President Trump Signs Executive Order Directing AG to Expedite Marijuana Rescheduling Process

Quick Hits

• On December 18, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order directing the attorney general to expedite the rescheduling of marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug.
• As a Schedule III drug, marijuana researchers would face far fewer barriers, which could impact state or federal efforts to legalize the drug for medicinal or recreational use.

According to studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHS), more than 30,000 licensed healthcare practitioners were recommending medical marijuana to more than 6 million registered patients nationwide. The move to Schedule III would place marijuana and its derivative products in the same category as drugs such as ketamine, buprenorphine, anabolic steroids, and Marinol—a synthetic version of THC used to treat nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite.

While the executive order does not reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III drug, the administration is signaling its support for the move. Furthermore, rescheduling marijuana would not legalize it for recreational or medicinal use, but it would ease restrictions on research of the drug. The move would come over fifty years after the federal government first classified marijuana as a Schedule I drug in the 1970s, and a year after the Biden administration first proposed transferring marijuana to Schedule III. The U.S. Department of Justice accepted public comment through July 2024 and considered the move, but ultimately did not order the rescheduling.

In addition to research impact, rescheduling marijuana to Schedule III would, according to reporting from The Hill, “allow marijuana businesses to deduct expenses or add credits to their annual federal taxes,” which is currently not permitted for businesses that deal with Schedule I and Schedule II substances.

The Schedule System

The Controlled Substances Act (CSA) governs federal drug policy in the United States. The CSA created the drug scheduling system, which places drugs onto five Schedules based on a drug’s potential for abuse, accepted medical uses, and the potential for addiction. Presently, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) jointly classify drugs on a I through V schedule.

According to the DEA, Schedule V drugs, substances, or chemicals are those with the lowest potential for abuse and contain limited quantities of narcotics. These drugs are typically used to treat common conditions, such as coughing and diarrhea, as well as rarer conditions like seizures. Schedule I drugs, on the other hand, are drugs, substances, or chemicals with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. This includes drugs such as LSD, ecstasy, heroin, and—presently—marijuana. In the middle are Schedule III drugs, which the DEA recognizes as having a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence. This schedule includes some pain medications with less than 90 milligrams of codeine per dose, ketamine, and anabolic steroids.

Consequences of the Move

Historically, it has been a cumbersome process to study the effects of Schedule I drugs. Under the CSA, researchers who wish to conduct research on Schedule I drugs must register with the DEA and provide the agency with information about their qualifications, research protocol, and the institutions where the research takes place. As a result, as of December 2019, fewer than 600 researchers were registered with the DEA to study any Schedule I substance. In 2018, the DEA streamlined the process by moving it online and into a web portal. The hurdles for research do not stop there. Even researchers who are registered with the DEA to research Schedule I drugs are barred from using certain sources of funding (such as any National Institute of Health grant) to fund research that requires purchasing cannabis.

As a Schedule III drug, researchers would face far fewer barriers to entering the marijuana space. This could, in turn, impact state or federal efforts to legalize the drug for medicinal or recreational use. Currently, most states have legalized marijuana in some capacity for medicinal use, with a smaller subset legalizing marijuana for recreational use. While technically still illegal at the federal level, the federal government has historically not interfered with the state-level programs. Rescheduling in and of itself would have little to no impact on existing laws that regulate workplace drug testing and safety, although again, future impacts on state or federal efforts to legalize the drug remain to be seen.

Ogletree Deakins’ Drug Testing Practice Group will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the Drug Testing blog as additional information becomes available.

This article and more information on how the Trump administration’s actions impact employers can be found on Ogletree Deakins’ Administration Resource Hub.

Follow and Subscribe
LinkedIn | Instagram | Webinars | Podcasts