Marijuana is Lowered to Schedule 3 in the US as Fentanyl is Declared a WMD

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President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to expedite the reclassification of marijuana – an effort to increase research on its medical use but not fully legalize it.

“This reclassification order will make it far easier to conduct marijuana-related medical research, allowing us to study benefits, potential dangers and future treatments,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “It’s going to have a tremendously positive impact.”

The order — which directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to hasten the process of loosening federal restrictions but does not include a timeline — comes after an intensive lobbying campaign from the cannabis industry.

“I’ve never been inundated by so many people as I have about this particular reclassification,” Trump said.

Earlier in the week, President Donald Trump designated fentanyl as a "Weapon of Mass Destruction." It provides not only the DEA but also the Department of War nee Defense more tools to combat the synthetic opioid.

"The designation is giving us more tools," Terry Cole, the administrator of the DEA, told ABC News. "It's opening up the aperture to treat this really, you know, continuous poison that's coming to the United States as a weapon of mass destruction."

The executive order signed by the president this week gives "instruction to the Attorney General, to the State Department, to the Department of War, to all work together to combat this poison that is coming to our country," Cole said.

Mexican drug cartels, he said, "never sleep," and defending people from fentanyl is a matter of national security.

"Right now, they are plotting, they are manufacturing, they are getting ready to distribute and transport thousands of pounds of methamphetamine, of cocaine, of fentanyl, to the United States to poison our citizens," he said.

The executive order signed by the president allows for more resources to be thrown at countering the flow of fentanyl.

Cole calls the Mexican drug cartels "designated terrorists," echoing the administration's phrasing about the cartels.

"When we talk about the epidemic that they have caused in this country, the loss of lives, it is unparamount, the amount of destruction that they have caused in this country, and we are going to treat them exactly like they are designated terrorists. They're killing our citizens," he said.

Cole, who was interviewed on Wednesday, was also asked about the Trump administration's policy on rescheduling of marijuana, but he said he couldn't comment on it because the agency is still in the "deliberation process."

The following day, Trump signed an executive order reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I drug, the most restrictive federal category that includes heroin and LSD, to a Schedule III drug, putting it in the same group as common prescription painkillers such as Tylenol with codeine.

Cannabis Reclassified

Cannabis is currently considered a Schedule 1 drug, along with heroin, LSD and ecstasy, which are not considered to have any acceptable medical use, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. It will eventually be reclassified as a Schedule 3 drug, which, according to the DEA, have “a moderate to low potential for physical and psychological dependence.”

“The facts compel the federal government to recognize that marijuana can be legitimate in terms of medical applications when carefully administered. In some cases, this may include the use as a substitute for addictive and potentially lethal opioid painkillers,” Trump said, calling the move “common sense.”

Trump’s action does not federally legalize marijuana, though the drug is already legal in several states. The order does not affect recreational marijuana and does not include any criminal justice changes.

CBD & Hemp Updates

It also calls on the White House to work with Congress to “update the statutory definition of final hemp-derived cannabinoid products” after the latest government funding legislation restricted products with more than 0.4 milligrams of THC per milligram.

That’s welcome news for advocates of CBD, as well as hemp farmers, business owners and some patients who rely on CBD and were sounding the alarm after the provision passed.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, on Thursday also announced a new model to unlock funding for CBD for some seniors — an initiative championed by Trump’s longtime friend Howard Kessler, an advocate for expanded medical cannabis access.

“The innovation center models are going to allow millions of Americans on Medicare to become eligible to receive CBD as early as April of next year and at no charge, if their doctors recommend them,” Oz said in the Oval Office.

But Trump’s directive stoked optimism for advocates of CBD, who were left scrambling last month when Congress passed the measure that would effectively ban CBD products that many Americans use to treat epilepsy, pain and PTSD.

Paige Figi, who treated her severely epileptic daughter with CBD and now lobbies policymakers as the executive director of the Coalition for Access Now, was set to join Trump during his White House announcement.

Jonathan Miller, the general counsel of the US Hemp Roundtable, told CNN that the language in the order “makes clear that the THC limits within the appropriations bill are far too low.”

