The Trump administration has moved to reclassify marijuana, more than four months after Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the attorney general to move it from schedule I to schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act.
The schedule I classification meant marijuana was alongside heroin, LSD, MDMA and synthetic opioids, whereas a schedule III classification put it in the same category as ketamine, anabolic steroids and testosterone.
Trump’s acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, signed the order on Thursday and said in a post on X that the Department of Justice was “delivering on President Trump’s promise to improve American healthcare”.
“These actions will enable more targeted, rigorous research into marijuana’s safety and efficacy, expanding patients’ access to treatments and empowering doctors to make better-informed healthcare decisions,” Blanche’s post read.
The move comes mere days after Trump signed an executive order to speed a review of psychedelic drugs, including ibogaine, found in the root bark of a west African shrub, which also sits in the top category of illegal drugs with a high propensity for abuse. The order could pave the way for restrictions to ease and increase research on the psychedelic compound drugs for medical purposes.
At the signing of the psychedelic drug order, Trump complained that federal officials were “slow-walking” the process of rescheduling marijuana, a move that would also ease some restrictions and open it up for greater research.
“You’re going to get the rescheduling done, right, please? Will you get the rescheduling done, please?” Trump said to off-camera officials. “You know, they’re slow-walking me on rescheduling. You’re going to get it done, right?”
Notably, rescheduling will not immediately legalize marijuana or affect the sentences of those incarcerated for possession. It also does not immediately mean full legalization, and it will still be subject to business banking restrictions, in part due to continuing risks under anti-money laundering laws. Marijuana is currently legal in some form in 40 US states.
It is generally illegal to transport schedule III drugs across state lines without authorization, so reclassification would not necessarily allow producers to transport across state lines.
Marijuana-legal states have built huge surpluses of the drug, leading to a crash in wholesale prices known as the “ganja glut”.
Roger Stone, a Republican operative, recently told Marijuana Moment it was “vitally important” to get marijuana reclassified before the midterm elections due to its appeal to young and libertarian voters. Stone accused someone in the administration of “holding up” the reclassification process.
The announcement comes three weeks after Pam Bondi, the attorney general, was fired. Bondi, who opposed marijuana reform in Florida when she was state attorney general, was replaced by Blanche.
During his confirmation process for deputy attorney general, Blanche said he would give marijuana reclassification “careful consideration after conferring with all relevant stakeholders, including Drug Enforcement Administration personnel”.
The DEA scheduling placements are “based upon the substance’s medical use, potential for abuse, and safety or dependence liability”.
Most Americans support relaxing restrictions on marijuana, though support has softened since it became widely available in marijuana-legal states. An Economist/YouGov poll conducted this month found that 53% of adults supported legalizing the drug, including 35% of Republicans.
A survey by NuggMD, a cannabis tele-health platform, found 83% said they support Trump’s executive order, compared with 7% opposed and 10% who did not express an opinion.