GOP Congressman Running For Florida Governor Admits To Selling Marijuana Despite Opposing Legalization And Sentencing Reform

A GOP congressman running for governor in Florida who has opposed marijuana legalization in the state and sponsored federal legislation to upend a Washington, D.C. sentencing reform law has admitted for the first time that he was arrested for selling cannabis as a young adult.

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), a Trump-endorsed GOP candidate vying to replace Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), was pressed on the apparent disconnect during an interview with CBS Miami that aired on Saturday.

While it was previously known that Donalds faced an arrest over marijuana in 1997—only to have the charges dropped years later as part of a pre-trial diversion program—this marked the first time he’s publicly admitted to selling small amounts of cannabis and acknowledged that he benefitted from the type of criminal justice reform law he’s worked to undermine in the District of Columbia.

“Honestly, I was walking down the street, I was leaving a party, officers came up, asked me if I would empty my pockets. I said, ‘Yes, of course.’ I had a dime bag of marijuana in my pocket. That’s the story,” the congressman said. “It was bad decisions. I can’t undo that decision.”

Donalds said he sold “low-level amounts” of marijuana, reiterating that he made “terrible decisions” and that it was among the things he did in his early adulthood that he wishes he could “undo.”

“I wish I could undo [it]. I wish I could, but I can’t do that,” he said. “I would tell people, if you examine my life since 20 years old, my life has really been a story of redemption.”

But that redemption arc was made possible, in part, thanks to sentencing policy that afforded Donalds a level of relief that he’s sought to deprive D.C. residents of—a point that Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) raised during a House floor debate last year where she slammed her GOP colleague over the apparent double standard.

“Imagine standing in front of a judge with your life hanging in balance, and instead of prison you’re given a promise of mercy. Your record is wiped clean, and you’ve got a second chance at life,” Crockett said. “Imagine turning that into a promotion and you go to college and get a job and even become a member of Congress. That’s what redemption looks like.”

“That’s what America is supposed to be about. And that is exactly the story of the next wannabe governor from Florida, as a young man, he went through,” she said, referring to Donalds.

Donalds, who also took a stand against a Florida marijuana legalization ballot initiative in 2024 and argued the issue should be up to the legislature to decide, said during his latest interview that he will “never say that the decisions I made when I was very young were right decisions or smart decisions.”

“They were terrible decisions—desperate decisions—but in Florida, I had to face the music as an adult. In D.C., they were letting 20 or four year olds be tried as juveniles. That’s not right,” he said. “In Florida, I had to face the music as an adult, not as a juvenile. Now, Florida does have laws around diversion—being able to seal records—and yes, those were things that were afforded to me. And I look back on those days and I say, ‘You know what? That helped me restart my life. So be it.’ But in D.C., it was very different.”

Donalds has also raised eyebrows after acknowledging that there’s “a trace of racism” in marijuana enforcement, while still maintaining that advocates have gone too far in their pursuit of scaling back harsh sentencing laws.

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The congressman’s overall record on reform legislation is somewhat mixed.

For example, he’s voted in favor of marijuana banking legislation, as well as a bill to reduce restrictions on carrying out cannabis research. The congressman is also a cosponsor of a bill to protect gun rights for medical cannabis patients this session, and he’s twice cosponsored legislation to automatically seal criminal records for people convicted of non-violent marijuana offenses.

While he experienced a cannabis arrest himself, Donalds also voted against an amendment to prevent people from being denied security clearances over prior marijuana use—even though he’s able to receive classified briefings as a member of Congress regardless of his own history with cannabis. The congressman additionally voted against a bill to legalize marijuana in 2022.

Oklahoma Governor Claims Lawmakers Support His Push To Roll Back State’s Voter-Approved Medical Marijuana Law

The governor of Oklahoma is repeating his call to roll back the state’s medical marijuana law, and he claims lawmakers are on board with putting the issue before voters again—despite recent comments from GOP leaders who’ve voiced skepticism about that possibility.

In an interview with Family Research Center President Tony Perkins that was released on Wednesday, Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) was asked about his push to repeal Oklahoma’s medical cannabis program, which he’s described as necessary to combat youth use and the proliferation of unlicensed operators.

