Trump administration moves to reclassify marijuana to schedule III drug

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 re-scheduling 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.