On Thursday, President Donald Trump directed his administration to finalize the rescheduling process his predecessor in office initiated for marijuana. This order won’t legalize marijuana, dramatically expand research, or enact criminal justice reform. But it will transfer billions of American taxpayer dollars from the federal government to the bank accounts of pot shops while driving up crime around the country. Families and communities everywhere have reason to worry.
Some context: The federal government uses a five-part schedule to classify potentially dangerous drugs. Schedule I contains drugs with no accepted medical use and a high risk of abuse. Marijuana belongs there, and it correctly sat there for decades. Trump just made sure it will move to Schedule III, a far less restrictive classification.
Why should this matter so much to everyday Americans? Because all the best data we have show that ease of access to marijuana drives up public disorder and crime.
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Look what happened in Colorado.
A study from 2019 — i.e., five years after legalization went into effect, so plenty of time for real effects to show up — found that “density of marijuana outlets in spatially adjacent areas were positively related [to] property crime in spatially adjacent areas over time.” Professor-speak for “A lot of pot shops in your neighborhood means more crime nearby.” A study on pot-shop density for medical marijuana in California found exactly the same thing. And these trends hold true based on national crime data. A 2024 study traced a strong connection between access to marijuana and serious crime — including durable increases in murder and larceny.
Yet no one needs fancy data to know marijuana feeds disorder. Take a walk through any city or state with a legal marijuana program. The skunky smell rises up everywhere. Smokers congregate aimlessly in public places. Anyone who has to live with these terrible policy choices on a daily basis knows that this drug is bad news for public safety.
Rescheduling won’t make marijuana legal at the federal level, but it is still deeply concerning. Under current law, businesses trafficking in Schedule I substances cannot deduct normal expenses at tax time (called a 280E restriction). Schedule III sellers can make those deductions. That means marijuana sellers, if this rule is finalized, will have the space to spend far more freely on advertising, hiring, you name it.
That means, in turn, supercharged revenues and reach. And more and more people buying and using marijuana. Which means more zombified smokers menacing others on late-night streets, public transportation, and elsewhere.
A lot of them will be kids. Big Weed focuses squarely on hooking a new generation of addicts. And a horrific new study from USC that shows exposure to marijuana content on social media has a huge effect on getting teens to start up.
Don’t forget marijuana drives schizophrenia and violent behavior. A 2024 study found a connection between daily cannabis use and higher rates of violence, especially among younger men. Per Danish public health study, today’s high-potency marijuana could drive as much as 30% of schizophrenia cases among young men. Over the long term, the more common and normalized using marijuana gets, the more cities and counties and states will see avoidable tragedies.
Robin Westman, the Annunciation Catholic Church shooter, seemingly laid blame on marijuana for that horrific crime — “weed f–ked up my head” — and was a former pot-shop employee. State prosecutors in Connecticut recently drew a link between habitual marijuana use by convicted double murderer Tarik Francis and his crime. In New York City, Kamel Hawkins tried to kill a man by shoving him in front of a subway train. Hawkins’ father revealed his son was a marijuana user and even drew a connection between his marijuana use and his violence. And this isn’t new: In 2017, Denver’s Richard Kirk chowed down on edibles and then shot his wife in the head and killed her. These cases should horrify everyone paying attention — even as the data suggest that the death and violence toll of marijuana extends much more deeply and broadly.
These trends do enough harm on their own. The president’s decision was clearly a political one. Especially since the reasoning behind rescheduling, according to a powerful analysis in JAMA Neurology, put politics ahead of science and broke with years of federal precedent.
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Handing huge tax relief to an addiction industry jacking up violence, social decay, mental illness, and a whole host of other problems will make the whole country worse off. It undermines the president’s positioning himself as a friend to public safety: This certainly does not advance his anti-crime initiatives, and it is utterly at odds with his policies on international narcotics trafficking.
A far cry indeed from Trump’s vaunted promises to make life better and safer for all Americans.
