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(CNN) — President Donald Trump as a candidate vowed to decriminalize marijuana and make it easier for weed companies to obtain bank accounts and for universities to research the drug. Now, commercials carrying reminders of Trump’s promises will air on televisions where the president spends most of his time.
American Rights and Reform PAC, a group backed by the cannabis industry, is planning a seven-figure ad campaign that is noticeably critical of two of Trump’s regular fixations: former President Joe Biden and Canada. One ad attacks Biden’s failure to fulfill a pledge to end decades of federal policy that treats marijuana like addictive and deadly narcotics such as heroin; the other says Canadians “cash in” on Washington’s anti-marijuana policies by listing American cannabis companies on its stock exchange.
Both ads also laud Trump for championing patient access to experimental treatments in his first term and suggest that taking steps to ease federal marijuana restrictions would be in line with the president’s agenda.
“This an ‘America first’ fight,” a narrator says in one ad. The other encourages viewers to push the White House to “end Biden’s war on medical cannabis.”
Biden said last year he supported decriminalizing marijuana. He also started (but didn’t complete) the process of reclassifying it from a Schedule I narcotic — reserved for illicit substances with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse — to Schedule III, which are drugs that have some medical use and can be prescribed by a doctor.
American Rights and Reform PAC will spend more than $1 million airing the two 30-second spots on cable and streaming services over the next month in Washington, DC, near the White House and in the West Palm Beach media market surrounding Mar-a-Lago, where Trump has spent most weekends since taking office, a person familiar with the super PAC’s plans told CNN. The ads will appear on digital devices as well.
The super PAC previously went by the name “Legalize America,” according to federal campaign finance records. A lobbyist for Curaleaf, a marijuana company based in New York, is listed as the organization’s treasurer, and it is bankrolled by the cannabis industry.
The group is also circulating a survey from the firm of top Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio that argues there would be overwhelming support for the president to act on the promises he made last fall. In a memo from March 6 obtained by CNN, Fabrizio and his partners argue that Republican views on marijuana have flipped to favoring legalization of the drug, adding that “there is no significant political or demographic group that doesn’t believe cannabis should be legal for consenting adults.”
The findings of the poll are in line with a 2024 Pew Research Center survey which found that nearly 6 in 10 Americans support legalization of recreational marijuana and only 11 percent of people — and just 17 percent of Republicans — believe it shouldn’t be legal for any purpose.
Passing pro-marijuana legislation, Fabrizio and co. contend, is “an easy way to attract the voters needed to win in 2026, particularly young voters.”
Trump announced on social media in September that he intended to vote for a ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana in his home state of Florida. In the post, Trump also said that if elected he would push through a series of measures long-sought by proponents of weed, criminal justice advocates and the cannabis industry, such as allowing marijuana companies to access financial institutions and “supporting states rights to pass marijuana laws.”
After winning the election, Trump and his transition team quietly backed an unsuccessful attempt to incorporate legislation easing restrictions on banking for marijuana companies into a December continuing resolution to fund the government, according to three people with knowledge of the negotiations. A version of the bill, known as the SAFE Banking Act, has passed the House a handful of times but hasn’t received Senate approval.
While Trump has moved swiftly to fulfill other promises, his administration has yet to take steps to implement his marijuana-related campaign proposals. Discussions on marijuana that began during the transition largely stalled as the White House waited for the Senate to confirm Attorney General Pam Bondi, who will oversee the Drug Enforcement Administration as head of the Department of Justice.
A White House official said “no action is being considered at this time” on marijuana.
In a process initiated under Biden, the DEA is currently reviewing marijuana’s classification. A hearing to consider the change was slated for Jan. 21 — a day after Trump took office — but was canceled and hasn’t been rescheduled.
Bondi has been less receptive to marijuana reforms than Trump’s first choice for the job, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, a longtime advocate of legalizing cannabis for recreational use. However, the hope among marijuana advocates and the industry is that Trump will move unilaterally and not allow a campaign promise to get bogged down by bureaucratic procedures set up by his predecessor and onetime political rival.
The-CNN-Wire
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