Since 1970, the US has claissified marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance, meaning it possesses a “high potential for abuse” and there was “no currently accepted medical use”.
Since then, many states have enacted their own laws to loosen restrictions on marijuana, which started with places like California allowing it to be used for medical purposes. That has created a patchwork of regulations and enforcement on cannabis, and also a headache for marijuana businesses who still have to follow federal tax and banking laws.
President Joe Biden’s administration initiated a review of marijuana’s classification in 2022 and about a year later the US health department recommended a change for the first time. In 2024, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) requested hearings, but then those hearings were indefinitely postponed.
Trump’s change is mostly “symbolic”, said Morgan Fox of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (Norml).
More than two-thirds of Americans support full legalisation of cannabis, according to Fox, who said changing the classification will open the door to policymakers seriously considering lifting restrictions on it.
“Moving it out of that classification allows us to have policy conversations that don’t start and end with that definition,” Fox said. “Lots of policymakers continue to fall back on that, and really won’t even discuss the issue as long as cannabis is Schedule I.”
Fox, though, said that his group and other campaigners will continue to push for full federal legalisation.
“The real solution to the issue is to de-schedule cannabis at the federal level, not just move to Schedule III, and then start changing the laws in regulatory ways that provide guidance, so we can get a little bit of uniformity,” said Fox.
