President Donald Trump campaigned on supporting marijuana reform, making history as the first major party nominee to back cannabis legalization alongside his Democratic opponent. But four months into his presidency, the federal rescheduling process remains frozen with no action from his administration to revive it.
The Drug Enforcement Administration’s effort to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act has been indefinitely stalled since January 21, when procedural appeals halted hearings that were expected to conclude the most significant federal cannabis policy shift in decades.
A 90-day status update filed in April revealed Trump’s acting DEA administrator has failed to set a briefing schedule to resolve the appeal, effectively leaving the process in limbo despite the president’s campaign rhetoric supporting reform.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump voiced support for marijuana rescheduling and backed Florida’s adult-use cannabis ballot initiative. The historic alignment between Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris on cannabis policy led advocates to believe federal reform was inevitable regardless of the election outcome.
“The debate around this is over with both leading presidential candidates embracing rescheduling — the policy and the politics are aligned; it’s now only a matter of time,” David Culver of the US Cannabis Council said before the election.
But Trump’s administration now has the power to withdraw the Biden-era proposal entirely before any final rule is published, according to administrative law experts. His DEA nominee Terry Cole, a veteran law enforcement official, has not stated his position on cannabis policy.
Related: Acting DEA Chief Says Cannabis Review Is Not Dead—Yet—as Successor Looms
The rescheduling effort began in May 2024 when the Justice Department proposed the change following a Department of Health and Human Services review finding marijuana has “currently accepted medical use” and relatively low abuse potential.
However, the process became mired in allegations that the DEA rigged participant selection to favor rescheduling opponents. Court documents show the agency considered 163 applicants but selected only 25, with critics alleging improper communications with anti-rescheduling groups.
When the DEA submitted its own evidence supposedly supporting rescheduling, the documentation argued marijuana had no medical value—contradicting the HHS recommendation and raising questions about the agency’s commitment to reform.
DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge John Mulrooney granted an appeal of his decision not to remove the DEA from overseeing the process, calling allegations of agency bias evidence of “puzzling and grotesque lack of understanding” if proven true.
Cannabis industry leaders who celebrated Trump’s campaign promises now face uncertainty about whether his administration will follow through. Rescheduling would provide tax relief to state-legal cannabis businesses and ease research restrictions, though marijuana would remain federally illegal.
Paul Armentano of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) said administrative challenges to marijuana’s Schedule I status historically “take years to resolve.”
Cannabis currently is classified alongside heroin as having no accepted medical use, a designation that federal health agencies now dispute but Trump’s administration has yet to change.
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3 Responses
Can we join the 21st century? Get marijuana rescheduled and stop denying our right to buy and use adult recreational marijuana when we want how we want and where we want this valuable medicine beats alcohol, pharmaceuticals, and definitely street drugs get off your duffs and listen!
So President Trump told a big lie about rescheduling cannabis just to gain votes
, that figures ! But it’s the political way to
Tell a bunch of lies to gain votes.
I understand that there are a lot more
important issue on the table than cannabis
but it is something the president campaigned
On and that had a lot to do with why I voted for
Trump and I feel I still made the right decision
but he still lied about it just like 80% of all politicians in my opinion lie about a lot of things
Just to gain votes well I’m sick to death of
all the lies !
When I was a kid I road my bicycle to my local
grocery store and I stold two pieces of two cent
bubble gum, the store owner saw me do it but did not confront me about it and he knew my dad so he called my dad what I had done and when I got home my dad ask me if I had anything I wanted to tell him and I said no why and he said the store owner had called him and told him what I did and I LIED and said I didn’t still the gum and that was the worst whopping I ever got then he gave me a nickel to go pay the grocer for the gum I stole.
Moral of my story is I never lied again and now
I’m sixty years old and I have never forgotten that whopping and I never LIED AGAIN !
You can tell how a person was raised by their actions and who grew up on the gravey train
and who didn’t.
I just wish we could luck up and get honest people in our government…
RESCHEDULE AND DO THE CORRECT THING .LIES OUTTA WASHINGTON DC AREN’T CUTTING IT ANYMORE. JUST THINK HOW MUCH MONEY THE CARTEL MAKES PER YEAR DISTRIBUTING ALL DRUGS TO THE USA. WE COULD TAKE CANNABIS AWAY FROM CARTELS AND RESCHEDULE CANNABIS.