Trump DOJ Reclassifying FDA-Approved Marijuana as ‘Less-Dangerous’ Drug
“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.”
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the administration has reclassified medical marijuana to Schedule III from Schedule I.
But any marijuana not under a state medical marijuana program remains classified as Schedule I.
The move only changes how marijuana for medical reasons is regulated, while giving “licensed medical marijuana operators a major tax break and eas[ing] some barriers to researching cannabis.”
Under the decisive leadership of @POTUS, this Department of Justice is delivering on his promise to improve American healthcare. This includes:
• Immediately rescheduling FDA-approved marijuana and state-licensed marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule IIl
• Ordering a new, expedited hearing with set deadlines, to fully reschedule marijuana
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.
Under the decisive leadership of @POTUS, this Department of Justice is delivering on his promise to improve American healthcare. This includes:
• Immediately rescheduling FDA-approved marijuana and state-licensed marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule IIl
• Ordering a new,… pic.twitter.com/DUtqKQgavl
— Acting AG Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) April 23, 2026
“Under the direction of President Trump and Acting Attorney General Blanche, DEA is expeditiously moving forward with the administrative hearing process — bringing consistency and oversight to an area that has lacked both,” said DEA Administrator Terry Cole. “Our men and women in law enforcement remain committed to fighting drug cartels, the fentanyl epidemic, and protecting American lives.”
Blanche’s order gives state-licensed medical marijuana producers and distributors an expedited system to register with the DEA.
The cannabis researchers are also protected from any penalties “for obtaining state-licensed marijuana or marijuana-derived products for use in their work.”
Here are the details for the DEA’s drug scheduling:
Schedule I
Schedule I drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Some examples of Schedule I drugs are: heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), marijuana (cannabis), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (ecstasy), methaqualone, and peyote.
Schedule II
Schedule II drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with a high potential for abuse, with use potentially leading to severe psychological or physical dependence. These drugs are also considered dangerous. Some examples of Schedule II drugs are: combination products with less than 15 milligrams of hydrocodone per dosage unit (Vicodin), cocaine, methamphetamine, methadone, hydromorphone (Dilaudid), meperidine (Demerol), oxycodone (OxyContin), fentanyl, Dexedrine, Adderall, and Ritalin
Schedule III
Schedule III drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence. Schedule III drugs abuse potential is less than Schedule I and Schedule II drugs but more than Schedule IV. Some examples of Schedule III drugs are: products containing less than 90 milligrams of codeine per dosage unit (Tylenol with codeine), ketamine, anabolic steroids, testosterone
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Comments
The thing about that is
Sorry, i forgot what I was gonna say… 🙂
always a hoax
when pot was 100% illegal/in the bad grace of society
the claim was
we cant study it properly to tell you what its dangers are
what a load of horsedump
just stop making us pay for others bad habits>>>healthcare
btw
legalize it medical or otherwise and set up the same laws as with alcohol
dui open container laws etc
Can you point to a test for a particular level of THC that indicates presumptive impairment above a certain level (.08) which could be administered by LEO roadside like a breathalyzer? Speaking of which what level of THC is presumptively too high? Will the ‘odor’ of weed be enough to initiate a search where one occupant of a vehicle can present a medical marijuana card? How rigidly will lack of ‘tax stamp’ on packaging be enforced? How about bans on home production, will that be same as alcohol?
‘Legalization’ isn’t a straightforward proposition. Unless we’re gonna treat weed like a pack of chewing gum and anyone can have as much as they want, without any restrictions on use, purchase or possession to include minors. Even then at best there’s still enforcement to ensure compliance with excise/tariff for imports and general FDA safety regs.
What it means to take rights seriously is that one will honor them even when there is significant social cost in doing so.
–SANFORD LEVINSON
For all I care make it as legal as chewing gum. I got zero skin in the game. Alternatively impose the death penalty on users. I really don’t care either way but pick one of those extremes so we can stop and/or mitigate the intrusion of the domestic drug war into other aspects of life.
My key issue is the consistent refusal of those favoring ‘legalization’ to tell us what that means as a practical matter, especially when they use comparison to alcohol which isn’t exactly unregulated, untaxed or without any penalty for production, transportation, possession, distribution much less without heavy restrictions on who/when/where/how much can be consumed with some activities forbidden in concert with use.
As I explain in a detailed comment below, I think marijuana’s nature makes it much harder, and in fact pretty much impossible, to regulate like alcohol. Read the long comment it you want to know why.
RC,
You make excellent points and the real world examples from the several States who’ve attempts at legalization show the problems.
