What lengthy resembled a By no means Ending Story has lastly reached a turning level. At present, President Trump signed an Executive Order directing the Lawyer Normal to reschedule marijuana as a Schedule III substance beneath the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The signing and remarks can be viewed here.
The order contains the next directives (as first reported by Kyle Jaeger of Marijuana Moment and mentioned through the press convention):
- Direct the Lawyer Normal to completion of the method to reschedule marijuana to Schedule III beneath the CSA, “in essentially the most expeditious method in accordance with Federal regulation, together with 21 USC 811.”
- Direct senior White Home workers to work with Congress to make sure affected person entry to full-spectrum CBD merchandise, “whereas nonetheless proscribing the sale and entry to merchandise that trigger critical and doubtlessly life-threatening well being dangers.”
- Urge Congress to reexamine and replace the federal definition of hemp to make sure that full-spectrum CBD stays accessible to sufferers—doubtlessly addressing business issues arising from a just lately signed spending invoice that broadly restricts consumable hemp merchandise.
- Direct the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies (HHS) to develop improved analysis strategies and fashions, together with using real-world proof, to develop entry to hemp-derived CBD merchandise in accordance with federal regulation and to tell requirements of care.
As soon as applied by the Lawyer Normal, this motion will represent the only most consequential development in federal marijuana coverage in a long time. Whereas the boundaries of rescheduling shouldn’t be overstated (as I have discussed previously) the President’s motion lastly dismantles the irrational classification of marijuana as among the many most harmful substances on the planet, ranked alongside heroin and above cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl.
The notion that marijuana is extra harmful than fentanyl, a substance the President himself has labeled a weapon of mass destruction, can lastly be laid to relaxation. Leaving marijuana in Schedule I, and even in Schedule II alongside fentanyl, would have undermined the Administration’s broader efforts to implement drug legal guidelines in opposition to substances which are really killing thousands of Americans each year.
No matter one’s views of President Trump, one conclusion is turning into more and more tough to dispute: on hashish, he has acted the place others didn’t. Whereas the Govt Order itself doesn’t instantly reschedule marijuana, it unmistakably indicators the Administration’s intent and units the method firmly in movement. Lawyer Normal Bondi has traditionally demonstrated a willingness to execute presidential directives, and there’s little cause to imagine this occasion will likely be totally different.
The broader historic context is especially putting. Regardless of a long time of nationwide debate round hashish reform, solely two federal actions have meaningfully loosened marijuana’s prohibitionist framework: the 2018 Farm Invoice and the present rescheduling initiative. Each occurred beneath Republican administrations, and each throughout President Trump’s tenure. That reality alone ought to immediate critical introspection inside Democratic management.
What occurs subsequent: DOJ and DEA pathways
Lawyer Normal Bondi now has a number of potential paths ahead.
Essentially the most legally defensible, and what I imagine just isn’t the most probably method, that I and others have advocated for years, could be for the Lawyer Normal to concern a ultimate rule pursuant to her authority beneath 21 U.S.C. § 811(d)(1), putting marijuana in Schedule III to take care of consistency with U.S. worldwide treaty obligations. This route could be sooner and fewer susceptible to procedural challenges. The President directing AG Bondi to rescheduling “in essentially the most expeditious method in accordance with Federal regulation, together with 21 U.S.C. 811”, which might imply the appliance of (d)(1).
Alternatively, DOJ may direct the DEA to concern a ultimate rule primarily based on the executive rulemaking course of initiated under the Biden Administration in October 2022. Whereas viable, this method would introduce extra delay and would virtually definitely invite litigation. This method would additionally align with the presidents directive to “take all mandatory steps to finish the rulemaking course of associated to rescheduling marijuana.” Whereas I feel 811(d)(1) would full the method, going by means of official ultimate rulemaking would align with this directive.
A 3rd choice, resuming the executive listening to course of the place it stalled in January, seems unlikely, notably given the retirement of the presiding administrative law judge.
Whatever the path chosen by DOJ, litigation is just about assured.
As soon as rescheduling happens, then what?
