on rescheduling marijuana<\/a>, releasing an ad that highlights his previous endorsement of the reform on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n

The treasurer of the\u00a0PAC, Charles Gantt, is the same person named as treasurer of Trump\u2019s political committee, MAGA Inc., which\u00a0recently reported receiving $1 million from a marijuana industry PAC<\/a>\u00a0that\u2019s supported by multiple major cannabis companies.<\/p>\n

That committee, the American Rights and Reform PAC, separately released ads in May that\u00a0attacked former President Joe Biden\u2019s marijuana policy record<\/a>\u00a0in an apparent attempt to push Trump to go further on the issue.<\/p>\n

Separately, a post that recently circulated on social media appears to show that MAGA Inc., which is also referred to as also called Make America Great Again Inc., itself created an ad that touts Trump\u2019s support for \u201ccommonsense reform\u201d such as removing cannabis from Schedule I of the CSA and letting states set their own policies.<\/p>\n

The ad ends with the narrator saying \u201cDonald Trump for president,\u201d however, indicating that it may have been prepared prior to the 2024 election.<\/p>\n

The owner of the major gardening supply company Scotts Miracle-Gro recently said Trump has told him directly \u201cmultiple times\u201d since taking office that\u00a0he intends to see through the marijuana rescheduling process<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s former acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) also recently predicted that the administration\u00a0will soon \u201cdig in\u201d to the state-federal marijuana policy conflict<\/a>, emphasizing the need to \u201celiminate confusion, not create it\u201d amid the rescheduling push.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Terrence Cole, who was sworn in last month as the new administrator of the DEA,\u00a0declined to include rescheduling on a list of \u201cstrategic priorities\u201d<\/a>\u00a0the agency that instead focused on anti-trafficking enforcement, Mexican cartels, the fentanyl supply chain, drug-fueled violence, cryptocurrency, the dark web and a host of other matters.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s despite the fact that Cole said during a confirmation hearing in April that\u00a0examining the government\u2019s pending marijuana rescheduling proposal would be \u201cone of my first priorities\u201d after taking office<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last week, former White House Press Secretary\u00a0Sean Spicer predicted that Trump would not legalize marijuana<\/a>, though that is a separate issue from the current rescheduling proposal under consideration.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a strategic consulting and research firm associated with Trump\u2014Fabrizio, Lee & Associates, LLC\u2014conducted a survey of registered voters that showed\u00a0a majority of Republicans back a variety of cannabis reforms<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The post If Trump Reschedules Marijuana, \u2018The Game Is Over For Democrats,\u2019 President\u2019s First Pick For Attorney General Says<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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A former GOP congressman who President Donald Trump initially nominated to serve as U.S. attorney general during the current term is renewing his call for marijuana rescheduling\u2014saying the \u201cgame is over for Democrats at the ballot box\u201d if the president moves forward on the reform, which he said he\u2019d decideContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82746"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82747,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82746\/revisions\/82747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}