President Donald Trump is aggressively ramping up the War On Drugs, even going so far as to capture a foreign leader — leftist Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro — and transport him to a federal detention center in New York City to face drug charges. Trump is also accusing Columbian President Gustavo Petro of being soft on drug smuggling, and in the U.S., Trump favors expanding the death penalty to include drug trafficking at a time when many states have abolished capital punishment.
Yet in contrast to the War On Drugs of the 1960s and 1970s — when President Richard Nixon's allies attacked marijuana as a dangerous "gateway drug" — Trump favors moving it to a less serious classification. And according to Politico reporters Lauren Brensel and Amanda Friedman, that is putting him at odds with some GOP lawmakers.
In an article published on January 4, Brensel and Friedman explain, "President Donald Trump has a GOP revolt on his hands. It's about weed…. Trump wants to expedite moving marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III on the government's list of controlled substances. Schedule I drugs, like marijuana, heroin and LSD, are considered highly dangerous with no known medical uses. Schedule III drugs are thought to be less dangerous with some medical uses, such as steroids or Tylenol with codeine."
Ex-Democrat turned MAGA Republican Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — Trump's Health and Human Services (HH) Department secretary and nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy — agrees with Trump's marijuana policy. But other Republicans don't.
"Considering Republicans have, by and large, stood by Trump on even his most controversial decisions," Brensel and Friedman report, "the split over pot stands out. Republican congressional leaders' open defiance shows Trump's hold on his party might be waning — and also that they really hate weed. Speaker Mike Johnson lobbied Trump directly to hold off on his decision, the Washington Post reported. On the eve of Trump's announcement, 22 Senate Republicans urged him, in a letter,s not to go ahead with it, citing health issues like addiction linked to the drug's use and economic consequences…. In announcing the pot policy changes, Trump and Kennedy stressed the medical benefits of marijuana. Kennedy said compounds that come from cannabis — such as CBD and THC, which is intoxicating — can have 'miraculous effects' on chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder and epilepsy."
The Politico reporters add, "During his 2024 presidential campaign, before he dropped out and joined forces with Trump, Kennedy said he wanted to legalize marijuana."
Read Lauren Brensel and Amanda Friedman's full article for Politico at this link.
