The Woman Who Fought Cannabis at Every Turn — Then Collected a Paycheck From Its Lobbyists
Pam Bondi's decade-long war against marijuana ended not with a policy reversal, but with a pink slip. Her cannabis record tells the real story.
Last Wednesday, Pam Bondi was riding in the back of a car from the White House to the Supreme Court when she learned she was done. Fourteen months as the nation's top law enforcement officer — over. For cannabis advocates who spent a decade watching Bondi obstruct, delay, and undermine marijuana reform at every level of government, the reaction was complicated: relief that a persistent obstacle had been removed, but uncertainty about what comes next.
Because here's the thing about Pam Bondi and cannabis — it was never just one bad vote or a single ill-advised press conference. It was a pattern. A career-long pattern of opposing marijuana reform in every role she held, from the Florida Attorney General's office to a Trump White House commission to the highest law enforcement position in the country. And wedged in between? A stint at one of the biggest cannabis lobbying firms in America.
Let's walk through it.
Act I: The Florida Years (2011–2019)
Bondi became Florida's 37th Attorney General in January 2011 — the first woman to hold the office. She arrived with a prosecutor's resume: eighteen years trying cases in Hillsborough County, ranging from domestic violence to capital murder. Her signature issue was Florida's pill mill crisis, and she earned legitimate credit for pushing legislative reforms that shut down rogue pain clinics flooding the state with oxycodone.
But when it came to cannabis, Bondi drew a hard line from day one.
The 2013–2014 Medical Marijuana Fight
In October 2013, a group called People United for Medical Marijuana — backed by prominent trial attorney John Morgan — was gathering signatures for a constitutional amendment to legalize medical cannabis in Florida. Under state law, the attorney general is required to submit proposed ballot amendments to the Florida Supreme Court for review. Bondi didn't just submit it — she filed a 57-page legal brief trying to kill it.
Her argument was that the amendment's language was "misleading" and would turn Florida into "one of the most lenient medical-marijuana states, allowing use for limitless 'other conditions' specified by any physician." She told the court that the amendment could allow doctors to recommend cannabis "for anything, any time, to anyone, of any age."
The Florida Supreme Court didn't buy it. In January 2014, the justices approved the amendment's language for the ballot. Bondi accepted the ruling publicly but made clear she'd be voting no. At a Capitol press event that month, she warned about "unscrupulous doctors" who had run pill mills coming back to "start opening marijuana clinics on every corner and taking advantage of our kids."
John Morgan — whose firm United for Care bankrolled the campaign — wasn't impressed. He called Bondi's constitutional law expertise comparable to that of his "Jack Russell terrier."
The 2014 Amendment 2 ultimately received 57.6% of the vote — a clear majority, but short of the 60% supermajority Florida requires for constitutional amendments. The irony? Polls showed 88% of Florida voters supported medical marijuana. Bondi's aggressive opposition and the high threshold worked together to deny patients access for two more years.
The 2016 Amendment and Smokable Flower Ban
When a revised medical marijuana amendment returned in 2016, something interesting happened: Bondi didn't file a formal legal challenge. Her office issued statements expressing concern about expanded youth access, but she largely stayed on the sidelines. This time, 71.2% of voters said yes, giving birth to what would become one of the largest medical cannabis markets in the country.
But Bondi wasn't done. The Florida Legislature implemented the amendment with a ban on smokable marijuana — patients could access cannabis but not in its most common form. When a circuit court judge ruled the ban unconstitutional in 2018, finding that the amendment "implicitly recogniz[ed] the appropriateness of using smokable medical marijuana in private places," Bondi's office filed an appeals brief defending the ban. Her team argued that "harms to patients and those exposed to secondhand smoke" were "ample reasons to exclude smoking."
The ban was eventually overturned under Governor Ron DeSantis, and by 2024, Trulieve alone was selling roughly 144,000 pounds of smokable flower annually to Florida's medical patients — 39% of the state's retail market share for that product category.
Bondi's defenders, including Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers, have argued she was simply "following the Governor's direction" — specifically Rick Scott's — on many of these positions. That's a fair point. Attorneys general often defend laws passed by their state's legislature. But Bondi went beyond defending existing law. She proactively tried to keep medical marijuana off the ballot entirely. That was a choice.
The Epidiolex Exception
One footnote from the Florida years is worth mentioning. In 2018, Bondi signed an emergency order allowing access to Epidiolex, a CBD-based pharmaceutical approved by the FDA for severe epilepsy. It was reportedly the first time she used her authority to deschedule a drug. During her eight-year tenure, she had added 133 chemical compounds to Florida's controlled substance schedules. She removed one — a pharmaceutical product made by a publicly traded company that had gone through the full FDA approval process.
