President Donald Trump is again proposing to remove existing protections for states that have legalized medical marijuana, while maintaining a ban that's prevented Washington, D.C. from enacting a system of regulated adult-use cannabis sales.
As part of his budget request for the 2026 fiscal year sent to Congress on Friday, Trump is seeking to delete a longstanding rider that's barred the Justice Department from using its funds to interfere in the implementation of state-level medical marijuana laws.
This is Trump's first budget request of his second term, but during his first term he similarly called for its deletion each year of his presidency.
President Joe Biden, on the other hand, consistently proposed to continue the medical cannabis provision intact in his budget requests—though President Barack Obama, like Trump, had sought to delete it.
Congress has the final say on appropriations legislation language, however, and has not followed through on any president's request to delete the medical marijuana protection since it was first enacted into law in 2014—though lawmakers have also declined to expand the protections to cover state recreational marijuana programs.
Read more at Marijuana Moment