Might Donald Trump advocate for the release of all those still serving time for marijuana offenses?

The quetion in the title of this post is prompted by comments made by Donald Trump during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago this past  Thursday.  Notably, as detailed in this effective Last Prisioner Project discussion, we really do not know exactly how many people are serving time in jail or prison for marijuana offenses.  But, as detailed in this Marijuana Moment piece, when former Prez Trump was asked about marijuana legalization, he seemed to suggest he was growing more supportive of the posision and specifically stated that “it’s awfully hard to have people all over the jails that are in jail right now for something that’s legal.”  Here are details Marijuana Moment piece:

Former President Donald Trump says he is starting to “agree a lot more” that people should not be criminalized over marijuana given that it’s “being legalized all over the country” — adding that he will “fairly soon” reveal his position on the cannabis legalization measure on the November ballot in Florida, where he is a voter.

“As we legalize it, I start to agree a lot more because, you know, it’s being legalized all over the country,” Trump said at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday. “Florida has something coming up. I’ll be making a statement about that fairly soon.”

A reporter had asked about the Biden-Harris administration push to reschedule cannabis, as well as Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, stating repeatedly that people should not be incarcerated over simple cannabis offenses.  “As we legalize it throughout the country — whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing — it’s awfully hard to have people all over the jails that are in jail right now for something that’s legal,” Trump replied. “So I think obviously there’s a lot of sentiment to doing that.”

While not an explicit endorsement of major marijuana reform, the statement represents another example of Trump departing from the harsh anti-drug rhetoric he’s been employing over this latest campaign, at least when it comes to marijuana. And while it’s unclear whether he will choose to back the Florida cannabis legalization measure that he will have the chance to vote on as a resident, he did not take the opportunity to denounce it, despite Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) campaign against the reform measure.

The candidate also discussed people he’s issued presidential pardons for, including Alice Johnson, who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole over her role in a cocaine trafficking ring in the 1990s.  He said Johnson is a “fantastic woman” who “served 24 years for being on a phone call having to do with drugs, adding that she “was great” and “had another 24 years to go, and it was largely about marijuana, which, in many cases, is now legalized” at the state level.

I am pretty sire that Alice Marie Johnson had served over two decades of a life sentence on charges related to cocaine distribution and money laundering, not marijuana. That Trump now wanted to say her offense was “largely about marijuana” may, in its own way, support a supposition that Trump in a second term might actively seek release of all those still serving time for marijuana offenses.