President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday afternoon focused on speeding up the reclassification of marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III and driving new research into the medical uses of hemp-derived THC and CBD products.
Trump had vowed to reschedule marijuana on the 2024 campaign trail, an initiative started by President Joe Biden‘s administration back in 2023, and even called for loosening sentences for minor marijuana criminal offenses.
Thursday’s order does not amend federal criminal penalties for marijuana possession or institute any banking or taxing reforms for the cannabis industry, but senior administration officials said ahead of the president’s signing ceremony that the measure is specifically interested in researching the “potential medical benefits” and possible harms of marijuana use.
Trump “has directed a commonsense approach that will automatically start working to improve the medical marijuana and CBD research to better inform patients and doctors,” one official said Thursday morning. “That’s the primary goal.”
The order itself directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to “expedite the completion of the process of rescheduling marijuana to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act.”
Furthermore, Trump is directing White House deputy chief of staff James Blair to work with Congress to “allow Americans to benefit from access to appropriate full spectrum CBD products, while still restricting the sale and access to products that cause serious and potentially life threatening health risks.”
The 2018 farm bill included a provision legalizing the sale and possession of hemp-derived low-THC and CBD products. However, the latest government funding bill placed a firm limit, 2.4 milligrams or less of THC per container, on those products, effectively outlawing the majority of the hemp-derived products that have gone to market over the past seven years.
Trump “would like to distinguish that he still wants to restrict access, which we believe was the intent of Congress when they passed that provision restricting access, to products that have been on the market that caused serious health risks,” a senior administration official explained. “These are commonly known as intoxicating hemp products.”
The administration also plans to launch new models at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, delivering new access to medically prescribed CBD treatments for beneficiaries. CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz will unveil the first of these new models, which, according to senior administration officials, will allow some CMS beneficiaries to receive CBD prescriptions at no cost.
Though Trump made his stance on the issue abundantly clear last year, a number of Republicans have pushed back on his push to reschedule marijuana in recent weeks.
On Thursday morning, a group of 24 Republican lawmakers sent a letter to the president begging him to maintain marijuana’s Schedule I designation.
“We write to urge you to oppose rescheduling marijuana, a harmful drug that is worsening our nation’s addiction crisis,” the letter reads. “Reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug will send the wrong message to America’s children, enable drug cartels, and make our roads more dangerous.”
Trump officials briefly acknowledged this dissent from the Right, stressing that the order will not only improve access to medical cannabis products but also help solidify any negative impacts of use among specific populations, especially children.
“We believe this is a commonsense action that will let us better study and understand medical marijuana and CBD, the potential for patients, but also better understand the risks, and with a special focus on high-risk populations, or at-risk populations like young people,” one official said.
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“I think it’s important to recognize that it is very likely that cannabis has potential therapeutic applications, but we also know very clearly that cannabis can be addictive, and we know also that those that are at higher risk for addiction are adolescents in whom the risk of becoming addicted if they take cannabis can be as high as 1 in 5,” a second official added, noting that the order “in no way condones” the use of marijuana for recreational purposes. “It is also crucial that we understand what could be the consequences of the use of these cannabis in these populations.”