Personally I’d be in favor of legalization for adults of ALL substances IF it was accompanied by a corresponding end of govt responsibility for care of the users. Someone shoots up heroin? Cool, don’t care but no govt assistance/injection center/methadone clinic. Gotta disclose all the now lwgal substances you use or void your auto, home, health IN policies. IN companies could then raise rate for this high risk pool or sever coverage. Simultaneously remove ER provisions mandating care. You OD? It’s on you good luck getting treated without IN. Go schizoid and injure someone? You get incarcerated. The govt would have one assistance program for treatment; cold turkey. If you survive you owe civil damages and part of sentence would be to pay off the debt. Gotta couple it with shift in enforcement of ‘homelessness’ and petty crimes to support drug addiction to zero tolerance. Arrest them and put them into a cold turkey holding camp pretrial, No bail, they get a trail when there’s room on the docket, if they die during cold turkey from withdrawals that’s on them.
The other option is vigorous enforcement of draconian penalties. If someone can be executed pretty quickly and routinely for simple possession that’s gonna be an effective deterrent….at least after the first couple hundred get strung up in front of every Federal Courthouse in the initial weeks of the policy implementation.
The ‘drug war’ as constituted is a failure. Either of the extreme proposals would be more effective and save us all money and improve quality of life for the 95%.
no and I also cant find a video of oj slicing up his wife and her friend
so what!!
make it legal and have the restrictions in place when that persons /the users/ individual freedom collides with others
Define ‘legal’ in the context of Alcohol which you chose to compare it to in your argument That’s what I’m asking you to do. Instead you don’t want to make an effort to flesh out the details of what ‘legalization’ would look like on the ground.
I get it simply saying ‘legalize it’ and walking away is way easier than creating/explaining a working system that incorporates all the potential impacts. It would be nice if you’d drop the sense of self righteousness in your refusal to put forth a plan and say ‘gee, I haven’t thought this philosophy all the way through and don’t really have any concrete answers’.
Navy Mustang: good article. As i recall 50 or so years ago there wasa law in CA about being under the influence and we used similar characteristics to charge users. Glad I left Ca when the getting was good. I’m thinking this change in schedule for marijuana may be illegal based on it being an executive order rather than an actual evaluation by FDA AND DEA. Maybe some anti drug group should challenge this. Over the years there has been numerous research studies on marijuana, its effects and potential medical use. Pro legalization groups have condemned the research because they didn’t show the results they wanted
DEA and predecessor agencies had licensed those legitimate researchers to acquire and possess marijuana.
Placing it in CIII still requires manufacture/ cultivation,, research, possession to be registered with DEA, provide security and record keeping and be subject to inspection/audit. Otherwise these activities become a federal criminal offense though I suspect federal prosecutors have ignored related crimes and DEA has been ordered politically to deemphasize marijuana investigations. Smoking is not a legitimate method of dosing medication. Smoking emphasizes the thc or psychoactive components of marijuana and no way to control drug dosage in Mg per Kg. Of body weight. Smoking also adds all the health hazards of tobacco smoking. Where is the anti tobacco people now.. Marijuana plants contain around 500 chemicals. One, CBD has been found to have certain medical benefits and it can be produced for medical use with known potency in a form dispensed in Mg per Kg. Smoking is just for getting high and abusing the rest of the population of non users.
it would be nice if you looked in the mirror and monitor your own sense of self righteousness
thats right legalize it and walk away
you break the law by interfering with others ( a point you cant comprehend )
and you get hauled in front of a court of law
That “roadside intoxication level” test is coming.
https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2025/07/nist-makes-first-detection-cannabis-breath-edibles
I never did it, but beat partners of mine were trained as drug recognition experts (DRE). When someone blew 0.0 on the breathalyzer, the DRE was called in to check for drug impairment.
Here’s an article on the general process.
https://www.lawyer-monthly.com/2025/06/how-can-the-police-prove-impairment-in-dwi-marijuana-cases/
if they cant/prove impairment then you cant arrest unless there is some other suspicion that the law allows for ( I dont know…weed/thc under the fingernails??? 🙂
This train left the station long ago.
Thirty years ago a mentor at Hopkins called it “factitious treatment for factitious disorders.” I have not seen any evidence contrary to that astute assessment. It is a perfect example of the “cure” being worse than the disease. “I have less anxiety now, but also seem oblivious to my surroundings.”
When I am told some new thing is going to “empower” some person or group I know it’s bunk.
Now the lefties will have to quit weed because Trump says it’s O.K…..
This is one of those subjects that I know a great deal about. Hmm, where to start? Okay, maybe to say that I have brewed my own beer, and have grown marijuana in the backyard. The relevance will become clear.
Many people, including in this thread, advise regulating marijuana like alcohol or tobacco. This is what the various “legalized” states are doing, and it will fail. The reason is that, in the real world, you can’t make your own tobacco and derivatives (cigarettes, cigars, snuff), and making your own beer, wine, or spirits is highly impractical for a bunch of reasons.
