A woman holds a “Legalize Marijuana Now” sign outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.
Bill Clark | Cq-roll Call Inc. | Getty Images
Over the past century, marijuana has had a rocky legal, political, and cultural history in the United States, vacillating between vilification and acceptance. Since 1996, 40 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use cannabis for medical or recreational purposes. However, cannabis, the leafy plant from which marijuana is derived, remains a federally illegal Schedule I drug as defined by the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.
Cannabis reform has emerged as a key issue as November’s pivotal midterm elections approach. Two states, Massachusetts and Idaho, are scheduled to vote on legalization ballot initiatives, and gubernatorial candidates in several other states, including Kansas and Iowa, are debating the cannabis issue.
Marijuana may not be as important to voters as the economy, immigration, war with Iran, or building AI data centers. But the issue will be on the minds of both Democrats and Republicans in the coming months.
“It’s certainly a very popular issue among voters,” said Morgan Fox, political director of NORML, a nonprofit that advocates for marijuana legalization. “As the midterm elections approach, this issue could become more important, especially if Republicans are concerned about losing one or both chambers.”
President Donald Trump shed political light on the issue last December when he asked the Justice Department to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III, a category that includes codeine, ketamine, and Tylenol, which contains testosterone.
The timing of President Trump’s announcement, coupled with his administration’s recent orders to fast-track approval of psychedelics and the president’s slumping approval ratings, could be seen as a tactic to boost Republican voters who support deregulation. It would also steal thunder from Democrats, who failed to reschedule marijuana during Biden’s term.
President Trump’s policy change came at least partially to fruition in April. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed an order rescheduling state-licensed medical marijuana to Schedule III, which eases research restrictions and federal tax burdens on companies operating in the $30 billion legal cannabis industry. In a likely nod to voters, outgoing White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt said the date change was “overwhelmingly popular with the majority of Americans.”
Public support for legal cannabis
According to a November Gallup poll, 64% of American adults think marijuana use should be legal.
But that popularity may not directly translate into votes, said Kevin Sabet, CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a nonprofit organization that opposes marijuana legalization and commercialization. He thinks cannabis reform will be a low priority issue come November. “Traditionally, it has disappointed politicians who thought they could get cheap votes, and lately that has been the case with presidents,” he said.
According to Gallup data, public approval ratings are down from 70% in 2023, a trend that can be interpreted as politically motivated. Despite President Trump’s friendly relationship with the industry, support for legalization among Republicans has fallen 13 points over the past year, from 53% to 40%, but has remained consistent among Democrats (85%) and independents (66%) in recent years.
“Marijuana will continue to be illegal” at the federal level, Fox said of the rescheduling effort. “The most tangible benefit of moving to Schedule III is the 280E tax deduction for cannabis businesses,” he said, referring to IRS law that prohibits legal cannabis companies from deducting separately defined business expenses such as payroll, rent, and utilities from gross income.
“The 280E has always been one of those things you just have to operate,” said Matthew Melander, president of Sun Theory, a vertically integrated company that grows cannabis, operates dispensaries and sells branded food products. “We know that if (that) goes away, it will essentially make the industry more profitable.”
Sabet acknowledged that the industry would benefit from the elimination of 280E. “I don’t think that’s a good thing,” he said. “What cannabis companies need most is tax breaks.”
Indeed, the prospect of rescheduling has excited Trump supporters in the industry, who have been lobbying the administration to reform cumbersome federal and state cannabis regulations. The most prominent among them is CEO Kim Rivers. truribeThe Wall Street Journal reports that the CEO of one of the nation’s largest cannabis companies donated $750,000 to last year’s presidential inauguration and attended a $1 million-per-plate private fundraiser at President Trump’s New Jersey golf club, pleading with the president to abide by cannabis rescheduling and expand medical marijuana research.
To date, Trulieve and other industry leaders; Curaleaf, green thumb industries and Verano HoldingsAhead of the midterm elections, he donated about $11.5 million to Trump-aligned super PAC America First Agriculture Action, Inc., according to filings with the Federal Election Commission.
Despite this, many Republicans oppose cannabis reform. More than 20 Republican senators and several House members signed a letter asking the White House to halt the reclassification. In August 2025, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) wrote, “Rescheduling marijuana will not benefit Republicans’ medium-term chances the way Big Weed claims. In fact, reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug will be a self-inflicted win for Republicans in 2026.”
