Politics
Trump Is Losing Support From Marijuana Consumers As Rescheduling Process Sees More Delays, Poll Shows
Marijuana consumers’ support for the Trump administration’s actions on cannabis continues to decline as completion of a federal rescheduling proposal remains stalled amid procedural delays in an ongoing hearing on the reform, a new survey shows.
The latest quarterly presidential approval tracking poll from NuggMD and Marijuana Moment shows that 29 percent of marijuana consumers now either “approve” or “strongly approve” of the President Donald Trump’s cannabis actions.
Cannabis consumers’ approval of the administration’s work on marijuana is down from 48 percent last quarter and 73 percent in the quarter before that.
The most recent survey shows that 20 percent of respondents either “disapprove” or “strongly disapprove” of Trump’s cannabis accomplishments, while a majority—51 percent—now say they are neutral or have no opinion.
| “Do you approve or disapprove of the presidential administration’s actions on cannabis?” | ||
| n: | % | |
| Strongly approve | 41 | 6% |
| Approve | 148 | 23% |
| No opinion/Neutral | 331 | 51% |
| Disapprove | 75 | 11% |
| Strongly disapprove | 59 | 9% |
Republicans were more likely to approve the administration’s marijuana policy performance than Democrats were, at 46 percent compared to 18 percent, while 26 percent of respondents who aren’t affiliated with either of the two major political parties hold favorable views.
Attorney General Todd Blanche in April issued an order that immediately reclassified state-licensed medical cannabis, as well as marijuana products approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to Schedule III. Under a separate order the acting attorney general signed, a hearing is considering more comprehensively moving marijuana to Schedule III, including recreational products.
Testimony in the cannabis rescheduling hearing, overseen by a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) judge, concluded in July, but the proceedings have since been stayed as opponents have filed a series of motions related to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that identified “gaps” in the federal drug scheduling process.
The delay in the process may be contributing to cannabis consumers’ reduced sense of satisfaction with the Trump administration’s actions on the issue—a development that comes ahead of midterm elections that will decide which party controls either chamber of Congress during the final two years of the president’s term.
A separate recent NuggMD poll conducted in July found that most cannabis consumers aren’t optimistic that marijuana rescheduling will be fully implemented by the end of the year.
“Cannabis consumers are an increasingly powerful voting bloc with the numbers to swing elections. Earlier this year, it looked like the Trump Administration had found a way to tap into that voting bloc when they rescheduled medical cannabis,” Tyler Elson, NuggMD’s director of content, told Marijuana Moment. “But that support has fallen off sharply since then, with approval of the administration’s cannabis actions dropping to less than half of what it was six months ago.”
“It isn’t complicated. Consumers want cannabis to be accessible, accepted, and accurately labeled,” he said. “But party divides, hearing delays, and mixed messages on hemp have all reminded consumers that U.S. politicians have a long history of failing to deliver on cannabis policy change.”
“That support can be recovered with clear guidance on medical cannabis or the recent rescheduling hearing,” Elson said. “But in trying to appeal to consumers and prohibitionists, the administration may be losing the support of both groups.”
When asked in the latest poll how their support for the administration would change if it were to more fully legalize marijuana, 47 percent of cannabis consumers said they would either support it much more (32 percent) or a bit more (15 percent), and 52 percent said their level of support would not change.
| “If the Trump administration were to more fully legalize cannabis, would that change your level of support for it?” | ||
| n: | % | |
| I would support it much more | 207 | 32% |
| I would support it a bit more | 98 | 15% |
| No change | 341 | 52% |
| I would support it a bit less | 6 | 1% |
| I would support it much less | 2 | 0% |
The new survey involved interviews with 654 cannabis consumers who live in states with legal markets from October 8-15, with a +/-3.83 percentage point margin of error.
Meanwhile, DEA, which has been charged with defending the rescheduling proposal during the hearing, focused testimony on the medical benefits of cannabis and its relative safety compared to alcohol and other substances—despite excluding reform supporters from participating in the proceedings.
The cannabis rescheduling move is also being challenged in court through a number of lawsuits from the drug testing industry, a pharmaceutical corporation, legalization opponents and others.
The results of a prior quarterly NuggMD/Marijuana Moment tracking poll that was conducted in the first quarter of this year represented a massive swing in support for the Trump administration’s marijuana policy actions compared to the last quarter of 2025, before the president issued an executive order directing officials to finalize rescheduling—when just 6 percent of cannabis consumers held favorable views.
Then-White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in April that the administration is moving forward with marijuana rescheduling because cannabis reform is “overwhelmingly popular” with voters and because doing so will help people who need access to the drug for medical purposes.
In May, a House committee voted to block federal officials from taking further steps to carry out cannabis rescheduling.
