The Trump administration made the biggest shift in federal drug policy in decades recently by signing off on a final regulatory order rescheduling medical marijuana.
The move makes President Donald Trump one of the most unexpectedly reform-minded presidents on drug policy — an unlikely turn of events for a teetotaling Republican whose party has historically opposed efforts to relax marijuana prohibition. Through executive orders, Trump has promoted psychedelics research through a recent order fast-tracking the FDA process and moved the federal government to recognize the therapeutic potential of cannabis, moving the U.S. beyond global norms of marijuana prohibition that the country once helped institute.
Trump wasn't always a friend to the state-regulated cannabis industry. He appointed the vehemently anti-weed Jeff Sessions to be his first attorney general. Sessions later rescinded Obama-era Justice Department guidance that state legal cannabis programs relied on. Trump has also called for expanding the death penalty for drug dealers.
But his evolution on federal cannabis policy mirrors a shift among voters and state governments. While the first U.S. states to legalize cannabis at the ballot box were overwhelmingly Democratic-oriented, voters in Republican-oriented states have ushered in marijuana programs from Montana to Missouri to Oklahoma. Today, the divide in voter sentiment on cannabis policy falls more along generational lines than partisan ones, with younger conservatives more likely to support legalization efforts.
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