Big Tobacco, Big Alcohol, Big Pharma and former lawmakers from both parties. A new tracker from Smart Approaches to Marijuana answers the question of who funds marijuana legalization with 62 sourced entries, and the totals run into the billions.

The page, titled “Who Funds Marijuana Legalization?”, lists each company, investor and politician alongside the dollar figure, the date and links to the underlying SEC filings, campaign-finance records and lobbying disclosures. Readers can filter by sector or search a name.

The biggest bets came from outside the marijuana industry. Constellation Brands, maker of Corona and Modelo, paid $4 billion for a stake in Canopy Growth in 2018 and has since written off most of it. Altria, maker of Marlboro, put $1.8 billion into Cronos Group the same year and later abandoned its option to buy more. British American Tobacco now owns roughly 48 percent of Organigram, which sells hemp-derived THC drinks in Texas, Florida and Georgia.

None of that is new to readers who followed why Big Tobacco, Big Alcohol and Big Pharma are all in on weed. What the tracker adds is the outcome: which bets paid off, which were written down, and who is still holding.

The political money is newer and moves faster. Trulieve supplied $144.6 million of the $153.8 million behind Florida’s failed 2024 legalization measure, then more than $32 million toward a 2026 re-run that never reached the ballot. The company’s spending on marijuana rescheduling followed the same pattern.

In June 2026, six marijuana companies gave $11.5 million in a single month to America First Agriculture Action, a super PAC whose treasurer also runs President Trump’s MAGA Inc. The tracker counts at least $15 million in marijuana money to Trump-linked super PACs since 2025, the pattern Kevin Sabet has called “coin-operated drug policy.”

The revolving-door section names names on both sides of the aisle. Former House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, joined the board of Acreage Holdings in 2018. The New York Times reported his shares carried “the prospect of a payday as high as $20 million.” Former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, co-chairs an industry lobby with him. Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, former Sen. Cory Gardner and former Reps. Joe Crowley, Carlos Curbelo, Dana Rohrabacher and Ed Perlmutter all took paid or advisory roles.

Federal lobbying by marijuana-industry clients has more than doubled since 2018, from $2.4 million to a peak of $6.2 million in 2022, according to OpenSecrets. More than half of the industry’s registered lobbyists in 2024 previously worked in government.

The tracker flags where figures are reported but unconfirmed. A Trulieve “counsel agreement” for former Rep. Matt Gaetz, photographed on his laptop by a fellow airline passenger, is listed with the note that neither party confirmed the terms.

The industry’s message has long been that legalization is a grassroots movement. The tracker’s answer to who funds marijuana legalization is a ledger.

• Why Big Tobacco, Big Alcohol, and Big Pharma are all in on weed
• Trulieve’s the big money behind marijuana rescheduling
• Smart Approaches to Marijuana Highlights “Coin-Operated Drug Policy”
• She Warned That Marijuana Companies “Will Always Put Profits Before People.” Now Gov. Healey Is Their Advocate.