The takeaway: Bondi could accept cannabis-derived medicine, but only when it came through the pharmaceutical pipeline with a corporate stamp of approval.
Act II: The Commission and the Think Tank (2017–2024)
After leaving the AG's office, Bondi moved into Trump's orbit full-time. During his first term, she served on the President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, chaired by then-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
The Opioid Commission's Cannabis Problem
The Commission's 2017 final report acknowledged an "active movement to promote the use of marijuana as an alternative medication for chronic pain and as a treatment for opioid addiction." But rather than engaging with the growing body of evidence supporting that position — including a landmark Penn Medicine study published in JAMA Internal Medicine showing that states with medical marijuana laws had 24.8% lower opioid overdose mortality rates — the Commission went the other direction.
The report cited a National Institute on Drug Abuse finding that "marijuana use led to a 2½ times greater chance that the marijuana user would become an opioid user and abuser." The Commission called this "very disturbing."
It was the gateway drug theory, dressed up in a government report, while Americans were dying by the tens of thousands from opioid overdoses. The same year the Commission published its report — 2017 — prescription opioid overdose deaths peaked at 17,029. Multiple peer-reviewed studies have since shown that cannabis access is associated with reduced opioid use, not increased use. The Commission had it backwards.
Ballard Partners: The Revolving Door Spins
After her AG tenure ended in January 2019, Bondi joined Ballard Partners, one of the most politically connected lobbying firms in the country. Ballard has offices across Florida, Washington, D.C., and internationally. The firm's founder, Brian Ballard, is one of Trump's most prolific fundraisers.
Here's where it gets uncomfortable for Bondi's cannabis record: Ballard Partners has an entire Cannabis Practice Group. The firm openly markets itself as a cannabis lobbying powerhouse, representing "some of the largest cannabis operators in multiple jurisdictions at the local, state and federal levels." The practice group is co-chaired by Courtney Coppola, who previously served as Director of Florida's Office of Medical Marijuana Use — the very program Bondi spent years trying to prevent or restrict.
Bondi's page on the Ballard Partners website described her as a "Ballard Partner." One of the firm's media consultants, Adam Goodman, worked on campaigns for "several Florida Cabinet officials including former Florida Attorney General (and Ballard Partner) Pam Bondi."
Did Bondi personally lobby for cannabis clients at Ballard? There's no public record of it. Her portfolio focused on litigation and legal strategy, and she also did work as a registered foreign agent for Qatar. But she was collecting a paycheck from a firm that was actively lobbying for the industry she had spent eight years trying to suppress. In Tallahassee, they call that the revolving door. In the cannabis world, it just felt like a slap in the face.
AFPI and the Fentanyl Playbook
Bondi eventually moved from Ballard to the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a Trump-aligned think tank, where she served as Chair of the Center for Litigation and Co-Chair of the Center for Law and Justice. At AFPI, she continued her drug policy work — but the framing shifted.
In 2023, AFPI released a research report on the fentanyl crisis that claimed the deadly synthetic opioid was "turning up in marijuana." The implication was clear: cannabis wasn't just a gateway drug in theory; it was now physically contaminated with fentanyl in practice. While fentanyl contamination of illicit drug supplies is a genuine and serious public health concern — particularly in counterfeit pills and powders — the claim that regulated or even unregulated cannabis flower is commonly laced with fentanyl has been widely disputed by toxicology experts and harm reduction organizations. It's a fear-based narrative that conflates the illicit drug supply with state-regulated cannabis markets.
Act III: Attorney General of the United States (2025–2026)
Bondi was confirmed as U.S. Attorney General on February 4, 2025, in a 54–46 vote. She was Trump's second choice — the first, former congressman Matt Gaetz, withdrew after it became clear he lacked the votes. For cannabis advocates, the switch from Gaetz to Bondi was a gut punch. Gaetz had sponsored legislation to reschedule cannabis, introduced bills to prevent federal interference in state programs, and had openly vowed to "go easy" on the industry.
The Rescheduling Stall
On December 18, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14370 — "Increasing Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research" — directing Bondi to "take all necessary steps to complete the rulemaking process related to rescheduling marijuana to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act in the most expeditious manner."
Cannabis stocks jumped. Commentators called it the biggest shift in federal marijuana policy since 1970. But as of Bondi's firing on April 2, 2026 — more than three months after the executive order — nothing had happened. No final rule. No new proposed rulemaking. No public statement from Bondi on the directive. A DOJ spokesperson told Marijuana Moment in early 2026 that the department had no "comment or updates" on rescheduling.
