Once a federal marijuana defendant facing a stacked sentence, Angelos now works the same levers that crushed him, arguing rescheduling could change who gets charged, how hard, and what happens next.
When President Trump began seriously entertaining the idea of moving marijuana to Schedule III, Weldon Angelos was not watching from the sidelines. He was on the phone.
Angelos describes Trump’s executive order from last December as the result of a coordinated campaign that unfolded across different rooms and registers at once — athletes, industry executives and personal appeals to the president. He says he urged Mike Tyson, who has maintained a longstanding relationship with Trump, to engage directly. Tyson didn’t hesitate. A letter signed by prominent athletes, including Allen Iverson and Kevin Durant, was delivered to the White House urging follow-through on campaign commitments. Behind the scenes, MAGA-leaning high-profile industry executives such as Truelieve’s Kim Rivers pressed the economic case just as hard.
The philosophy is “to move this thing forward,” Angelos told High Times, and he made a good point about it.
From where he sits, rescheduling is not symbolic, as it alters prosecutorial leverage, it narrows statutory ceilings and changes how federal cases are charged before a jury ever hears a word.
He is currently working on roughly 14 active clemency cases and collaborating with other groups on dozens more, including people serving 40, 60 years. Several are lifers. He believes the executive order will eventually translate into additional clemencies for people serving federal marijuana sentences — and says he’s already hearing signals from contacts inside the administration that the White House is moving in that direction, likely once rescheduling is formally finalized.
For Angelos, leverage is not theoretical. Two decades ago, it put an end to his life.
Before the West Wing
In 2004, Angelos was a 24-year-old …
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Author: Rolando García / High Times
