A longtime drug policy reform advocate says he spoke with a White House staffer at an event last week and was invited to submit a proposal outlining why President Donald Trump should back federal marijuana legalization.
At Americans for Tax Reform’s (ATR) weekly “Wednesday Meeting” of conservative activists hosted by Grover Norquist last week, Citizens Against Prohibition (COP) drug policy specialist Howard Wooldridge said a White House representative welcomed proposals from all attendees—and he was able to personally discuss his plan to advise the administration to adopt a pro-legalization position.
“I got a couple minutes with her, just one-on-one, and basically gave her the basics that my organization of law enforcement and citizens would like to see an end to the drug war and make it a medical issue in the macro,” Wooldridge told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview on Tuesday.
“She was very open to any and all suggestions coming to that particular meeting, because it obviously is a friendly environment for someone who’s coming from the Trump White House,” he said. “She was certainly a good listener.”
Wooldridge—who also co-founded Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), which has since been renamed Law Enforcement Action Partnership—declined to provide the name of the administration staffer, given certain expectations of decorum at the weekly meeting that’s been going on for over 30 years. Marijuana Moment reached out to the White House for comment, but a representative was not immediately available.
As far as the cannabis proposal is concerned, Wooldridge said he would be submitting it by the end of this week, with consultation from well-known conservative cannabis lobbyist Don Murphy.
“Basically what I’m going to bring in the proposal is the political advantages for the Trump administration to end the policy of federal prohibition,” Wooldridge said, stressing the potential appeal of pitching a states’ rights position on the issue of legalization to the Republican president’s team.
Trump has backed that states’ rights perspective in the past, and on the campaign trail he also endorsed a Florida marijuana legalization proposal as well as federal rescheduling and industry banking access.
But in the months since he came out in favor of those reforms, he’s been notably silent on the issue. For example, even after securing the release of an American who was incarcerated in Russia over marijuana possession—and inviting him to the Capitol for an address to a joint session of Congress this week—Trump declined to acknowledge the underlying cannabis charges.
In any case, the forthcoming proposal is an attempt to bring the president back into the conversation. From Wooldridge’s perspective, getting Trump to explicitly call on Congress to act on a reform bill is the only feasible pathway given the ongoing resistance to loosening marijuana laws by current GOP House and Senate leadership.
If Trump gives them that mandate “members of Congress of the Republican Party are not going to resist the will of Donald Trump on essentially anything,” he said.
Wooldridge said in an email newsletter sent to his organization’s supporters that the administration staffer who invited the proposal indicated that if it was approved, he would be invited to the White House “for a discussion on why should Trump support legalizing marijuana at the federal level.”
Murphy, a GOP lobbyist with the American Cannabis Collective, is going to assist in the drafting of Wooldridge’s proposal to the White House. Specifically, Murphy is going to help with “conservative messaging” around the issue.
“There are plenty of reasons why the president should do this. Not because he’s going to get a lot of love from progressives—they’ll still hate him—but it is the right thing to do,” Murphy told Marijuana Moment.
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This comes in the background of multiple top-level cabinet nominations and Senate confirmations of administration officials with mixed records on drug policy reform, which advocates and stakeholders have been following closely to see if Trump will push for marijuana policy changes.
For example, Trump recently nominated a vociferously anti-cannabis official to serve as the lead attorney at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), drawing praise from prohibitionists.
While HHS under the Biden administration has already recommended rescheduling cannabis following a scientific review, that process has been delayed, raising questions about the potential influence of new administrative appointees.
HHS’s general counsel is responsible for providing legal advice, interpreting regulatory policies and overseeing litigation involving the agency, among other roles, and so if Stuart is confirmed by the Senate he could be key in any future agency interpretations of the Controlled Substances Act’s requirements when it comes to marijuana’s scheduling status.
By contrast to the HHS general counsel nominee, Mike Stuart, the recently Senate-confirmed secretary of HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was previously vocal about his support for marijuana legalization.
Despite that stated support, however, following his confirmation Kennedy said last month that he is “worried about” the normalization of high-potency marijuana and that he feels its use can have “really catastrophic impacts” on people, but that state-level legalization can facilitate research into its harms and benefits.
The comments came on the same day that Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) said he received a commitment from Kennedy to “follow the science on the harms of marijuana.”
Ricketts had already disclosed earlier this month that he spoke to Kennedy about the the “importance” of “preventing the expansion of marijuana.” Now he says “RFK committed to me that he would follow the science on the harms of marijuana.”
Despite Kennedy’s history of advocating for cannabis legalization, he said last month that he will defer to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on marijuana rescheduling in his new role.
That could complicate rescheduling. Last month, Trump officially named his pick to lead DEA—selecting a decades-long agency veteran and top Virginia official who’s voiced concerns about the dangers of marijuana and linked its use to higher suicide risk among youth.
Separately, anti-marijuana Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) told Marijuana Moment recently that it’s “definitely” time to have a talk with Kennedy to convince him that “marijuana is harmful” and that the way to make Americans healthy is by “limiting” its use.
Prior to Kennedy’s written responses to members of the Senate Finance Committee that gave him initial approval, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) pressed him to reiterate his position on marijuana legalization amid the ongoing effort to federally reschedule cannabis.
A political action committee founded by former Vice President Mike Pence had attempted to undermine the confirmation Kennedy as HHS secretary—in part by drawing attention to his support for marijuana and psychedelics reform, as well as his personal history with substance misuse.
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