Under the advisement of the nation’s top prohibitionist, nine Republican U.S. House lawmakers sent the Trump administration a letter on Aug. 28 urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) to kill a cannabis rescheduling proposal.
The letter, spearheaded by Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and orchestrated in part by Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) President and CEO Kevin Sabet, was addressed to Attorney General Pam Bondi and copied to President Donald Trump.
The letter was sent as cannabis industry stakeholders await an anticipated announcement from Trump, who, at an Aug. 11 press conference, said he would make a decision on a DOJ proposed rule to reclassify cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III “over the next few weeks.” Former Attorney General Merrick Garland signed the proposal under the administration of President Joe Biden.
“We write to urge you to reject the Biden administration’s corrupt and flawed recommendation to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III drug,” Sessions and his cohort wrote. “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.”
Moving cannabis to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) would end the punitive Section 280E tax barrier of the Internal Revenue Code for state-sanctioned cannabis businesses, allowing them to deduct their ordinary business expenses—such as payroll, rent and utilities—like any other traditional American company.
Under restrictions from a Schedule I federal status, some of the biggest cannabis companies in the nation are on the hook for upward of $100 million per year in 280E-related taxes. However, in recent years, companies like multistate operator Trulieve have been filing amended tax returns in a strategy to receive 280E-related refunds and avoid paying the punitive tax moving forward.
The nine GOP letter writers suggested that moving cannabis to Schedule III would provide tax breaks to “illegal” cannabis dispensaries and drug cartels to the tune of $2 billion per year.
“Tax Code Section 280E prevents drug traffickers who are selling Schedule I or II narcotics from expensing business deductions and getting tax credits,” they wrote. “This is a commonsense law, but the authors of it in 1982 never could have predicted that federally illegal drug sales would be sanctioned under state law without interference. If marijuana is made Schedule III, these still-illegal actors will get billions in tax write-offs for marketing their addictive drugs.”
Sessions’ signature was accompanied by Reps. Andy Harris, R-Md., Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., Chip Roy, R-Texas, Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., Blake Moore, R-Utah, Gary Palmer, R-Ala., David Rouzer, R-N.C., and Mary Miller, R-Ill.
While the majority of U.S. cannabis businesses have remained unprofitable in recent years, according to Whitney Economics, the term “big marijuana” is often pushed by Sabet and his associates at SAM. Sabet is a former White House Office of National Drug Control Policy adviser under the Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.
“President Trump is laser-focused on getting drugs off the streets,” Sabet said in Sessions’ press release about the letter. “Rescheduling would set back those efforts. Rejecting reclassifying marijuana aligns with the president’s priorities of combatting China and narco-terrorist cartels. Taking a step toward fulfilling George Soros’ lifelong goal of making drugs legal will not Make America Great Again.”
During his Aug. 11 press conference, Trump acknowledged that “some people like it,” “some people hate it,” and that cannabis is “bad for the children.” He also said that he hopes his determination “will be the right one.”
Trump could decide to resume the current cannabis rescheduling hearing process that was stayed by a now-retired administrative law judge in early January and has been pending the resolution of an interlocutory appeal since.
The president could decide to assign a new Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) administrative law judge to the hearing. Or, he could decide to move forward on the Biden DOJ’s proposed rule without the hearing process by fast-tracking straight to a final rule. Or, Trump could start from the beginning, asking his Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to initiate a new scientific and medical review: Biden’s HHS determined cannabis does have currently accepted medical use and therefore cannot be in Schedule I.
Alternatively, Trump could align with the nine GOP letter writers and scrap the reform proposal altogether. However, he did say along the campaign trail in September 2024 that he was committed to “research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana to a Schedule III drug.”
The nine GOP lawmakers reject the plant’s medical value.
“Marijuana supporters argue that marijuana has no business being in the same drug schedule as heroin, but their argument relies on a misunderstanding of the drug scheduling system,” they wrote. “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 nine Republicans pointed to the National Institute on Drug Abuse and news reports they believe back their positions, including their claim that cannabis has a 30% addiction rate and that 30% of schizophrenia cases in young men could have been prevented without cannabis use. They also pointed out that cannabis use has outpaced alcohol use in recent years, as The Associated Press reported in 2022.
The letter writers also indicated that state-level legalization in states like Maine (adult-use and medical) and Oklahoma (medical only) has led to farms being run by Chinese drug cartels that commit crimes and make billions.
“It’s not just foreign cartels, but state-legal marijuana farms that employ illegal migrants and unaccompanied minors like Glass House, the facility that was raided by federal law enforcement last month,” they wrote, referencing a Southern California-licensed operator that had two sites targeted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
“Marijuana rescheduling will enable criminal activity and harm our kids,” the representatives wrote. “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.”
