Nine GOP Lawmakers Urge Trump And Attorney General To Reject ‘Corrupt And Flawed’ Marijuana Rescheduling Proposal

Nine GOP congressional lawmakers are calling on the U.S. attorney general to reject what they called a “corrupt and flawed” marijuana rescheduling proposal that President Donald Trump said he will be deciding on imminently.

In a letter led by Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX)—in coordination with the prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM)—the lawmakers said moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) would benefit “Big Marijuana and foreign drug cartels.”

“We write to urge you to reject the Biden Administration’s corrupt and flawed recommendation to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III drug,” they said in the letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi. “Rescheduling marijuana would send a message to kids that marijuana is not harmful and allow Big Marijuana and foreign drug cartels to get billions per year in federal tax breaks.”

If marijuana is moved to Schedule III, that wouldn’t give cannabis businesses a unique tax break; rather, it would allow them to take federal tax deductions available to other traditional industries that they’ve been deprived of under an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code known as 280E.

The letter claims that the rescheduling recommendation from federal agencies under the Biden administration “was met with immediate pushback from experts across the political spectrum who agreed that there is no adequate science or data to support moving marijuana to Schedule III.”

“Marijuana belongs as a Schedule I drug,” the lawmakers wrote, adding that while reform advocates often make the case that cannabis shouldn’t be in the same CSA category as drugs like heroin, “their argument relies on a misunderstanding of the drug scheduling system.”

“Drug scheduling is not a harm index. Instead, drug scheduling weighs both potential for abuse and the accepted medical value of a specific drug. Marijuana, while different than heroin, still has the potential for abuse and has no scientifically proven medical value. Therefore, rescheduling marijuana would not only be objectively wrong, but it would also imply to our children that marijuana is safe. That couldn’t be further from the truth.”

The letter then asserts that cannabis use is associated with schizophrenia, psychosis, anxiety, cardiovascular issues and more. And it disputes research indicating that marijuana could be used as a therapeutic option in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

On the tax implications of a Schedule III reclassification, the lawmakers said the policy change “will immediately give tax breaks to illegal marijuana dispensaries and cartels to the tune of $2 billion per year” and that “Chinese drug cartels will get a tax break, too.”

“Marijuana rescheduling will enable criminal activity and harm our kids,” the letter concludes. “We don’t want the smell of marijuana flooding every public space, we don’t want our kids being enticed by deceptive marijuana marketing, and we don’t want even more drugs flooding our streets. We respectfully urge you to follow the science and oppose downgrading marijuana.”

Other signatories on the letter are: Reps. Andy Harris (R-MD), Robert Aderholt (R-AL) , Chip Roy (R-TX), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Blake Moore (R-UT), Gary Palmer (R-AL), David Rouzer (R-NC), and Mary Miller (R-IL).

“Rescheduling marijuana is bad policy, no matter the administration,” Sessions, who as House Rules Committee chairman in the 115th Congress blocked numerous incremental cannabis reform bills from reaching the floor, said in a press release on Thursday.

“The data is clear: marijuana is a dangerous drug that has only become more dangerous over time. That is why I have spent my entire career in Congress opposing the rescheduling of marijuana,” he said. “We must protect our children from predatory marijuana businesses that want to make them addicted consumers for life.”

Gosar, for his part, argued that rescheduling “risks undermining President Trump’s determination to address the growing health crisis in America by signaling that it is safe, despite clear evidence of harm.”

“We should aim to reduce exposure to addictive, impairing substances, not reclassify them in ways that expand access and downplay risks,” he said. “Rescheduling marijuana invites heavier use, more health and wellness burdens, and long-term costs for individuals and communities.”

The president of the prohibitionist group SAM, Kevin Sabet, said “President Trump is laser-focused on getting drugs off the streets,” and rescheduling cannabis “would set back those efforts.”

“Rejecting reclassifying marijuana aligns with the President’s priorities of combatting China and narco-terrorist cartels,” he said. “Taking a step toward fulfilling George Soros’ lifelong goal of making drugs legal will not Make America Great Again.”

SAM also led a letter this month with a coalition of prohibitionist, law enforcement and religious groups, imploring Trump to oppose the cannabis rescheduling proposal and leave the drug in Schedule I.

While Trump endorsed the pending rescheduling proposal on the campaign trail ahead of his second term, his recent comments about a forthcoming decision were less clear.

In contrast to the new letter from GOP lawmakers, a leading drug policy reform group recently launched a petition urging the president to go further than rescheduling by legalizing marijuana altogether.

Congressional Democrats on Friday filed a bill to federally legalize cannabis.

Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.