Overview
- HHS has recommended moving cannabis to Schedule III, and DOJ and the DEA have opened formal rulemaking with a potential final rule projected for mid-to-late 2026.
- President Donald Trump signed a December 2025 executive order backing rescheduling, continuing a review that began under President Joe Biden in 2022.
- In January 2026, Senators Ted Budd and James Lankford proposed an amendment to block the change, citing health risk concerns.
- A Schedule III designation would pertain to medical use only, leaving recreational marijuana federally illegal despite state-level legalization.
- Rescheduling is expected to lift IRS Section 280E limits and ease DEA barriers to research, with implications for prescriptions, pharmacy dispensing, and state markets facing new taxes such as Michigan’s 24% wholesale levy.