President Donald Trump faces pressure from the cannabis industry to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under federal drug laws. This policy change would make cannabis easier to purchase and more profitable to sell, but mounting evidence suggests the marijuana legalization consequences already visible in cities across America should prompt rejection of such proposals.

The Cannabis Industry’s Influence Campaign

Marijuana industry leaders contributed to a $1 million per plate Trump fundraising dinner in August 2025, seeking to influence federal drug policy. The Wall Street Journal reported that cannabis executives hoped to hear the president’s intentions regarding rescheduling.

This aggressive lobbying demonstrates the substantial financial stakes involved. Reclassifying marijuana would eliminate significant tax burdens on cannabis businesses, allowing them to deduct ordinary expenses currently prohibited under Section 280E of the federal tax code.

However, the marijuana legalization consequences experienced by states and cities that have already removed restrictions suggest commercial interests conflict sharply with public welfare.

What Colorado’s Experience Reveals

Colorado became the first state to legalise recreational marijuana in 2012, with implementation beginning in 2014. This pioneering status makes Colorado’s experience particularly instructive regarding marijuana legalization consequences.

By 2022, marijuana use in Colorado and other states that had legalised cannabis was 24 percent higher than in states maintaining prohibition. This increase in consumption brought corresponding social problems that advocates had dismissed or minimised.

The marijuana legalization consequences in Colorado extend beyond simple usage statistics. Communities witnessed changes in public behaviour, crime patterns, and quality of life that challenge the benign narrative promoted by the cannabis industry.

Crime Data Contradicts Industry Claims

South Korean scholar Sunyoung Lee examined crime levels in US states that legalised marijuana in research published in the International Review of Law and Economics. The findings contradict cannabis lobby assertions that legalisation reduces criminal activity.

Lee’s research states: “findings do not yield conclusive evidence supporting a reduction in crime rates after legalising recreational marijuana. Rather, they underscore notable positive associations with property crimes and suggest potential correlations with violent crimes.”

These marijuana legalization consequences directly challenge the industry argument that prohibition, rather than the drug itself, drives crime. Legal cannabis markets have not eliminated criminal activity, contrary to predictions from legalisation advocates.

The cannabis lobby frequently claims that making marijuana legal removes the profit motive for illegal operators. This reasoning contains a fundamental flaw that applies to any criminal enterprise.

The Flawed Logic of Crime Reduction Through Legalisation

If eliminating laws against particular activities reduced overall crime, then society could theoretically end bank robbery violence by legalising bank theft. Auto theft violence would disappear if stealing cars became legal, transforming black market chop shops into legitimate businesses.

This absurd logical extension reveals the fallacy in arguments that marijuana legalization consequences include reduced crime. Legalising Tony Soprano’s criminal activities would not transform him into a law-abiding citizen, it would simply enable him to expand operations without legal constraints.

Libertarians advocating drug legalisation to stop drug violence share philosophical ground with progressive activists who oppose prosecuting property crimes. Both positions sympathise with those who make civilised society more difficult to maintain whilst rejecting society’s right to self-defence.

Laws against marijuana impose costs, just as protecting private property and personal safety require resources. However, these costs prove worthwhile when the alternative involves passivity toward aggression and disorder.

The Public Health Dimension

The marijuana legalization consequences extend beyond crime statistics to encompass public health deterioration. Cities like New York, Washington DC, and San Francisco illustrate how cannabis normalisation transforms urban environments.

Cannabis advocates originally sold legalisation as allowing private consumption that would not affect others. Millions of Americans have now lived long enough with marijuana legalization consequences to recognise this as fraudulent marketing.

Public marijuana smoking has become so prevalent that the distinctive odour assaults pedestrians throughout urban areas. The sights and sounds of public intoxication create environments resembling open-air drug consumption zones rather than functioning cities.

This represents more than mere aesthetic unpleasantness. Public drug use signals social disorder that breeds tolerance for increasingly serious misconduct. Progressives’ lenient treatment of violent criminals follows naturally from normalising lesser offences like public intoxication and shoplifting.

Real-World Impact on Communities

Two suburban Washington DC scenes illustrate the marijuana legalization consequences affecting ordinary Americans. On a sweltering summer day, an African American bus driver ordered two teenagers smoking cannabis to extinguish their joints, noting children were present.

Working-class individuals like this bus driver maintain what little functionality remains in degraded urban environments. Society must choose whether to support those defending basic standards or prioritise the preferences of public drug users.

Another incident involved a young mother walking with her small daughter, approximately four years old, through a neighbourhood saturated with high-potency cannabis odour. The multibillion-dollar marijuana industry effectively advertised its product to a preschool child that October afternoon.

These marijuana legalization consequences affect families attempting to raise children in environments increasingly hostile to healthy development. The cannabis industry notoriously markets products in candy form as “gummies,” deliberately designing appeal for young consumers.

The Broken Promise of Private Use

Initial legalisation campaigns emphasised leaving people alone to consume cannabis privately without bothering others. The actual marijuana legalization consequences reveal this promise as fundamentally dishonest.

Public marijuana smoking has become ubiquitous in legalised jurisdictions. The offensive smell, visible intoxication, and associated disorder impose costs on everyone sharing public spaces. This differs little from drug users deliberately blowing smoke in pedestrians’ faces.

Whilst public cannabis intoxication may not rank among society’s worst crimes, neither does shoplifting. No compelling reason exists to tolerate either offence. Accepting such behaviour breeds greater tolerance for more serious abuses.

Why Rescheduling Would Worsen Problems

President Trump’s potential decision to reclassify marijuana would accelerate negative trends already visible in legalised states. The marijuana legalization consequences documented in Colorado, New York, and other jurisdictions would intensify nationally.

Rescheduling would deliver windfall profits to the cannabis industry through tax advantages whilst expanding the industry’s capacity to market products. Increased advertising and reduced prices would drive higher consumption, multiplying associated social problems.

The marijuana legalization consequences affecting crime rates, public order, and community environments would spread more widely as federal policy legitimises and encourages cannabis commerce.

Protecting Civilised Society

Cities and towns should not function as open-air drug consumption zones. The marijuana legalization consequences visible in jurisdictions that have removed restrictions demonstrate the costs of prioritising cannabis industry profits over community wellbeing.

President Trump should reject the cannabis lobby’s pressure campaign. The multibillion-dollar marijuana industry seeks to profit from making Americans’ lives measurably worse through increased public intoxication, crime, and social disorder.

Working families, not corporate cannabis interests, deserve policy priority. The marijuana legalization consequences experienced across America over the past decade provide clear evidence that expanded marijuana access harms rather than helps communities.

The Choice Ahead

The rescheduling decision represents a choice between industry lobbying and public welfare. Cannabis companies invested heavily in purchasing political influence, expecting returns through favourable federal policy changes.

However, the marijuana legalization consequences documented in research and observable in daily life throughout legalised jurisdictions tell a different story than industry marketing. Increased crime, degraded public spaces, and normalised disorder follow marijuana legalisation.

Maintaining current federal restrictions protects communities from further deterioration whilst sending a clear message that civilised society requires standards of public conduct. The marijuana legalization consequences already evident suggest America has travelled too far down the path of cannabis normalisation.

President Trump faces a straightforward decision: support working Americans who maintain social order, or accommodate a cannabis industry seeking profit regardless of community costs. The marijuana legalization consequences affecting millions of citizens should guide that choice toward protecting public welfare over private profits.

Source: Altoona Mirror