{"id":621891,"date":"2026-04-22T21:33:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/621891\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T21:33:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:33:16","slug":"trump-administration-ready-to-move-ahead-on-marijuana-rescheduling-four-months-after-presidents-executive-order-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/621891\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Administration Ready To Move Ahead On Marijuana Rescheduling, Four Months After President’s Executive Order, Report Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration is reportedly ready to move ahead with marijuana rescheduling.<\/p>\n

More than four months after President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the attorney general to expeditiously finish the process of moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the administration may be finally prepared to move forward.<\/p>\n

Citing an administration official familiar with the matter, Axios reported<\/a> that action could come as soon as Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post added that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is planning to announce a new administrative hearing on cannabis rescheduling, citing two sources.<\/p>\n

Early last year, a DEA administrative law judge canceled a prior hearing process on marijuana rescheduling<\/a> amid litigation from pro-reform parties that alleged improper agency communications and witness selection decisions.<\/p>\n

The Post\u2019s sources cautioned<\/a> that the administration\u2019s current rescheduling plans could change ahead of an official announcement.<\/p>\n

A White House official told Marijuana Moment on Wednesday that \u201cthe administration continues to expeditiously implement President Trump\u2019s December executive order to increase medical marijuana research to close the gap between current medical marijuana use and medical knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

The official referred questions about \u201cspecifics related to possible reclassification\u201d to the Department of Justice, but a spokesperson there was not immediately available.<\/p>\n

Rescheduling wouldn\u2019t federally legalize cannabis, but it would remove certain Schedule I research barriers, while benefitting state-licensed marijuana businesses by allowing them to take federal tax deductions they\u2019re currently barred from under an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code known as 280E.<\/p>\n

There has been some uncertainty about how the Department of Justice (DOJ) will navigate the issue. While the department faced a mandate from the president, top officials have been notably silent on the issue in the months since receiving that directive\u2014even as the White House touted Trump\u2019s order as an example of a policy achievement<\/a>\u00a0during the first year of his second term.<\/p>\n

Trump himself complained last weekend that federal officials were \u201cslow-walking\u201d following through on his cannabis order<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to get the rescheduling done, right, please? Will you get the rescheduling done, please?\u201d Trump said during a signing ceremony for a separate order on psychedelics<\/a>, seeming to speak to a Department of Justice or White House official during an event in the Oval Office on Saturday. \u201cYou know, they\u2019re slow-walking me on rescheduling. You\u2019re going to get it done, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

A Justice Department spokesperson told Marijuana Moment in January that they had no \u201ccomment or updates\u201d<\/a> to share on the topic. However, an agency official more recently said that DOJ was \u201cworking to identify the most expeditious means of executing the EO.\u201d<\/p>\n

That phrasing was notable, signaling that the department was uncertain about the administrative pathway to finalize rescheduling. The hope among advocates and industry stakeholders was that the process would be more simple, with a final signature on the existing reform proposal that was released following a scientific review initiated under the prior Biden administration.<\/p>\n

When Trump issued the rescheduling order late last year, Pam Bondi was attorney general. She opposed cannabis reform as Florida\u2019s attorney general and she didn\u2019t attend the president\u2019s signing ceremony for the rescheduling executive order.<\/p>\n

Now, the process is being overseen by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who said in response to a written question about marijuana rescheduling<\/a> during his confirmation process to become deputy attorney general that he would \u201cgive the matter careful consideration after conferring with all relevant stakeholders, including DEA personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n

DEA and reform proponents earlier this month submitted a joint status report on an interlocutory appeal<\/a> that concerns allegations of agency bias and improper communications with anti-rescheduling parties during the review process on the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo date, Movants\u2019 interlocutory appeal to the Administrator regarding their Motion to Reconsider remains pending with the Administrator,\u201d the filing from attorneys representing DEA and cannabis reform proponents challenging the process says. \u201cNo briefing schedule has been set.\u201d<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s rescheduling directive was overwhelmingly popular among cannabis consumers<\/a>, according to a recent poll from the cannabis telehealth platform NuggMD.<\/p>\n

About 83 percent of respondents said they support the executive order, compared to 7 percent who expressed opposition and 10 percent who said they didn\u2019t have an opinion about the proposed reform.<\/p>\n

Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Trump\u2019s first pick for attorney general this term who ultimately withdrew his nomination, recently raised eyebrows after posting on X that he\u2019s been told that DEA is actively drafting a rescheduling rule and intended to issue it \u201cASAP.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

There was some confusion around that point, however, as a rule was already pending before the Justice Department\u2014and a new rule would have presumably been subject to additional administrative review and public comment.<\/p>\n

A Democratic senator told Marijuana Moment in January that it\u2019s \u201ctoo early to tell\u201d what the implications of Trump\u2019s cannabis order would be<\/a>\u2014saying that while there are \u201cthings that look promising\u201d about it, he is \u201cvery concerned about where the DOJ will land.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ability of the Trump administration to speak out of both sides of their mouth is staggering,\u201d Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) said. \u201cSo I\u2019m just going to wait and see right now. Obviously, there\u2019s things that look promising\u2014to end generations of injustice. I really want to wait and see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014
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\u2014<\/p>\n

Also in January, two GOP senators filed an amendment to block the Trump administration from rescheduling cannabis<\/a>, but it was not considered on the floor.<\/p>\n

A recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report discussed how DOJ could, in theory,\u00a0reject the president\u2019s directive or delay the process by restarting the scientific review into marijuana<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Department of Justice separately missed a congressionally mandated deadline in January to issue guidelines for easing barriers to research on Schedule I substances such as marijuana and psychedelics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Marijuana Moment is made possible with support from readers. If you rely on our cannabis advocacy journalism to stay informed, please consider a monthly Patreon pledge.<\/p>\n

\"Become<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration is reportedly ready to move ahead with marijuana rescheduling. More than four months after President…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-621891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-featured"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}