President Donald Trump affirmed at a news conference Monday that his administration is “looking” at federally reclassifying cannabis and that it would “make a determination over the next few weeks.
”He said that the subject is “complicated.” While he acknowledged hearing “great things” about cannabis’ medical utility, he also said that he’s heard “bad things having to do with just about everything else [about marijuana].”
The President’s remarks were in response to a question from a news reporter. They are his first public statements about cannabis policy since winning the election.
The Biden Administration initiated the regulatory process to review cannabis’ federal classification in late 2022 — marking the fifth time that an administrative petition to remove cannabis from Schedule I had been filed, but the first time that the White House had ever led such an effort.
The following year, the US Department of Health and Human Services recommended that the Drug Enforcement Administration reclassify cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. The DEA called for hearings on the matter, which were scheduled to begin earlier this year. Those hearings were stayed following allegations that the DEA had engaged in inappropriate and biased acts that warranted their disqualification from the proceedings.
There has been no further movement on the matter since January.
In a Truth Social post in September, Trump wrote, “As President, we will continue to focus on research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana to a Schedule 3 drug, and work with Congress to pass common sense laws, including SAFE banking for state authorized companies, and supporting states’ rights to pass marijuana laws.”
NORML submitted public comments to the DEA in the matter of cannabis reclassification. Additional information is available from the NORML Fact Sheet, ‘A Brief History of Cannabis Rescheduling Petitions in the United States.’