Marijuana, on the other hand, is easy and cheap to grow. It’s one of the easiest plants in the garden. Grow it outdoors from clones for $2/ounce; from seed for <50 cents/ounce. If it were as legal as any other crop, the cost to grow would be about 5 cents an ounce, including planting, harvest, and stripping the flower (bud) from the stalks. The natural pre-tax clearing price would be about 10 cents/ounce.
In states where it's been "legal" — which isn't really true for reasons I will explain — marijuana prices have crashed. The same outdoor marijuana that was selling for upwards of $150/ounce in Oregon five years ago now sells for $20. Elsewhere, in places where "legalization" came later, prices are higher but dropping fast.
I put quotes around "legal" because, at present, state regulations essentially eliminate the kind of efficiencies you see in similar crops, such as wheat or hemp. Acreage is limited, which precludes the use of combines and other machinery, and sourcing across state lines is illegal.
As a result, even in places like Oregon where prices have dropped by 85%-90%, marijuana remains a specialty horticultural crop. Growing cost right now is about $8/ounce, and wholesale prices are $12.50, with retail at $20. If it were truly legal, marijuana growing cost would drop another 99% from these "crash" levels, with retail prices and tax revenues following.
Even with the barriers in place, the cost and price structure is under severe and growing challenge from backyard gardeners. I'm a middling-level gardener — 15 raised beds, mostly for donation to the local food bank — and have found marijuana to be one of the easiest plants in the garden. The only reason that it costs me $2/ounce is because the starts (clones) are so expensive. $32 each last year.
Unlike beer, marijuana stores easily. Make beer, and you have 5 gallons of something that spoils fast. Marijuana stores for long periods when vacuum packed and refrigerated, or when (as I do) turned into infused butter or sugar.
There are 75 million single-family homes with gardens in the United States, with about 195 million inhabitants. Owners of those houses are, on average, in their 50s, a generation for which marijuana has an image of risk. So only 1 in 8 current homeowners say they have any interest in growing it. But even that small group, in states where personal, recreational use has been legal for a decade, has put major pressure on retail prices.
Time passes. Among home owner/gardeners in their 30s, 1 in 3 are interested. The future pressure will be massive, even if the current irrational regulatory framework persists. Legalization for personal, recreational use and possession, and cultivation in most "legal" states, will ensure that, as what I call "the unorganized army of American gardeners" comes to see that even $20 ounces are ridiculously overpriced, prices keep crashing.
This, in turn, will reduce tax revenues to not much at all. This will lead to calls for "illegalization," but that will fail. Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, good luck getting it back in. There will always be a retail business, and over time we will see flower (bud) sales shrink relative to derivatives, but in the end it's all THC regardless of how it's packaged and delivered, and costs and prices will sit on top of marijuana cultivation.
All of this is Economics 101, something that a lot of stoners and even more politicians love to ignore. But the invisible hand always prevails over time. By the way, the essence of the above is what I predicted six or seven years back when I started growing a couple plants a year, taking note of the costs, and then comparing to retail prices.
My predictions then are coming true now, and my predictions now will come true in the future. The handwriting is on the wall.
Unless somebody has proven otherwise, it’s still considered a “gateway drug”.
I am the most unstoner stoner, txvet. I have researched THC, and use it occasionally as a sleeping pill, in the form of spiked sugar. If it’s a “gateway drug,” I strongly think that’s because of its cultural and legal status until recently, as opposed to something about THC relative to opiates. There are definite risks to THC, so I am in no way the THC evangelist either. But “gateway drug?” Nope.
“Gateway drug” is a deliberate camel’s nose term, like “assault weapon.”
As long as people smoke or vape it, it should be at least considered the same as nicotine for health effects.
If you somehow think that this will make it as taxable as tobacco, please read my long post above. Yeah, I know it’s long, but it’s correct.
It’s easy to grow flower but vapes, gummies, brownies, beverages are big part of the market also.
Brownies and cookies are made with cannabutter. Vapes and gummies are more processed. Beverages are made with cannasugar or something similar. In the end, it’s all THC from marijuana, and that price is crashing.
Yes, the industry, such as it is, has moved toward processed versions and will keep doing so because there’s more money in it. Still, with the foundation’s price in long-term freefall and the basic ingredient very cheap and very easy to grow in the backyard, the whole regulatory and tax structure is doomed.
Will it happen right away? Nope. When I predicted the price crash six or seven years ago, I said at the time that it would take time, and gave it 20 or 25 years to play out. I did that because a) timing is always much harder to predict than the fundamentals, and b) when making a non-consensus prediction I include a lot of wiggle room AGAINST my prediction for analytical conservatism’s sake.
But the underlying reality has not changed, and will not change: As intoxicants go, marijuana is an order of magnitude easier and cheaper to produce than alcohol, and an order of magnitude harder to tax and regulate once the stigma and risk go away.
Cannabutter is very easy to make. Concentrate (a/k/a tincture”) is easy. Sugar, an extra couple steps but not hard.
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