Rescheduling marijuana to Schedule III will remove the appliance of Internal Revenue Code § 280E, offering substantial and welcome tax aid for operators. Past that, expectations should remain measured.
State-legal marijuana companies will stay unlawful beneath federal regulation. Marijuana merchandise won’t routinely grow to be federally acknowledged medicines. Interstate and worldwide commerce will stay prohibited for state-licensed operators. Federal prison penalties will persist. Analysis will proceed to face vital regulatory boundaries.
Many of those constraints are the product of incremental and sometimes contradictory policymaking. For instance, whereas Democratic lawmakers routinely categorical help for expanded hashish analysis, the Cannabinoid Research Act successfully entrenched Schedule I type analysis restrictions whilst marijuana now strikes towards Schedule III. The result’s one other occasion of rhetorical help for liberalization paired with structural resistance to it.
Though, primarily based on the feedback made through the press convention I’m cautiously optimistic that analysis pathways will likely be expanded and never hindered by the DEA.
A possible shiny spot: marijuana exports and the worldwide market
As I wrote here, one real alternative may emerge if the DEA permits registered bulk marijuana producers (this won’t apply to state-legal operators) to export medical hashish to jurisdictions the place it’s authorized. Such a shift could be transformative for present registrants and would lastly enable the US to take part meaningfully within the world medical hashish market—an area it has lengthy ceded to international rivals.
Will this impact the just lately closed hemp loophole?
The Govt Order doesn’t seem to hunt Congress’ efforts in reopening the marketplace for intoxicating hemp merchandise scheduled to become illegal on November 12, 2026. Nevertheless, it does urge Congress to revisit the definition of hemp to make sure affected person entry to full-spectrum CBD.
Because the loophole laws was handed, I’ve been advising purchasers that that is the one portion of the hemp ban prone to be revisited, and the language of this order lends additional credibility to that evaluation.
Timing and what to anticipate going ahead
This course of won’t resolve instantly. Relying on the procedural route DOJ selects, rescheduling may unfold over a number of weeks or prolong into a number of months, notably as soon as litigation begins. As extra steerage emerges from DOJ, DEA, and the courts, developments will proceed to evolve.
How Democrats misplaced on hashish
Democratic leaders have lengthy styled themselves as champions of hashish reform. But when measured by outcomes quite than rhetoric, the social gathering has struggled to transform that posture into sturdy federal change, elevating respectable questions on whether or not management really sought reform.
Fairly than advancing pragmatic, politically viable laws, such because the STATES Act (now STATES 2.0), Democrats largely centered their efforts on the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act. Whereas formidable, that invoice was by no means a sensible car for reform in a narrowly divided Congress and, in reality, mustn’t have been anticipated to garner unanimous Democratic help. In observe, it functioned extra as a signaling and fundraising mechanism than as a workable path to liberalization.
The result’s that Democrats have largely ceded each momentum and narrative management of hashish reform, regardless of roughly 64% of Americans supporting legalization. President Trump has stuffed that vacuum. Even when he overstates what rescheduling accomplishes, as some Democrats are claiming, he has taken concrete steps the place Democratic management has largely talked about motion with out delivering something. In politics, execution issues, and on hashish, Republicans, and notably President Trump, now owns that floor.
Conclusion
The trajectory is more and more clear. What stays unsure is how rapidly, and the way far, federal hashish coverage will in the end transfer. Whereas substantial work stays and lots of authorized, regulatory, and political hurdles nonetheless lie forward, in the present day’s motion represents a monumental step towards common sense hashish reform. For many years, federal marijuana coverage has been untethered from science, public well being realities, and lived expertise. This Govt Order marks a long-overdue course correction.
Everybody who labored tirelessly, typically behind the scenes and at appreciable skilled and political price, to maneuver this concern ahead ought to take a second to pause and acknowledge the importance of what has been achieved. Progress in hashish reform has not often been linear or straightforward, and victories have been hard-won. This one isn’t any exception.
The trail ahead would require continued vigilance, self-discipline, and realism. However in the present day, significant progress was made. That alone warrants recognition, and, briefly, a well-deserved pat on the again.
