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by CORY SMITH | The National News Desk
(TNND) — President Donald Trump and Republican voters might not be on the same page when it comes to reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug, as recent polling shows declining GOP support for legalization at the same time the administration is working to loosen restrictions.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed an order last week rescheduling medical marijuana products approved by the Food and Drug Administration or licensed by a state from Schedule I to Schedule IIl, placing those cannabis products alongside drugs like Tylenol with codeine rather than drugs like heroin.
The Trump administration’s move doesn’t legalize marijuana, and it doesn’t apply to recreational marijuana. But it’s a step toward expanding research on the drug and potentially removing some of the stigma or barriers to access.
“We have people begging for me to do this,” Trump said before signing an executive order last December that got the ball rolling on expedited reclassification of marijuana. “People that are in great pain. For decades, this action has been requested by American patients suffering from extreme pain, incurable diseases, aggressive cancers, seizure disorders, neurological problems, and more, including numerous veterans with service-related injuries, and older Americans who live with chronic medical problems that severely degrade their quality of life.”
But, as UC Irvine politics professor Michael Tesler recently pointed out in an article for Good Authority, Republican voters have done an about-face on their support for legalized marijuana.
Reclassification is not the same as legalization, but both can signal broader acceptance.
Tesler pointed to polling from multiple organizations that showed Republicans' support for legalized marijuana peaking around 2022 or 2023 before falling in the last few years.
For example, Gallup tracking showed support for legalizing marijuana rising steadily across the political spectrum until 2023.
Since then, legalization support among Republicans has dropped from 55% to just 40%, while majorities of independents and Democrats still support legalization.
Republican support for marijuana legalization is now the lowest it has been in a decade, according to Gallup.
YouGov polls show a similar trend, with GOP support for marijuana legalization rising from 26% in 2015 to 46% in 2022, before falling to 35% this year.
And Tesler pointed to Civiqs data that showed the same change of heart, with support among young Republicans falling the most.
Support among Republicans ages 18-34 dropped from 60% in 2022 to just 45% now.
Tesler wrote that the abrupt downward shift in GOP support has led to record-high partisan polarization over legalizing marijuana.
And he wrote that it appears “to be part of a broader pattern in which long-term trends in Republicans’ opinions of ostensibly ‘settled’ social issues have recently reversed.”
Tesler pointed to research that he said showed the same reversal in favor of traditionally conservative viewpoints for same-sex marriage and traditional gender roles.
Another political scientist, Seth McKee of Oklahoma State University, said it does seem as though the Trump administration might be a bit “out of step” with Republican voters on the marijuana issue.
“Does this kind of behavior move those voters back towards Trump? Because, you know, a lot of what we've seen under Trump is a follow-the-leader pattern on some issues, but not necessarily others,” McKee said.
McKee said marijuana isn’t likely to be an issue that motivates Republican voters one way or the other.
And with 40 states and the District of Columbia already allowing the medical use of cannabis products, he said most people who want marijuana can get it, whether or not it’s reclassified or federally legalized.
“At the end of the day, I'm not sure how much it matters,” he said.
Still, McKee, like Tesler, noted how the shifting attitudes among Republicans on marijuana reflect shifting attitudes on other cultural issues toward a more traditionally conservative or Christian viewpoint.
“I wonder if it is part of this coalition that Charlie Kirk was really driving in terms of younger Republican, MAGA-types aligned with Trump,” McKee said.
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