Step is latest example of shift away from heavy penalisation that has given way to widespread legalisation efforts.

The United States has announced it will reclassify state-licensed medical marijuana as a less dangerous drug, a step in line with a growing trend away from penalising its possession.

The Department of Justice clarified on Thursday that the change does not legalise recreational or medical marijuana under federal law.

But it does move certain marijuana products from the Schedule I category to the less restrictive Schedule III on the federal government’s five-tier system for regulating drugs.

Schedule III is for substances with “a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence”.

“This rescheduling action allows for research on the safety and efficacy of this substance, ultimately providing patients with better care and doctors with more reliable information,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.

Advocates of looser restrictions have long argued that placing marijuana in the same category of highly addictive drugs as heroin has led to disproportionate rates of arrest and incarceration.

They also point to the medical benefits that some patients describe from marijuana usage, as well as lower barriers to marijuana-related research.

Blanche has previously said that the US government would fast-track the process for a broader reclassification of marijuana, with hearings set to begin in June.

Once the focus of law enforcement efforts that swept millions of people into the US criminal justice system, marijuana has gradually seen more mainstream acceptance in recent years.

In December, President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling on the Justice Department to loosen marijuana restrictions. His Democratic predecessor Joe Biden had taken similar steps to reclassify marijuana, but the process had not been finalised by the time he left office in January 2025.

Marijuana is currently legal in some form in 40 US states, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found that one in five people in the US reported using marijuana in the last year.

A 2024 poll by the Pew Research Center found that 57 percent of US adults said that marijuana should be legal for both recreational and medical purposes, while 32 percent indicated it should only be legal for medical purposes. Just 11 percent said the drug should not be legal at all.

Companies offering cannabis products have also become a lucrative industry, with the market researcher BDSA predicting $47bn in legal sales in 2026.