Oklahomans were “sold a bill of goods” when medical marijuana was on the ballot in 2018 before he became governor, Stitt claimed. “They thought they were passing something that was going to help someone with chronic pain, and that was the only thing that could help them. But what actually happened is we have more dispensaries now than we have pharmacies.”

“The industry is out of control. We grow 32 times more marijuana than actually is consumed legally, so we know it’s brought in cartel activity—Chinese influence, buying land,” he said. “It is not what Oklahomans thought that they were signing up for, and so I’m just asking the legislature, let’s send that back to a vote of the people.”

The governor said part of the problem with the initial passage of medical cannabis legalization is that it’s “super easy to get something on the ballot in Oklahoma,” so the state has taken steps to make that process “a little more challenging and a little more representative.” One simpler way to get an issue on the ballot is through an act of the legislature, which he says is a possibility that’s actively under consideration.

“We’ve got some great conversations with the House and the Senate. They know it’s a problem. Oklahomans all over are calling our offices saying it’s a problem,” Stitt said. “So I think we’ll get something back to the people. And, if we do, I think they’ll do the right thing and we’ll either remove it completely or we’ll actually regulate it properly.”

Despite Stitt’s confidence in the legislature, his push for a medical cannabis rollback has drawn mixed reactions from lawmakers, including those within his own party.

Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton (R), for example, initially expressed openness to the idea—but he ultimately determined it’d be “really hard to completely undo” legalization and unfair to licensed medical cannabis operators who “invested their life savings into this program” and are “trying to do this for the Oklahomans that need that product—not for recreational, but for actual medicinal purposes.”

“It’s hard to unring that bell,” he said. “What I’m going to suggest to the governor is that we don’t run a state question on that, but instead we continue to push the regulations [and] we continue to regulate the industry.”

House Speaker Kyle Hilbert (R) has also largely dismissed the prospect of upending the state’s medical cannabis program. He said Oklahomans have already drawn a clear distinction: They support medical marijuana and “resoundingly” oppose adult-use legalization, based on past election results.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond (R) was asked last month about the governor’s call to have voters revisit the state’s medical marijuana program, and he said he’d “love” to see the state’s medical marijuana program wiped out.

However, he cautioned that doing so would mean reimbursing the hundreds of licensees participating in the market because the state would be “taking” a revenue source away from them.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt (D) said she’s “not into revisiting state questions,” and lawmakers should “trust the people, and we should actually implement them as well.”

“This legislature, before our time, could have made a decision to put guardrails in place before this state question passed,” the senator said. “Instead, they stuck their head in the sand and let that question pass and be mayhem.”

Chris Anoatubby, the lieutenant governor of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma, aligned himself with Stitt’s position, stating that the medical marijuana program as currently implemented has “been a problem all over Oklahoma.”

He added that he’d “absolutely” support “reforming” the cannabis law.

Notably, the governor also said this week that part of his problem with the state medical marijuana legalization movement is that cannabis remains federally prohibited, and he takes issue with the “checkered board of jurisdictions from these different states” with differing marijuana laws.

The marijuana industry is out of control and harming our state.

❌ More dispensaries than pharmacies ❌ 32x more grown than consumed legally ❌ Staggering 73% rise in use among young people

This isn’t what Oklahoma wanted or expected. Send it back to the people. https://t.co/Ds9RqsrJhP

— Governor Kevin Stitt (@GovStitt) March 5, 2026

“It just creates all kinds of black market problems, and so I think it’s just overall bad. It’s a bad look. And again, think about that: More marijuana dispensaries in Oklahoma right now than we have pharmacies,” he said. “It makes no sense, and so I’m asking Oklahomans to retake a look at that.”

“I’m just frightened by the amount of kids that are doing the gummies and doing these different things and the edibles,” he said. “We understand how harmful it is, and when you have legalized it, then young people think that it must be okay, but there’s just a lot of problems with this industry.”

The governor also accepted the premise of the gateway drug theory, saying it’s “pretty common sense” that people who use cannabis could transition to more dangerous drugs.

This has become a frequent talking point for Stitt, who similarly said this month that the state’s medical marijuana program has “failed,” and it’s “time to shut this broken system down” amid reports about youth cannabis use.

The governor also said during a State of the State address last month that he wants voters who approved medical marijuana legalization at the ballot to revisit the reform.

