MAGA nation is losing it over President Donald Trump’s plot to reclassify marijuana under federal law, warning that such a move would lead to the deterioration of American society.
Trump has confirmed he’s weighing whether to knock marijuana down from a Schedule I drug—currently lumped in with heroin, LSD, and ecstasy—to a Schedule III substance, alongside ketamine, anabolic steroids, and certain prescription meds. The change wouldn’t make marijuana legal nationwide, but it would slash federal restrictions and open the door to expanded medical research.
“We’re looking at reclassification and we’ll make a determination over the next, I would say over the next few weeks, and that determination hopefully will be the right one. It’s very complicated subject,” Trump told reporters, triggering a cloud of MAGA despair.
Some high-profile MAGA commentators are leading the freak out. “No country of potheads has ever thrived, or ever achieved anything at all,” The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh fumed on X, claiming cities that legalize marijuana deteriorate overnight.
Podcaster Jack Posobiec doubled down on the panic: He said on his podcast he opposed the idea because he did not “want to have to be smelling weed anytime I take my kids anywhere in a city or a national park.”
Speaking with Axios, Michael Knowles, a conservative political commentator, argued that marijuana is the “liberal intoxicant of choice,” and that the right prefers “traditional pleasures” like tobacco and alcohol.
“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,” he added.
Not all MAGA-aligned figures are opposed. Commentator Rogan O’Handley wrote on X that rescheduling marijuana “doesn’t legalize it, but it does allow for more medical research.” It would undercut “Big Pharma,” “Big Prison,” and “Big Alcohol,” he wrote.
CJ Pearson, another MAGA influencer, said Trump’s openness to rescheduling marijuana “is research driven” and reflects concern for “countless veterans whose lives have been changed” by medicinal cannabis.
Currently, 24 states have legalized recreational weed, and 40 allow it for medical use. A Trump reclassification would supercharge an already multibillion-dollar industry, making pot easier to buy, sell, and study.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
In a statement to The Daily Beast earlier this week, a White House spokesperson acknowledged that a reclassification process was initiated under President Joe Biden, but that a final decision has not been made.
“All policy and legal requirements and implications are being considered,” Abigail Jackson said. “The only interest guiding the president’s policy decisions is what is in the best interest of the American people.”
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