Willie Nelson’s Not Worried About Marijuana Under Trump: 'Who Cares?'

Willie Nelson isn't worried about how President Trump will affect marijuana policy in the United States.

Speaking with Rolling Stone, the longtime advocate of cannabis legalization and owner of his own cannabis company said, “Who cares? I didn’t have any problem finding [marijuana] when it was illegal, and now that it’s legal, it’s still no problem.”

“Making it illegal again won’t stop people from smoking,” he continued. “They should have learned that back in prohibition days.” The 83-year-old musician is promoting his upcoming album, God’s Problem Child, for its April release.

One song on the album “Delete and Fast-Forward” references the 2016 election, which Nelson said “[beat] any circus I’ve ever seen.” He sings, “Delete and fast-forward, my friend/ The elections are over and nobody wins/ But don’t worry too much, you’ll go crazy again/ Delete and fast-forward, my friend.”

Ahead of Trump’s first day in office, advocates of drug law reform have closely followed the people poised to fill key leadership roles in the new administration. So far they’ve criticized Trump’s pick for U.S. Attorney General, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who’s gone on record saying things like “good people don’t smoke marijuana.”

But at his first confirmation hearing, the senator took a more vague stance. When asked if he would use federal resources to investigate and prosecute medical cannabis patients, Sessions said that he “won’t commit to never enforcing federal law” and that “some of [the Obama-era guidelines] are truly valuable in evaluating cases.” The Obama administration is known for its overall hands-off approach toward states establishing their own marijuana laws.

Another potential blow to drug law reform is Rep. Tom Price, Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). According to John Hudak of the Brookings Institution, the Georgia Republican has a “long voting record of opposing the [modest] marijuana policy reforms” that have come to a vote in the House of Representatives.

More recently, rumors have circulated that Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi could be our next drug czar to head the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. But unlike Sessions or Price, “Bondi is not so ideologically committed to keeping marijuana illegal that she won’t stand down in the face of overwhelming public opposition to her position,” wrote Nancy Smith at Sunshine State News.

Only time will tell whether or not the Trump administration will try to scale back the drug law reforms we’ve seen in the past eight years. As for the president-elect himself, at one point, his views were seemingly aligned with the staunchest drug law reformers. But he's since softened his stance.