Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson recently called on President Donald Trump to reschedule cannabis under federal drug laws and release federal prisoners doing time for weed-related offenses. Tyson, who owns the cannabis company Tyson 2.0, delivered his message to the president through an interview on FOX News that aired live on June 30.
In the conversation with the hosts of FOX & Friends, Tyson advocated for rescheduling cannabis under the federal Controlled Substances Act, releasing cannabis prisoners, and passing legislation that would give licensed cannabis businesses access to banking services. The entrepreneur noted that cannabis is classified alongside highly addictive and potentially deadly drugs.
“Cannabis is in the same category as heroin. How do you categorize it with heroin?” Tyson said, according to a report from online cannabis news source Marijuana Moment. “Anybody that ever smoked cannabis knows there’s no comparison and that it’s just ridiculous.”
Tyson also noted that federal restrictions on the banking industry make it difficult or impossible for cannabis entrepreneurs to obtain the financing they need to grow their businesses.
“There’s over 500,000 people that can’t get loans in the cannabis business alone, and that’s just so ridiculous,” Tyson said. “It’s such a great income for the country. And I just can’t see it. It’s ridiculous.”
The retired boxer added that cannabis policy reform advocates are “working on clemency, because there’s people that still in prison—been in there for 15 years, got enormous amount of time and ridiculous sentences—for cannabis.”
Tyson Argues Cannabis Is Not a Drug
Tyson also argued that “the first mistake that we’re making is categorizing [marijuana] as a drug. It’s not a drug. It’s a medicine.” He used his own experience with the plant as an example, saying that he was “going crazy” as a young adult until he started using cannabis for its potential therapeutic benefits.
When asked if he believes cannabis should be fully legalized nationwide, Tyson said “100 percent yes,” primarily because “the time and the sentences” that people prosecuted for cannabis offenses have received are “just totally ridiculous.”
Throughout the conversation, Tyson emphasized that he believes that “cannabis is not a drug.”
“No one’s ever [overdosed] from cannabis,” he said. “People drink. How many people die drinking? You put a bunch of people that don’t like each other in the room and give them alcohol and they kill each other. You give them some cannabis and they start taking selfies or whatever.”
Celebrities Join Tyson in Letter to Trump
Tyson’s appearance on FOX & Friends came only days after he and other former and current professional athletes, including Kevin Durant and Allen Iverson of the NBA and Ricky Williams and Antonio Brown of the NFL, sent a letter to Trump to thank him for his past clemency for cannabis prisoners. But they added that the work is not yet done.
“Today, people continue to serve lengthy federal sentences for conduct that is now legal in most states–which makes their continued incarceration not only cruel but absurd,” the letter says, Marijuana Moment reported.
The letter, which was signed by the athletes and other celebrities including musician Wyclef Jean, also called out former President Joseph Biden for being unable to secure significant victories in cannabis policy reform after running on the issue in 2020.
“After making sweeping promises to voters in 2020, former President Biden failed to deliver on his pledge to address marijuana-related injustices,” the group wrote. “Not only did he leave office without commuting the sentences of those incarcerated for marijuana, but in one of his final acts, he denied nearly every pending marijuana-related clemency application.”
The group of celebrities said that Biden’s lack of progress is a “betrayal” that “underscores the urgent need for bold leadership, we believe, and represents an opportunity to correct glaring disparities as part of your Administration’s ongoing push for criminal justice reform.”
Trump advocated for cannabis policy reform during the 2024 presidential campaign, endorsing decriminalization at the federal level and a Florida initiative to legalize recreational cannabis. Since retaking office, however, the president has not made a public comment on the issue.
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