Trump once more says he’s weighing reclassification of marijuana as Schedule III drug

President Donald Trump on Monday reiterated that he’s weighing whether or not to reclassify marijuana as a much less harmful drug, a press release that mirrors comparable feedback he made earlier this 12 months and through his 2024 presidential marketing campaign.

Chatting with reporters within the Oval Workplace, the president stated he was contemplating an government order to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III drug.

“We’re contemplating that. Lots of people need to see it, the reclassification, as a result of it results in great quantities of analysis that can’t be carried out until you reclassify,” Trump stated on Monday.

“So we’re taking a look at that very strongly,” he continued.

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President Donald Trump stated he’s weighing whether or not to reclassify marijuana as a much less harmful drug. (Getty Pictures / Getty Pictures)

A White Home official stated on Friday that “no last choices have been made on the rescheduling of marijuana.”

Marijuana’s present itemizing as a Schedule I substance places it in the identical class as heroin, ecstasy and peyote, implying it has a excessive potential for abuse and no presently accepted medical use. Schedule III medicine embody Tylenol combined with codeine, ketamine and testosterone.

The potential transfer to take away marijuana from the record of Schedule I managed substances and make it a Schedule III drug would make it considerably simpler to purchase and promote hashish and make the hashish trade extra worthwhile.

Rescheduling is totally different from descheduling marijuana, as federal penalties for marijuana use and possession would stay. Nonetheless, reclassification would loosen boundaries to analysis and can be a lift for the multi-billion greenback hashish trade.

The transfer might reshape the trade by doubtlessly decreasing taxes and making it simpler to safe funding.

Marijuana’s present itemizing as a Schedule I substance places it in the identical class as heroin, ecstasy and peyote. (Reuters / Reuters Images)

Earlier experiences that Trump could ease federal restrictions on the psychoactive drug boosted shares of hashish corporations.

Trump supported rescheduling the drug in the course of the presidential marketing campaign. He additionally stated in August that he was weighing whether or not to reclassify.

However Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who helps reclassification, accused Trump of trying to “gaslight” Individuals into “believing he simply made pot authorized” by making a transfer to reschedule the substance.

“Trump will attempt to gaslight everybody into believing he simply made pot authorized. Mistaken. He has not decriminalized hashish or expunged the information of black and Latino Individuals caught in jail for minor drug offenses. That is simply an try to spice up his pathetic approval rankings,” Wyden stated on X.

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President Donald Trump stated he was contemplating an government order to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III drug. (Reuters/Kent Nishimura / Reuters Images)

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The Biden administration had begun pursuing the reclassification of marijuana however didn’t enact the change earlier than the previous president left workplace.

There have additionally been a number of payments launched in Congress by Democrats and Republicans over time to both decrease the classification of marijuana to a Schedule III drug or take away it from the record of managed substances altogether. Federal lawmakers have additionally sought to decriminalize the plant.

However these measures haven’t been signed into regulation.

Greater than 40 states have legalized medical marijuana, whereas 24 states and Washington, D.C., have additionally legalized leisure marijuana.

Reuters contributed to this report.