Back in 2022, Stitt similarly used his State of the State address as an opportunity to dig at the voter-approved medical marijuana law, arguing that residents were misled by proponents of the ballot initiative.

Meanwhile, in November, Oklahoma activists withdrew an adult-use marijuana legalization initiative that they’d hoped to place on the state’s 2026 ballot.

After a short but aggressive signature push to secure ballot placement, Oklahomans for Responsible Cannabis Action (ORCA) ultimately did not turn in its petitions by the deadline, according to the secretary of state’s office.

ORCA said following the governor’s speech that the call for an end to the medical cannabis program is “simply an admission of his administration’s failure.”

“While we were busy advocating for common sense regulation, his appointees were busy importing thousands of illegal [Chinese Communist Party] grows,” the group said.”Fortunately, the Feds picked up prosecution.. because they weren’t getting held accountable by the State.”

“Fortunately, [Stitt] has no power here. It will take a vote of both the House and Senate to propose a vote to cancel SQ 788,” they said.”As we all move forward we must continue to be forward thinking, not backward acting. We look forward to talking and working with lawmakers, now and in the future.”

—Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.

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Meanwhile, law enforcement leaders with the Oklahoma Association of Chiefs and Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs have been raising concerns about cannabis.

Also in Oklahoma, lawmakers last March advanced a bill aimed at protecting gun rights of state-registered medical marijuana patients, although federal law still bars cannabis users from owning firearms regardless of their patient status.

Another state bill filed last year by a GOP legislator would criminalize the use of medical cannabis during pregnancy.

Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.

Top GOP Tennessee Lawmaker Says Federal Marijuana Rescheduling Could Open Door To Legalizing Medical Use In His State

A top GOP Tennessee lawmaker says medical marijuana legalization may move forward in the state now that his “biggest objections are being resolved” with the pending federal rescheduling of cannabis as ordered by President Donald Trump.

While marijuana reform has long stalled in conservative legislature, House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R) said the push to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) could remove roadblocks at the state level.

“My biggest objections are being resolved by the federal government right now in rescheduling cannabis and rescheduling specifically marijuana and allowing the doctors to take over and make a determination on how and if these substances could be helpful,” Lamberth said.

Rep. Jeremy Faison (R), who has worked to enact reform in the state, told WKRN-TV that he’d estimate “within the next two or three years, you’re going to see a framework set up here in Tennessee” to provide patients with a means to access cannabis for therapeutic use.

“I look forward to the day in Tennessee that we’ve set up a framework where people aren’t just getting high, but there are some very sick people who don’t want to be on opiates or something that comes across from a prescription from the pharmacist,” the lawmaker said. “They want something natural—that’s safe—and we know where it came from and we know it’s not been perverted or filtrated with fentanyl or anything else.”

“It’s going to happen soon,” Faison said, adding that the “federal government has realized that they’ve been in the way for a long time.”

Senate Minority Leader Raumesh Akbari (D), for her part, said lawmakers “look at the opioid crisis” and “look at people who are addicted painkillers,” and they recognize marijuana “is an alternative” that the state “should have invested in a long time ago.”

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Tennessee similarly discussed how the federal move to reclassify marijuana could open the door to medical marijuana reform after Trump issued an executive order in December to see through the process.

House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R) said at the time that rescheduling represents a “first step”  to medical cannabis reform in Tennessee, though he noted there are still certain outstanding logistical questions to answer.

“There will have to be conversations about who manufactures it, who tests it, who distributes, which medical illness could it be used for, does this require [federal Food and Drug Administration, or FDA] approval and a host of other questions,” Sexton said.

—Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.

Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.—

Sen. London Lamar (D), for her part, told WSMV that “if Washington can acknowledge reality, Tennessee can, too.”

“Our marijuana laws are stuck in the dark ages—overly punitive, out of step with our neighbors and holding our state back,” she said. “It’s time for the General Assembly to take a serious step forward on cannabis reform.”

“Cannabis reform is about freedom, public health and fiscal responsibility. We should be supporting medical researchers who want to study cannabis and patients who would choose cannabis treatments over deadly opioids,” Lamar said. “Our current laws force us to waste tax dollars on incarceration instead of investing in roads, schools and healthcare, and we’re also missing out on economic growth and new revenue.”