Congressional Democrats on the other side of the aisle tepidly supported the order, calling it a partial solution that falls short of full legalization, a policy supported by many in their own party. Last month, 17 Senate Democrats led by Cory Booker (New Jersey), Chuck Schumer (New York), and Ron Wyden (Oregon) reintroduced the Cannabis Control and Opportunity Act for a second time. If passed, the legislation would completely remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and end federal prohibition.
“Voters across the country have made it clear they want to legalize marijuana, and President Trump’s half-hearted measures are fooling no one,” Sen. Wyden said in an emailed statement to CNBC. “Anything short of a complete schedule adjustment at the federal level is an attempt to milk President Trump’s numbers ahead of November, because he knows his policies to raise gas prices and give tax cuts to billionaires will lose him in the midterm elections. The best path forward is to pass,” the CAOA said.
Still, in their most recent party platform released in 2024, Democrats stopped short of formally supporting federal recreational legalization or a complete delay in marijuana. The 2024 Republican Party platform does not provide a clear position on marijuana legalization or schedule changes.
Historically, marijuana has been fraught with controversy. The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 effectively criminalized marijuana, which had previously been legal. Two years later, “Reefer Madness” terrorized movie-going parents. This led to President Richard Nixon signing the Controlled Substances Act decades later, condemning marijuana as a Schedule I drug along with heroin and LSD.
But even after strict federal and state drug laws were enacted in the 1990s, Americans continued to raise the issue. Millions have been arrested for marijuana possession and sale, hundreds of thousands have been jailed, and some have received life sentences. In 1996, 75% of the population opposed legalization.
But that same year, California broke through the drug war barricades and became the first state to legalize medical marijuana. Fifteen states have since followed suit. In 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use. To date, only Idaho and Kansas have completely banned marijuana.
Cannabis battleground states of Idaho, Kansas, and Massachusetts
Idaho voters will have the chance to decide whether to maintain the status quo in November. The proposed ballot amendment would give the Legislature exclusive authority to ban citizen-initiated ballot measures regarding marijuana, narcotics, and psychoactive substances. An effort to legalize only medical marijuana failed to reach a vote, despite the fact that nearly three-quarters of voters surveyed supported the measure.
Marijuana is not on the ballot in Kansas, but there is a good chance it will be featured in the gubernatorial race. Democratic candidate Cindy Holscher publicly supported legalizing recreational marijuana during the primary campaign. Her Republican opponent, state Senate President Ty Masterson, opposes the legalization of recreational marijuana and has consistently blocked progress on medical marijuana legislation.
Similarly, in neighboring Iowa, where medical marijuana has been legal since 2017, gubernatorial candidates are on opposing sides on the legalization issue. Republican Zach Rahn has made it clear that he does not support the legalization of recreational marijuana, while Democrat Rob Sand said in April that he would “unveil a plan to legalize, tax and regulate adult-use marijuana.”
Massachusetts voters face a more unusual and contentious voting system. The Restoring Sensible Marijuana Policy Act maintains the Bay State’s medical marijuana program, which was overwhelmingly approved in 2012, while repealing a 2016 vote to legalize the sale and cultivation of recreational marijuana, which passed by a narrow 54% to 46% margin. This current effort would be the first time a voter-approved legalization measure has been overturned.
“It’s quite an uphill battle, definitely David and Goliath,” Sabet said. “The marijuana industry can’t believe they’re qualified, but at the same time, they’re very strongly mobilized to make this fail.”
Sabet said SAM is “one of the donors to that voting effort.” A filing with the Massachusetts Office of Elections and Political Finance shows that the coalition behind the initiative received the entire $1.5 million in funding from SAM. Since then, there have been additional contributions to the Union, which are expected to be reported in September. A group opposed to the bill, Stop Repeal, challenged the signature process, but the state Voting Law Commission rejected the petition.
In any case, Fox said, “It’s clear this is not what people actually want.”
A University of New Hampshire poll released in February found that 63% of Massachusetts voters opposed the bill, including 41% of Republicans surveyed. NORML plans to be deeply involved in efforts to counter this. “We want to make sure this issue goes up in flames,” he said.
There is plenty of time between now and the Nov. 3 election for voters to consider the key issues. It remains to be seen whether rescheduling, legalizing, or restricting cannabis will become more important. “There is certainly momentum among those who support cannabis policy reform to reverse the policy before the midterm elections,” Fox said. In his view, the various state initiatives and races being considered demonstrate “a recognition that this is a politically popular issue.”
