President Donald Trump’s historic move to direct the reclassification of marijuana on Thursday has elicited a wave of positive feedback from top lawmakers, state officials, advocates and industry stakeholders—reflecting the uniquely bipartisan way cannabis reform has bridge political divides during an especially divisive time.
While several Democratic lawmakers have made clear that simply moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) does not go far enough, even some of Trump’s sharpest critics have generally agreed that the executive order directing the incremental reform is a step in the right direction.
The order directs the attorney general to complete a rescheduling process that was initiated under the Biden administration. The reclassification wouldn’t legalize marijuana, but it would loosen research restrictions, allow cannabis businesses to take federal tax deductions and symbolically recognize that the plant holds medical value—breaking from the federal government’s decades-long position that it is therapeutically ineffective with a high abuse potential.
The order also has implications for the hemp market, with a call to reevaluate how the crop is defined under a newly enacted spending bill that stakeholders say would ultimately eradicate the industry by banning most consumable cannabinoid products.
Here’s how people
Read full article on Marijuana Moment