In December 2025, United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for, among other things, expediting the process to reschedule cannabis from its current status as a Schedule I substance at the federal level to Schedule III. The executive order marked the most significant federal cannabis policy change since the enactment of the Controlled Substances Act over 50 years ago.

As part of implementing the order, Acting United States Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a notice of hearing on the notice of proposed rulemaking to reschedule cannabis. That notice, in turn, called for ‘every interested person’ to file a written notice of their intention to participate in the hearing. Only cannabis opponents were selected to participate. Below is the official list of participants, via the United States Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) website:

• National Drug & Alcohol Screening Association
• Tennessee Bureau of Investigation
• Smart Approaches to Marijuana
• The States of Nebraska, Idaho, Indiana, and Louisiana
• DUID Victim Voices
• Kenneth Finn, MD
• Phillip A. Drum, PharmD

“Because the rescheduling proposal originated with the DEA, the agency will serve as the proponent of the reform through the hearing. As a result, only individuals and groups opposed to rescheduling will be allowed to testify, leading many cannabis reform advocates to be skeptical of the process.” wrote A.J. Herrington for Forbes, explaining why only cannabis opponents were selected as participants.

“This is, shall we say, an abrupt about-face for the DEA, which will be arguing for the very first time in its long and not always forthright history that cannabis does, in fact, meet the requirements — established medical value and a moderate to low potential for addiction and abuse — for removal from Schedule I.” wrote the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) about the DEA serving as the proponent of rescheduling in the hearing.

Leading up to the start of the public hearing, a coalition led by Marijuana Moment sent requests to DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge Derek Julius and DEA Administrator Terrance Cole requesting that the hearing be livestreamed so that members of the public could watch the proceeding. However, that request was denied.

“While the proceedings were not livestreamed to the public in line with requests from Marijuana Moment, a congressman and others, Marijuana Moment spoke to several people who were in the room for Monday’s hearing to get a sense of how the testimony is going.” Marijuana Moment wrote in its original coverage of the hearing.

“The FDA official said the agency compared marijuana to alcohol, opioids and other substances when conducting its scheduling analysis, finding that day-to-day harms for marijuana were generally lower than all or most of those comparators.” Marijuana Moment also wrote. “Cannabis is tied to fewer overdose deaths than comparator substances, Chiapperino said, and that when marijuana is mentioned in case reports involving deaths, the fatalities are usually attributed to secondary events like accidents or self-imposed harm. Marijuana’s potential for overdose deaths is “much lower” than other Schedule I drugs as well as Schedule II opioids, the FDA official said.”

According to the DEA’s website, “the hearing will conclude not later than July 15, 2026.” The Controlled Substances Act, which was first implemented in 1971, resulted in cannabis being classified as a Schedule I substance. Schedule I substances are described by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as “drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” Conversely, Schedule III substances are described as “drugs with a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.”

The most immediate impact of cannabis being rescheduled from Schedule I to Schedule III pertains to how many state-level cannabis companies are taxed due to 280E. Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code prohibits businesses from deducting certain business expenses from gross income associated with the “trafficking” of Schedule I or II substances, as defined by the Controlled Substances Act.

Moving cannabis to Schedule III will result in state-legal cannabis businesses in the U.S. saving billions of dollars annually. Those U.S. cannabis industry tax savings can be used for any number of things, including helping companies expand their operations domestically and internationally. European markets will no doubt be a popular target for such expansions. Rescheduling will also pave the way for U.S. cannabis companies to be able to join the international medical cannabis export market.