Bondi didn't attend Trump's signing ceremony for the executive order. NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano noted that her "noticeable absence from the administration's executive order signing, coupled with her prior history as a high-profile opponent of state-level marijuana reform and her ongoing failure to speak about the issue publicly, is cause for speculation."
The DEA confirmed in January 2026 that even with the executive order, the full administrative rulemaking process still needed to be completed. The ALJ who had been overseeing hearings on the matter retired, leaving the agency without a single administrative law judge assigned to the case. The rescheduling process, already stalled before Bondi took over, ground to a complete halt under her watch.
The Possession Crackdown
While rescheduling collected dust, Bondi's DOJ took action in the opposite direction.
On September 29, 2025, the DOJ quietly rescinded Biden-era guidance that had discouraged the prosecution of simple marijuana possession on federal land. The public only found out about it because Wyoming's U.S. Attorney, Darin Smith, announced it in November, declaring that marijuana offenses on federal property would now be "rigorously prosecuted."
Smith's office told reporters that the Trump administration considered cannabis use a "public safety hazard." The memo directed federal law enforcement agencies that had been taking a hands-off approach under Biden to start enforcing federal prohibition — in national parks, on military bases, in federal housing.
Rep. Dina Titus, co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, sent Bondi a letter demanding an explanation. "Simple marijuana possession poses no meaningful threat to public safety," Titus wrote, "and it is indefensible to revive prosecution under an outdated law that no longer reflects the current use of cannabis in the United States."
Bondi never responded publicly.
One law professor summed up the contradiction: Trump signed an executive order to reschedule cannabis while his attorney general simultaneously directed prosecutors to crack down on possession. The administration was talking reform with one hand and enforcing prohibition with the other.
The Firing
On April 2, 2026, Trump fired Bondi. The stated reasons had nothing to do with cannabis — it was the Epstein files fiasco, the failed prosecutions of political rivals, and a general sense that she hadn't "executed on his vision." Todd Blanche, Trump's former defense attorney, was named acting AG. Lee Zeldin, the EPA Administrator, was reportedly being considered for the permanent role.
For the cannabis industry, the reaction was cautious optimism. Multiple sources close to the rescheduling process told MJBizDaily that Blanche had been "active in the conversations around the drafting of the final rule" and wouldn't face a steep learning curve. One observer suggested movement on rescheduling could come within 30 to 60 days. Jushi Holdings' chief strategy director called Blanche "a big net positive for the state regulated cannabis industry."
The Full Picture
Pam Bondi's cannabis record spans more than a decade and tells a consistent story:
2013: Filed a 57-page brief trying to block medical marijuana from reaching Florida voters.
2014: Publicly campaigned against Amendment 2. It failed by 2.4 points — 57.6% yes, short of the 60% threshold.
2016: Stayed quiet on the revised amendment but expressed "concern" about youth access. It passed with 71.2%.
2018: Filed an appeals brief defending Florida's ban on smokable medical marijuana.
2018: Signed an emergency order allowing Epidiolex — a pharmaceutical CBD product — while having added 133 substances to controlled schedules during her tenure.
2017: Served on a Trump opioid commission that cited the gateway drug theory and dismissed evidence that cannabis reduces opioid deaths.
2019–2020: Joined Ballard Partners — a firm with a dedicated cannabis lobbying practice — as a partner.
2021–2024: Served at AFPI, which published a report claiming fentanyl was "turning up in marijuana."
2025: Confirmed as U.S. Attorney General. Quietly rescinded Biden-era guidance discouraging marijuana possession prosecutions.
2025: Missed a congressionally mandated deadline to issue fentanyl research guidelines.
2025: Did not attend Trump's signing of the rescheduling executive order.
2026: Failed to take any public action on marijuana rescheduling in over three months following a presidential directive.
April 2, 2026: Fired.
What Comes Next
Bondi's departure doesn't automatically mean the rescheduling dam breaks. Todd Blanche told senators during his confirmation that he'd "give the matter careful consideration" on rescheduling — standard political hedging. But the signals are more encouraging than anything that came out of Bondi's DOJ.
The bigger question for the cannabis industry isn't who sits in the AG's chair — it's whether the institutional resistance Bondi represented was unique to her, or whether it reflects a deeper, structural reluctance within DOJ to treat cannabis reform as a legitimate policy priority. After all, marijuana has been a Schedule I substance for over 55 years. That kind of institutional inertia doesn't disappear with one personnel change.
But for now, for the first time in over a decade, Pam Bondi is no longer standing between cannabis and progress. Whatever you think of her motives or her record, that's a material change in the landscape.
The revolving door spins. The question is whether this time, when it comes around again, someone who actually supports reform walks through it.