The Washington Post reports that according to six people familiar with the discussions, President Donald Trump is expected to direct federal agencies to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III controlled substance.
Trump discussed the matter on a December 10 call with House Speaker Mike Johnson, along with marijuana industry executives, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services chief Mehmet Oz.
Trump cannot unilaterally reclassify marijuana. However, he can direct the Department of Justice to forgo a hearing and issue a final rule.
If the report is correct it would mark the most significant change in federal cannabis regulation in more than 50 years.
Ever since President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse “public enemy number one” in 1970, cannabis has remained federally classified alongside heroin and LSD as a substance with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.”
As IVN reported in Nixon Admitted Weed Wasn’t Dangerous, But Killed It to Crush Political Dissent, Nixon’s own commission on drug abuse concluded that cannabis posed minimal harm compared to other controlled substances. Yet Nixon ignored those findings, using the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 to solidify federal prohibition, a decision whose political consequences shape today’s debate.
The second Trump administration has kept the proposal to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III active since the Department of Health and Human Services recommended the change in 2023. That process remains paused by a DEA administrative judge but is pending final review. Reclassification would formally recognize the medical use of cannabis and lift the tax restrictions that have burdened licensed operators under IRS code 280E.
IVN has followed the reclassification process closely, reporting earlier this week that speculation over potential executive action had been building since Trump said publicly in August that his administration was “looking at reclassification.” The move could have broad implications for the legal cannabis industry, the illicit market, and ongoing debates over federal drug policy.
IVN also reported this week that the Progressive Turnout Project sounded the alarm in a fundraising appeal warning that Trump was about to “steal marijuana reform right out from under” the Democrats by acting first on reclassification.
Independent Voter’s Facebook post foreshadowing the possibility of a Trump cannabis reclassification went viral just one day before the Washington Post story broke.