Former Trump campaign advisor and political consultant Roger Stone is lobbying President Trump to legalize marijuana.
"I am going to be working with a coalition of Republicans and Democrats, progressives and libertarians, liberals, and conservatives to persuade the president to keep his campaign pledge," Stone said at the Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo.
Stone is collaborating with another Trump ally, Jesse Ventura, to form the United States Cannabis Coalition.
Stone said this group was created to help the president keep his campaign promise. Trump when asked about marijuana on the campaign trail, said that he would leave legalization to the states, though he did show support for medical marijuana.
While the vice president has seemed against marijuana legislation, the president seems to take a slightly softer stance.
The Marijuana Policy Project, the largest non-for-profit working solely on marijuana policy reform gave the president a C+ in their evaluation of his stance.
The president himself has shifted policy. In 1990, he called for the legalization of all drugs. As of 2015, during his candidacy, Trump in an interview with Bill O‘Reilly said, “In terms of marijuana and legalization, I think that should be a state issue, state-by-state. … Marijuana is such a big thing. I think medical should happen — right? Don’t we agree? I think so. And then I really believe we should leave it up to the states.”
If the president does follow up on his campaign promise to leave it to the states, then whether or not Stone and his group can get marijuana reform legislation passed in Congress, with limited support as of 2016, may be the question.
According to a Pew Research poll, public support is growing with support numbers up to 57 percent, though congressional support, especially among Republicans, is still very low.
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