President Donald Trump’s acting attorney general Todd Blanche signed an order reclassifying state-licensed medical marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III, a major federal policy shift. Schedule I is reserved for drugs without medical use and with high potential for abuse, while Schedule III drugs are defined as having moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence. The order does not legalize marijuana for medical or recreational use under federal law but changes how it is regulated.
Scope and Impact
The reclassification largely legitimizes medical marijuana programs in the 40 states that have adopted them. It sets up an expedited system for state-licensed medical marijuana producers and distributors to register with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The order makes clear that cannabis researchers won’t be penalized for obtaining state-licensed marijuana or marijuana-derived products for use in their work and grants state-licensed medical marijuana companies a significant tax benefit by allowing them, for the first time, to deduct business expenses on their federal taxes. Any marijuana-derived medicine approved by the Food and Drug Administration is similarly listed in Schedule III.
Context and Opposition
Since 2015, Congress has prohibited the Justice Department from using its resources to shut down state-licensed medical marijuana systems. The regulation of medical marijuana has evolved significantly since California became the first state to adopt it in 1996. Two dozen states plus Washington, D.C., have authorized adult recreational use of marijuana, 40 have medical marijuana systems, and eight others allow low-THC cannabis or CBD oil for medical use. Only Idaho and Kansas ban marijuana outright.
Michael Bronstein, president of the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp, called the action “the most significant federal advancement in cannabis policy in over 50 years.” However, Kevin Sabet, chief executive of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, criticized the order, saying that “there are many ways to increase our knowledge without giving a tax break to Big Weed and sending a confusing message about marijuana’s harms to the American public.”
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.reporterherald.com/2026/04/23/state-licensed-medical-marijuana-reclassified/