Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) federal agents patrol at Union Station after U.S. President Donald Trump announced federal take over of the Metropolitan Police Department under the Home Rule Act to assist in crime prevention in the nation's capital, in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 12, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Although President Donald Trump favors draconian penalties for hard drugs — for example, proposing "the death penalty" for "everyone who sells drugs, gets caught selling drugs — he is making a distinction between marijuana and dangerous drugs like fentanyl, crack and heroin. And he is considering reclassifying marijuana as Schedule 3 substance. Marijuana, under federal guidelines, is presently classified as a Schedule 1 drug and is lumped in with heroin, PCP and LSD even though it is being decriminalized and legally solid in many states.
In Delaware, for example, a law legalizing "adult-use marijuana sales" into effect on August 1. The sales, however, are subject to strict licensing requirements.
In the past, conservative marijuana opponents claimed that marijuana was a "gateway drug" that could lead to use of hard drugs — a claim often echoed in late 1960s episodes of the police drama "Dragnet." But the "gateway drug" argument has been repeatedly debunked, and Trump clearly doesn't see marijuana as comparable to fentanyl or methamphetamine.
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Trump is drawing strong criticism from some MAGA Republicans for possibly reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule 3 substance.
Far-right podcaster Jack Posobiec complained that he does not "want to have to be smelling weed anytime I take my kids anywhere in a city or a national park."
Right-wing pundit Michael Knowles told Axios that marijuana is the "liberal intoxicant of choice" and claimed that conservatives prefer "traditional pleasures" such as alcohol and tobacco.
Knowles told Axios, "The left is more comfortable just kind of vegging out, but they should not be, because sloth is bad for the individual and for society."
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On X, formerly Twitter, The Daily Wire's Matt Walsh posted, "Our society thrived when everyone was smoking cigarettes and drinking whiskey. We became the most powerful nation in the world with liquor and nicotine. No country of potheads has ever thrived, or ever achieved anything at all. Every city that legalized it became an even bigger s—— basically overnight. The entire history of western civilization tells us that marijuana is far, far worse for society."
But some MAGA Republicans are defending Trump on the marijuana classification issue.
MAGA influencer C.J. Peason, according to the Daily Beast, believes that Trump's openness to reclassifying marijuana "is research-driven" and that lives of "countless veterans" have "been changed for the better by medical marijuana use."
Trump White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told the Beast that Trump hasn't yet made a final decision.
According to Jackson, "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."
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