Conservatives are calling on President Trump to reconsider possibly signing an executive order that would downgrade marijuana from a Schedule I narcotic to a Schedule III drug.
Rescheduling marijuana promises tax relief for the industry and easier medical access for some users.
Political activists at Eagle Forum say it would “reward the Big Marijuana industry with tax breaks while causing incalculable risks to public health and safety.”
“After decades of disastrous effects from legalized pot that have led Americans to reconsider their support for the drug, families across the nation are devastated by this action,” said the Eagle Forum, which has long advocated against the rescheduling of marijuana.
The group warned that moving marijuana to the Schedule III list would eliminate mandatory safety drug testing for federal workers, including ’safety-sensitive’ jobs such as airline pilots and commercial drivers for cannabis, under HHS guidelines.
Additionally, because Schedule III drugs are determined to have a recognized medical use, employees will have protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act. It would become more difficult for employers to fire workers who test positive for pot.
Eagle Forum also said that loosening restrictions on marijuana threatens to give tax breaks to Big Marijuana and Chinese gangs, while downplaying the health risks.
“There is no good reason to reclassify marijuana — we know it’s dangerous to mental and physical health,” Eagle Forum president Kris Ullman said. “Research abounds that links marijuana use to lower IQ, increased risk of psychosis, severe mental health outcomes, and increased likelihood of addiction.”
Pro-marijuana legalization advocates at the Marijuana Policy Project said moving the drug to Schedule III “marks a symbolic victory and a recalibration of decades of federal misclassification.”
The pro-marijuana activists said rescheduling is long overdue, but more would still need to be done to legitimize marijuana.
They called for “comprehensive federal reform to address continued criminal sanctions, collateral consequences, and financial obstructions faced by cannabis businesses, the communities most impacted by prohibition will continue to face disproportionate barriers.”
Hawley scorned for backing Obamacare subsidies
Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist expressed disappointment that Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, supports extending enhanced Obamacare subsidies.
“Sen. Josh Hawley, who campaigned promising to repeal Obamacare, sided with Chuck Schumer’s 3-year extension of bloated Obamacare handouts to insurance companies,” Mr. Norquist wrote on X. “Even The Washington Post had enough spine to oppose Schumer’s bill. Hawley didn’t.”
An ATR policy brief went further, calling out a handful of other Republicans who have introduced various measures to extend the extra subsidies. They included Rep. Jen Kiggans of Virginia and Sens. Bernie Moreno of Ohio, Susan Collins of Maine and Roger Marshall of Kansas.
“All members of Congress should reject these plans. If these subsidies are extended again, they will never go away,” the brief says.
Election officials urged to use commercial data to ID voters
The America First Policy Institute advises that election officials modernize, maintain, and secure voter rolls by relying on commercial data instead of the limited data sources they currently depend on.
“Unlike government systems that rely on a few limited data sources, commercial data draws from dozens of credit, publicly available property, utility, and identity records that update daily — producing a more complete profile of where voters actually live,” AFPI said.
“These sources are routinely used by banks, insurers, and state agencies for identity verification and fraud prevention, and their proven reliability helps bridge long-standing accuracy gaps that have plagued voter rolls.”
Trump’s public land policies draw criticism
The Center for American Progress is not pleased with the Trump administration’s lifting of environmental regulations on public lands that it says benefits gas lease sales while “weakening safeguards for drilling.”
“Notably, President Trump’s year-one agenda for public lands hewed remarkably close to the special-interest wish lists prepared by the oil and gas industry and industry-aligned Project 2025 before he took office,” the liberal activist group said.
A recent analysis by the group found that already-initiated actions by the Trump administration would roll back regulations from about 88 million acres of public lands.
It stated that this amount of land is equivalent to 117 Yosemite National Parks.
“The scope of these actions shatters record lows set over the course of President Trump’s first term. In fact, Trump remains the only president in U.S. history to have removed protections for more public lands than he has protected,” the organization said.
• The Advocates column is a weekly look at the political action players who drive the debate and shape policy outcomes in Washington. Send tips to theadvocates@washingtontimes.com.
