Two Republican senators want the U.S. Postal Service to keep its ban on mailing marijuana. Their push comes as Georgia prepares to ship medical cannabis straight to patients’ doorsteps.

In a letter to Postmaster General David Steiner this week, Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Ted Budd (R-N.C.) wrote that “marijuana cannot currently be mailed at all using the USPS.” Then they added: “However, some states are under a different impression.”

Georgia moves toward mailing marijuana

In late September, the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission unanimously approved rules for home delivery of medical marijuana. A top state licensee told local reporters the Postal Service would be a primary part of those deliveries. The rules now await a final decision from the Georgia secretary of state’s office.

State officials argue that the federal government’s April rescheduling of state-licensed medical marijuana to Schedule III opened that door.

“While Georgia does not have the authority to alter current USPS regulations, we are concerned that USPS will alter its regulations to allow for these shipments,” the senators wrote. “We strongly oppose any effort to allow the shipment of marijuana.”

Why the senators oppose mailing marijuana

Lankford and Budd argue that the rescheduling rule placed too much trust in state licensing systems. “Some states have very low barriers to entry,” they wrote. Oklahoma, they noted, once had 9,178 licensed grow operations and 2,611 licensed dispensaries.

They also pointed to young children. A Nationwide Children’s Hospital study found that the rate of kids under 6 swallowing recreational drugs rose 3,307 percent from 2000 to 2024. Cannabinoids made up 85 percent of cases, and edibles alone accounted for almost half.

Nearly all of those exposures, 96 percent, happened inside a home. Meanwhile, daily marijuana use among parents has quadrupled since 2012, and poison center calls keep climbing even as some headlines tout falling teen use.

The senators also named Idaho and Kansas, which have not legalized marijuana in any form. Georgia’s rule covers in-state deliveries only, and its largest licensee says it will ship only within Georgia. The senators’ concern is what a federal change in mail rules would allow everywhere else.

Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, praised the letter. “Rescheduling did not make marijuana medicine, and it certainly should not turn the Postal Service into a delivery service for the pot industry,” he said.

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