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President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order as soon as Wednesday that would reclassify cannabis under federal law—a move that would mark the most significant shift in federal cannabis policy in decades. According to senior administration officials who spoke with CNN, the order would move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act. Schedule I drugs are defined by the Drug Enforcement Administration as having “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” Schedule III substances, by contrast, are considered to have “a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.” Immigrant workers trim cannabis flowers at the Loving Kindness Farms in Gardena, California in April 2019. The shift would pull cannabis out of the same legal category as heroin and LSD, easing restrictions that have slowed serious medical studies for decades. Reclassification would also give the Food and Drug Administration greater latitude to evaluate cannabis as a treatment, potentially expanding its use as a pharmaceutical for patients like seniors and veterans. According to ABC News, the executive order is expected to acknowledge that the decades-long delay in rescheduling cannabis has not served Americans who could benefit from medical applications, particularly for chronic pain and other conditions. Still, the White House has been careful to stress that the move would not legalize cannabis nationwide. Instead, it would argue that the current classification has actively impeded research into the drug’s safety and efficacy. NBC News reports that the order would likely direct either the DEA administrator or Attorney General Pam Bondi to complete the formal rescheduling process and publish a final rule. That process began under the Biden administration in 2024 but has been stalled for administrative reasons since early this year. Timing remains fluid. One White House official told CNN that the signing was planned for Thursday, though ABC reports it could happen as soon as Wednesday. Trump himself previewed the move Monday, telling reporters that reclassification is under serious consideration. “We are considering that because a lot of people want to see it—the reclassification, because it leads to tremendous amounts of research that can’t be done unless you reclassify,” he said. “So we are looking at that very strongly.” The draft order could also go further. Two sources told NBC that it could include a directive urging Congress to pass the SAFER Banking Act, bipartisan legislation that would allow legal cannabis businesses to access banks and financial institutions without fear of federal prosecution. Another potential provision would instruct the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to explore reimbursement for CBD products. President Donald Trump and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz stand beside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a press conference. The push follows a series of meetings inside the White House, including a session last week in which Trump hosted cannabis industry executives. Other discussions included FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz. Trump has been signaling openness to reform for some time. During the 2024 campaign, he pledged to “unlock the medical uses of marijuana.” That same year, he broke with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by supporting a state ballot initiative to legalize recreational cannabis, which ultimately failed. Privately, administration officials have spent much of 2025 studying how to proceed with rescheduling. But the move carries political risk. Some MAGA-aligned conservatives have warned that loosening federal restrictions would invite social disorder. Over the weekend, The Daily Signal argued that rescheduling cannabis was “a very bad idea,” with contributor Paul J. Larkin writing that “the cannabis plant is not a ‘safe’ drug.” Skepticism has also come from the left. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon has pushed for broader decriminalization, but now he’s criticizing the expected order as insufficient, calling it “an attempt to boost [Trump’s] pathetic approval ratings.” “Trump will try to gaslight everyone into believing he just made pot legal. Wrong,” Wyden wrote on X. “He has not decriminalized cannabis or expunged the records of black and Latino Americans stuck in prison for minor drug offenses.” Indeed, thousands of Americans remain incarcerated for low-level cannabis offenses. And yet, public opinion has moved decisively. A November Gallup poll found that 64% of U.S. adults support legalizing marijuana—far beyond what Trump’s order would accomplish. A cartoon by Drew Sheneman. Complicating matters further, Trump signed a provision last month cracking down on low-THC hemp-derived products sold nationwide, even in states without legal recreational cannabis—a reminder of how uneven and contradictory federal policy remains. CNN reports that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles previously asked agencies to weigh in on rescheduling, with their responses compiled by the Domestic Policy Council and delivered to her over the summer. A more than two-hour Oval Office meeting on Dec. 9 revisited the issue, though no final decision was made. Trump appears ready to press ahead anyway, even if it irritates parts of his base. The payoff, if it comes, would be incremental—fewer barriers for researchers, and some relief for patients who have spent years caught between state laws and federal prohibition. But whether that adds up to a real shift in cannabis policy or simply a change in labels with limited practical effect is the question the administration now has to answer
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order as soon as Wednesday that would reclassify cannabis under federal law—a move that would mark the most significant shift in federal cannabis policy in decades. According to senior administration officials who spoke with CNN, the order would move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act. Schedule I drugs are defined by the Drug Enforcement Administration as having “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” Schedule III substances, by contrast, are considered to have “a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.” Immigrant workers trim cannabis flowers at the Loving Kindness Farms in Gardena, California in April 2019. The shift would pull cannabis out of the same legal category as heroin and LSD, easing restrictions that have slowed serious medical studies for decades. Reclassification would also give the Food and Drug Administration greater latitude to evaluate cannabis as a treatment, potentially expanding its use as a pharmaceutical for patients like seniors and veterans. According to ABC News, the executive order is expected to acknowledge that the decades-long delay in rescheduling cannabis has not served Americans who could benefit from medical applications, particularly for chronic pain and other conditions. Still, the White House has been careful to stress that the move would not legalize cannabis