A marijuana industry-funded political action committee (PAC) is attacking former President Joe Biden’s cannabis policy record as well as the nation of Canada, with new ads promoting sometimes misleading claims about the last administration while making the case that President Donald Trump can deliver on reform.
The American Rights and Reform PAC–which launched in 2023 under a different name, Legalize America, and lists an executive at the major marijuana company Curaleaf as its treasurer—has two ads on its site that appear designed to appeal directly to Trump.
The ads aim to accomplish that by sharply criticizing the president’s predecessor and also emphasizing that American cannabis businesses are losing out to Canada, a more recent target of Trump’s ire, because of prohibitionist U.S. laws.
But with respect to the Biden-centered ad, the PAC’s attempt to draw a sharp contrast between the two administrations included inaccurate characterizations of Biden’s record—at one point stating that Biden was personally involved in criminalizing marijuana while completely ignoring his direct role in initiating a federal marijuana rescheduling review.
“Millions of American patients depend on medical cannabis, but Joe Biden and Democrats classified their medication as a dangerous narcotic like heroin, eliminating their access to relief,” the ad says.
“President Trump is fighting to make America healthy again,” it continues. “He did it before by giving patients life saving treatments with the Right to Try, and he can do it again by rescheduling cannabis. Ask President Trump to end Biden’s war on medical cannabis and put patients first.”
To be sure, advocates have widely criticized Biden for championing punitive anti-drug laws during his time in the Senate and not doing more to release people still incarcerated over federal cannabis-related convictions while in the White House.
But it was under the administration of Republican President Richard Nixon that marijuana was placed in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) in 1970, before Biden joined the Senate. That was also before any states had legalized medical cannabis, despite the ad suggesting that patients were criminalized while legal programs existed.
Also missing from the ad, titled “Biden’s War,” is mention of mass pardons the former president granted for thousands of people who’ve committed federal marijuana offenses.
Both Biden and Trump have voiced support for medical cannabis, and neither have taken major steps to undermine state marijuana laws. During his 2024 campaign, Trump also took many by surprise by coming out in favor of rescheduling and industry banking access, as well as a Florida legalization ballot initiative that ultimately failed.
The PAC’s other new ad, titled “Your Fight,” plays into another Trump fixation: Canada.
“Canada is attacking American cannabis companies, and Democrats aren’t helping,” it says. “Medical cannabis is legal in 40 states, but Washington treats it the same as heroin. That means American companies can’t conduct research and are barred from the stock exchange while Canadian companies cash in.”
The classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug under the CSA has long impeded research, and it’s true that state-legal cannabis companies lack access to the stock exchange and other basic financial services. But the opening of the ad again appears deliberately misleading.
Canada legalized marijuana nationwide in 2018 while it remains prohibited in the U.S., but although that policy disconnect gives Canadian marijuana businesses an advantage, it’s unclear how that amounts to an attack on U.S. companies by the Canadian government. Singularly blaming Democrats, who have largely led efforts to legalize in recent years at both the federal and state levels, also runs afoul of the political reality.
“This is an America first fight,” the ad concludes. “President Trump had the courage to sign Right to Try, healing American patients. Let’s do it again. Reschedule cannabis and put American first.”
The statements about Trump’s support for Right to Try that are featured in both ads refer to legislation the president signed during his first term, allowing terminal patients to access drugs that haven’t been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) but have cleared a Phase 1 trial.
It seems apparent that ads are intended to appeal directly to Trump, who has historically been driven by a desire to overshadow his political opponents and present himself as the champion for American enterprise.
Curaleaf, whose vice president of government affairs Matt Harrell is listed as treasurer of the American Rights and Reform PAC, has also previously sought to gain Trump’s favor in a more conventional manner, donating $250,000 to his inaugural committee with a contribution filtered through a leading cannabis industry association.
The American Rights and Reform PAC received $250,000 from another top cannabis corporation, Cresco Labs, in December, according to Federal Election Commission records, which also show that the name change from Legalize America was filed on Monday.
Marijuana Moment reached out to PAC officials, Curaleaf and Cresco for comment on the ads and financial contributions, but representatives were not immediately available.
Meanwhile, another top marijuana executive—Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers—has also been making inroads within Trump circles.
Not only did she meet with the then-candidate last year prior to his endorsement of a Florida cannabis legalization ballot initiative that Rivers’s company largely funded, but she also attended two pre-inauguration events: a dinner celebrating Vice President J.D. Vance and a separate candlelight dinner.
Cresco CEO Charles Bachtell also attended inauguration events in Washington, D.C. in January.
So far, at least publicly, Trump has been silent on marijuana policy issues since taking office—and for now it is unclear whether the big dollar donations and ads will translate into administrative attention to cannabis industry stakeholders’ policy goals.
A longtime drug policy reform advocate did say he spoke with a White House staffer at a recent event and was invited to submit a proposal outlining why Trump should back federal marijuana legalization.
But even after securing the release of an American who was incarcerated in Russia over marijuana possession—and inviting him to the Capitol for an address to a joint session of Congress this month—Trump declined to acknowledge the underlying cannabis charges.
This comes in the background of multiple top-level cabinet nominations and Senate confirmations of administration officials with mixed records on drug policy reform, which advocates and stakeholders have been following closely to see if Trump will push for marijuana policy changes.
For example, Trump recently nominated a vociferously anti-cannabis official to serve as the lead attorney at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), drawing praise from prohibitionists.
While HHS under the Biden administration has already recommended rescheduling cannabis following a scientific review, that process has been delayed, raising questions about the potential influence of new administrative appointees.
HHS’s general counsel is responsible for providing legal advice, interpreting regulatory policies and overseeing litigation involving the agency, among other roles, and so if Stuart is confirmed by the Senate he could be key in any future agency interpretations of the Controlled Substances Act’s requirements when it comes to marijuana’s scheduling status.
By contrast to the HHS general counsel nominee, Mike Stuart, the recently Senate-confirmed secretary of HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was previously vocal about his support for marijuana legalization.
Despite that stated support, however, following his confirmation Kennedy said last month that he is “worried about” the normalization of high-potency marijuana and that he feels its use can have “really catastrophic impacts” on people, but that state-level legalization can facilitate research into its harms and benefits.
The comments came on the same day that Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) said he received a commitment from Kennedy to “follow the science on the harms of marijuana.”
Ricketts had already disclosed earlier this month that he spoke to Kennedy about the the “importance” of “preventing the expansion of marijuana.” Now he says “RFK committed to me that he would follow the science on the harms of marijuana.”
Despite Kennedy’s history of advocating for cannabis legalization, he said last month that he will defer to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on marijuana rescheduling in his new role.
That could complicate rescheduling. Last month, Trump officially named his pick to lead DEA—selecting a decades-long agency veteran and top Virginia official who’s voiced concerns about the dangers of marijuana and linked its use to higher suicide risk among youth.
Separately, anti-marijuana Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) told Marijuana Moment recently that it’s “definitely” time to have a talk with Kennedy to convince him that “marijuana is harmful” and that the way to make Americans healthy is by “limiting” its use.
Prior to Kennedy’s written responses to members of the Senate Finance Committee that gave him initial approval, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) pressed him to reiterate his position on marijuana legalization amid the ongoing effort to federally reschedule cannabis.
A political action committee founded by former Vice President Mike Pence had attempted to undermine the confirmation Kennedy as HHS secretary—in part by drawing attention to his support for marijuana and psychedelics reform, as well as his personal history with substance misuse.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.
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