State-Licensed Medical Marijuana Has Been Reclassified as a Less-Dangerous Drug. Here’s What That Means

The move should make it easier for researchers to study the substance and give tax breaks to licensed medical marijuana dealers

Sara Hashemi | Daily Correspondent

April 24, 2026

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The Trump administration has moved state-licensed medical marijuana to a less-restrictive drug category, per an order signed April 23 by the acting attorney general.

Since 1970, the federal government has considered it a Schedule I drug: the most tightly controlled substances, with no accepted medical uses and high abuse potential. Other drugs in the category include heroin, LSD and MDMA, or ecstasy. Bumping medical marijuana down to the lower-risk Schedule III group puts it on par with prescription medicines like ketamine, anabolic steroids and Tylenol with codeine.

The order does not legalize marijuana under federal law. It also doesn’t affect recreational marijuana. The new policy applies only to state-regulated medical marijuana and Food and Drug Administration-approved products containing marijuana.

It’ll also allow scientists to study cannabis more easily.

“This rescheduling action allows for research on the safety and efficacy of this substance, ultimately providing patients with better care and doctors with more reliable information,” says Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in a statement.

For years, scientists who studied cannabis have navigated prolonged licensing procedures and obeyed strict security measures, like storing the substance in safes attached to the floor, Staci Gruber, a Harvard Medical School psychologist who studies the effects of cannabis on the brain, tells Phie Jacobs at Science. She hopes that the rescheduling will open the door for bigger investigations into the benefits and risks of cannabis.

“It would be terrific to have more empirically sound data,” Gruber says.  

Additionally, state-licensed medical marijuana companies will be able to deduct business expenses and claim credits on their federal taxes.

“We’re talking about billions of dollars in new economic activity, tens of thousands of new jobs or just really a wind in the sail for this industry that’s really paid a very heavy tax burden for years,” says Brian Vicente, an attorney and marijuana rights advocate, to CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz, Steve Contorno and Alicia Wallace. “That would be life-changing for many, many state-legal cannabis businesses.”

However, opponents of marijuana legalization have decried the decision. While marijuana research is necessary, “there are many ways to increase our knowledge without giving a tax break to ‘Big Weed’ and sending a confusing message about marijuana’s harms to the American public,” says Kevin Sabet, chief executive of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, to the Associated Press’ Alanna Durkin Richer and Gene Johnson.

In 2023, the Biden administration attempted to reclassify marijuana. The Drug Enforcement Agency eventually agreed to loosen restrictions, but a hearing to finalize the rule never happened.

Up next for the current administration will be an expedited hearing starting in June to consider rescheduling cannabis more broadly. It “will provide a timely and legally compliant pathway to evaluate broader changes to marijuana’s status under federal law,” per the statement.

“Together, these actions provide immediate and long-term clarity to researchers, patients, and providers alike while still maintaining strict federal controls against illicit drug trafficking,” the statement continues.

The policy shift for medical marijuana regulations follows President Donald Trump’s executive order to speed up access to psychedelic medication for people with “serious mental illness,” a move that experts have called largely symbolic.

Sara Hashemi | Read More

Sara Hashemi is a science writer and fact-checker currently based in New York City. Her work has appeared in Sierra, The Body, Maisonneuve magazine and more.