nationwide. Instead, it would argue that the current classification has actively impeded research into the drug’s safety and efficacy. NBC News reports that the order would likely direct either the DEA administrator or Attorney General Pam Bondi to complete the formal rescheduling process and publish a final rule. That process began under the Biden administration in 2024 but has been stalled for administrative reasons since early this year. Timing remains fluid. One White House official told CNN that the signing was planned for Thursday, though ABC reports it could happen as soon as Wednesday. Trump himself previewed the move Monday, telling reporters that reclassification is under serious consideration. “We are considering that because a lot of people want to see it—the reclassification, because it leads to tremendous amounts of research that can’t be done unless you reclassify,” he said. “So we are looking at that very strongly.” The draft order could also go further. Two sources told NBC that it could include a directive urging Congress to pass the SAFER Banking Act, bipartisan legislation that would allow legal cannabis businesses to access banks and financial institutions without fear of federal prosecution. Another potential provision would instruct the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to explore reimbursement for CBD products. President Donald Trump and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz stand beside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during a press conference. The push follows a series of meetings inside the White House, including a session last week in which Trump hosted cannabis industry executives. Other discussions included FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz. Trump has been signaling openness to reform for some time. During the 2024 campaign, he pledged to “unlock the medical uses of marijuana.” That same year, he broke with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by supporting a state ballot initiative to legalize recreational cannabis, which ultimately failed. Privately, administration officials have spent much of 2025 studying how to proceed with rescheduling. But the move carries political risk. Some MAGA-aligned conservatives have warned that loosening federal restrictions would invite social disorder. Over the weekend, The Daily Signal argued that rescheduling cannabis was “a very bad idea,” with contributor Paul J. Larkin writing that “the cannabis plant is not a ‘safe’ drug.” Skepticism has also come from the left. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon has pushed for broader decriminalization, but now he’s criticizing the expected order as insufficient, calling it “an attempt to boost [Trump’s] pathetic approval ratings.” “Trump will try to gaslight everyone into believing he just made pot legal. Wrong,” Wyden wrote on X. “He has not decriminalized cannabis or expunged the records of black and Latino Americans stuck in prison for minor drug offenses.” Indeed, thousands of Americans remain incarcerated for low-level cannabis offenses. And yet, public opinion has moved decisively. A November Gallup poll found that 64% of U.S. adults support legalizing marijuana—far beyond what Trump’s order would accomplish. A cartoon by Drew Sheneman. Complicating matters further, Trump signed a provision last month cracking down on low-THC hemp-derived products sold nationwide, even in states without legal recreational cannabis—a reminder of how uneven and contradictory federal policy remains. CNN reports that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles previously asked agencies to weigh in on rescheduling, with their responses compiled by the Domestic Policy Council and delivered to her over the summer. A more than two-hour Oval Office meeting on Dec. 9 revisited the issue, though no final decision was made. Trump appears ready to press ahead anyway, even if it irritates parts of his base. The payoff, if it comes, would be incremental—fewer barriers for researchers, and some relief for patients who have spent years caught between state laws and federal prohibition. But whether that adds up to a real shift in cannabis policy or simply a change in labels with limited practical effect is the question the administration now has to answer
Daily Kos
Trump likely to piss off MAGA buds with new cannabis order
President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order as soon as Wednesday that would reclassify cannabis under federal law—a move that w...
The unemployment rate rose to 4.6%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Tuesday, the highest level since September 2021 when the economy was still recovering from massive COVID-19 job losses. The 4.6% unemployment rate is higher than the 4.5% the Federal Reserve Bank predicted it would peak at this year, and marks yet another troubling sign for the economy that President Donald Trump has crippled with his nonsensical tariffs. “Con job president” by Clay Jones The unemployment rate is worse for specific subsets of the population. Black workers have an 8.3% unemployment rate—a whopping 2 percentage point increase since January, when Trump entered office. Roughly 800,000 fewer Black workers were employed in November than they were in November a year prior. Ultimately, the economy added just 64,000 jobs since September. However, the economy lost 105,000 jobs one month prior, meaning job growth was actually negative over the last two months. “The US economy is in a hiring recession,” Heather Long, chief economist at the Navy Federal Credit Union, wrote in a post on X. “Almost no jobs have been added since April. Wage gains are slowing. 710,000 more people are unemployed now versus November 2024.” Long blamed the hiring recession on “a combination of tariff impacts, AI, and cost cutting.Americans are feeling it.” Even worse is that the BLS said nearly 1 million people are underemployed, working part-time jobs for economic reasons because they cannot find full-time work. With a jobs report like this, it's no wonder Americans have negative feelings about the economy. Layoffs have picked up in recent months, as companies contract due in part to Trump’s tariffs and the economic uncertainty they’ve unleashed. And prices are continuing to trend up, no matter how much Trump wants to claim that he’s brought costs down. Related | Trump says his economy is perfect, facts be damned It’s why Trump’s approval rating has plummeted over the past month, with voters voicing their discontent in a series of elections in which Democrats vastly overperformed their 2024 margins and even flipped seats that had been long held by the GOP. Republicans have begged Trump to take the economic concerns seriously. However, Trump has not heeded their calls, instead telling Americans they should simply buy fewer items if they can’t afford them. “You can give up certain products. You can give up pencils. That’s under the China policy, you know every child can get 37 pencils—they only need one or two, you know they don’t need that many,” Trump said, adding, “You don’t need 37 dolls for your daughter, two or three is nice, but you don’t need 37 dolls.”
