Tuesday, December 23, 2025
PMT: Trump Does the Right Thing on Marijuana Scheduling
Last week, President Trump did something good that should have been done years ago by his predecessors: he rescheduled marijuana from being a Schedule 1 narcotic to a listing in Schedule 3.
That may sound very technical, but it has a real impact. The federal regulatory scheme lists a variety of drugs in five "schedules," with Schedule 1 containing the most dangerous drugs. Specifically, Schedule 1 is described as containing drugs that have "no accepted medical use" and a "high" potential for abuse. It includes heroin, LSD and (until now) marijuana. (Cocaine and meth, which have medical uses, are in Schedule 2).
For decades, marijuana was listed in Schedule 1 despite it being a complete fiction that it had "no currently accepted medical use." Many states voted for legal medical use beginning nearly 30 years ago, and doctors have a strong consensus that it can be affective for certain conditions. And yet no one has changed it up to now. Barack Obama should have rescheduled marijuana, but passed on the opportunity, and Biden sat on his hands as well (as did first-term Trump).
Now it is listed in Schedule 3, which contains drugs that have an accepted medical use and a potential for abuse less than those drugs in Schedules 1 and 2.
Some advocates wanted marijuana not to be scheduled at all, and that may happen eventually-- but for now, a change long overdue has occurred.
