As former President Donald Trump considered his options for a vice presidential running mate earlier this year, Sen. JD Vance’s (R-OH) marijuana record—and specifically his opposition to legalization—became a key point of interest for researchers vetting him, according to a leaked dossier on the senator.
The 271-page memo includes Vance’s cannabis stance under a list of “notable vulnerabilities” with moderate voters, alongside his past comments on slashing Social Security and Medicare, opposition to student loan forgiveness, support for abortion restrictions and his views on race relations, among others.
The document obtained and published by independent journalist Ken Klippenstein last week features multiple mentions of Vance’s cannabis policy positions over the past decade. This comes as Vance prepares for a Tuesday debate against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), who signed legalization into law before becoming Vice President Kamala Harris’s VP pick on the 2024 Democratic ticket.
“VANCE APPEARS TO OPPOSE THE LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA,” the title of the dossier’s cannabis section says, referencing 2019 comments he made suggesting that “legalization increases use” and that it’s “concentrated among the lower class, causing a host of social problems in the process.”
“However, Vance Previously Called On Republicans To ‘Get Serious’ About The Punishment Of Black Fathers For Marijuana Possession,” a sub-section states, quoting Vance in 2014 saying that “perhaps it’s time for conservatives to get serious about the fact that Black fathers are more likely than white ones to be ripped from their families for marijuana possession.”
While those comments signal an interest in reform, Vance has more recently leaned into anti-marijuana rhetoric, including during a campaign event with the Milwaukee Police Association in Wisconsin last month.
At the time, he claimed “marijuana bags” are being laced with fentanyl, and he said the Biden administration’s border policies were also making it so that youth, including his own kids, can’t experiment with cannabis or other drugs without risking fatal overdoses.
Advocates would argue that’s a key reason to enact a regulatory framework for marijuana or other drugs that includes testing requirements and other safeguards to mitigate the risk of dangerous contaminants, but the GOP candidate did not draw that connection and continues to maintain an opposition to cannabis legalization.
Vance, who was elected to the Senate in 2022, doesn’t have an extensive cannabis policy record, but his limited actions and comments on the issue indicate that he’s aligned with Trump on one key issue: He backs the rights of states to set their own marijuana laws. He’s also indicated that he’s against incarcerating people over low-level possession.
However, he voted against bipartisan banking legislation that passed in committee and has argued that states that have enacted legalization should increase enforcement activities, complained about the smell of cannabis multiple times and suggested that its use can lead to violence.
While there have been ethical questions surrounding the disclosure of the Vance dossier, as well as other Trump campaign documents that have been shared with various media outlets, the vetting materials offer a window into how cannabis policy issues have permeated campaign politics on both sides of the aisle.
“Vance appears to oppose the legalization of marijuana,” another bulleted part of the dossier on social and cultural issues highlights.
Trump, for his part, evidently doesn’t see a major liability in embracing certain cannabis reform policies, as he’s recently backed federal marijuana rescheduling and allowing industry access to banking services, as well as a Florida legalization ballot initiative he’ll get to vote as a resident this November.
“As President, we will continue to focus on research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana to a Schedule 3 drug, and work with Congress to pass common sense laws, including safe banking for state authorized companies, and supporting states rights to pass marijuana laws, like in Florida, that work so well for their citizens,” he said earlier this month.
“As I have previously stated, I believe it is time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use,” he said. “We must also implement smart regulations, while providing access for adults, to safe, tested product. As a Floridian, I will be voting YES on Amendment 3 this November.”
Trump’s marijuana post followed up on one he made last month in which he indicated—but did not explicitly say—he supported Amendment 3 in Florida. The earlier comments predicted that Florida voters would approve the cannabis measure and generally discussed the benefits of legalization, but left some observers wanting more clarity on the former president’s position on the specific state initiative.
Trump also discussed the medical benefits of cannabis and said legalization would be “very good” for Florida in an interview with Lex Fridman this month.
Last month at a press conference, Trump told a reporter that he’s starting to “agree a lot more” that people should not be criminalized over marijuana given that it’s “being legalized all over the country”—adding that he would “fairly soon” reveal his position on the Florida ballot measure.
Harris, for her part, made her first comments backing federal legalization since accepting the party’s 2024 nomination, weighing in on the reform in a podcast interview that was released on Monday. This follows weeks of protracted silence on the issue, despite her prior advocacy for legalization and sponsorship of a Senate bill to end federal prohibition.
“This is not a new position for me,” Harris said. “I have felt for a long time we need to legalize it. So that’s where I am on that.”
Meanwhile, earlier this month Walz said he thinks marijuana legalization is an issue that should be left to individual states, adding that electing more Democrats to Congress could also make it easier to pass federal reforms like cannabis banking protections.
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The Harris–Walz campaign has accused Trump of lying about his support for marijuana reform—arguing that his “blatant pandering” runs counter to his administration’s record on cannabis.
Following Trump’s recent announcement of support for the Florida cannabis legalization ballot measure, the Democratic campaign has been working to remind voters that while in office, Trump “took marijuana reform backwards.”
In a memo from a senior campaign spokesperson, the Harris-Walz campaign accused Trump of “brazen flip flops” on cannabis, saying it’s one of the Republican former president’s “several bewildering ‘policy proposals’ that deserve real scrutiny.”
The posturing by the presidential candidates comes amid an ongoing process of moving marijuana to the less-restrictive Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
The Department of Health and Humans Services (HHS) this spring recommended moving the drug to Schedule III, but the action has faced resistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which has scheduled a hearing on the proposal for December 2—after the presidential election, raising concerns that the process will not be completed until after a new president is inaugurated.
Meanwhile, Trump also recently went after Harris over her prosecutorial record on marijuana, claiming that she put “thousands and thousands of Black people in jail” for cannabis offenses—but the full record of her time in office is more nuanced.
Trump’s line of attack, while misleading, was nonetheless notable in the sense that the GOP presidential nominee implied that he disagrees with criminalizing people over marijuana and is moving to leverage the idea that Harris played a role in racially disproportionate mass incarceration.
As president, Trump largely stayed true to his position that marijuana laws should be handled at the state-level, with no major crackdown on cannabis programs as some feared after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Obama era federal enforcement guidance. In fact, Trump criticized the top DOJ official and suggested the move should be reversed.
While he was largely silent on the issue of legalization, he did tentatively endorse a bipartisan bill to codify federal policy respecting states’ rights to legalize.
That said, on several occasions he released signing statements on spending legislation stipulating that he reserved the right to ignore a long-standing rider that prohibits the Justice Department from using its funds to interfere with state-legal medical marijuana programs.
Before President Joe Biden bowed out of the race, his campaign made much of the president’s mass cannabis pardons and rescheduling push, drawing a contrast with the Trump administration’s record. The Harris campaign so far has not spoken to that particular issue, and the nominee has yet to publicly discuss marijuana policy issues since her own campaign launched.
As former President Donald Trump considered his options for a vice presidential running mate earlier this year, Sen. JD Vance’s (R-OH) marijuana record—and specifically his opposition to legalization—became a key point of interest for researchers vetting him, according to a leaked dossier on the senator. The 271-page memo includes Vance’s cannabis stance under a list Read More