Cannabis Industry Reacts

Thursday’s order was welcomed by the cannabis industry, which spent heavily to influence Trump on the issue. But industry leaders cautioned that barriers remain.

“We’ve been operating with both hands tied behind our back,” Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers told CNN. “And now it’ll only be one hand tied behind our back.”

Critics, meanwhile, raised the alarm that reclassifying marijuana will send a signal that it’s safer than it is.

Trump has spent much of the year mulling how to reclassify marijuana after first declaring his support for changing federal marijuana policy in the 2024 presidential race amid an aggressive courtship of younger voters.

But privately, administration officials have been divided on how to approach marijuana policy changes, as CNN previously reported. Marijuana reform, for example, was notably absent from a list of priorities issued by DEA Administrator Terrance Cole this summer.

The DEA has historically rejected bids to reschedule marijuana, arguing that its medical benefits have not been proven. President Joe Biden in 2022 directed federal agencies to review its classification, leading health officials to recommend Schedule 3 status.

DEA proposed that move in May 2024, but action stalled after that.

A Step Forward for Drug Research

The order is a symbolic first step for drug research, scientists and policy experts told CNN. But the red tape around growing the plant, studying its uses or starting a legitimate marijuana business, remains.

“The assumption is that marijuana is going to be treated like every other Schedule 3 drug, but there are lots of reasons why we should suspect that it won’t be,” said Cat Packer, a lawyer with the Drug Policy Alliance who led Los Angeles’ cannabis regulation program. “The reality is that we don’t know how cannabis is going to be enforced under this new regime.”

While Schedule 3 technically means a doctor could medically prescribe a drug, that also is a legal gray zone for marijuana. Doctors can only legally prescribe drugs that are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.

“Once it becomes Schedule 3, it becomes something prescribable – but how do doctors know what to do with this?” said Sue Sisley, who leads the Scottsdale Research Institute’s studies on marijuana and psychedelics.

“Doctors are going to have a real struggle to figure out how to help their patients,” said Sisley. “But they’re going to have a lot of patients approaching them now about it because of this new status.”

A recent study by researchers at UC San Francisco determined that eating edible cannabis, such as gummies, has the same cardiovascular risk as smoking marijuana for long-term users. The risk stems from reduced blood vessel function, according to the study, published in JAMA Cardiology May 28.

Critics React

“It’s not grounded in anything other than greed, because this is going to allow massive tax breaks for the industry and it’s going to allow them to become more profitable and commercialized,” said Kevin Sabet, president at Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM).

“What it won’t do is legalize marijuana, but it is going to send a very powerful message to, especially to youth, that marijuana is less harmful than once thought,” Sabet added, arguing that’s not the case.

Asked to respond to some Republicans on the Hill who’ve been critical of reclassification, Trump invoked Kessler, a leukemia survivor, and other friends who he said have reached out to him on the issue.

What it Means for Cannabis Businesses

In private conversations, Trump has repeatedly said that marijuana should not be subject to the same federal restrictions as heroin and has pointed to the industry’s potential to create jobs, according to Rivers.

“Millions of Americans rely on clean, tested product and if we were not able to stay in business, the void would be filled by illicit cartels,” she told CNN on Thursday. “The president recognizes that as well.”

But some cannabis retailers and researchers warned that it was only a first step toward legitimizing the industry. Congress has not passed legislation that would allow cannabis businesses to use banks and other financial services, and the industry has advocated for changes to the federal tax code.

Under Schedule 1 classification, cannabis businesses aren’t able to “deduct normal business expenses the way that any other small business would be able to,” explained Adam Hoffer, director of excise tax policy at the Tax Foundation. That was “enough to make a huge portion of cannabis businesses unprofitable,” he added.

Fentanyl Declared a Weapon of Mass Destruction

“Today I’m taking one more step to protect Americans from the scourge of deadly fentanyl flooding into our country with this historic executive order,” he said in​ the Oval Office, adding, “No bomb does what this is doing.”

His announcement came as he was honoring US service members with medals “for their central role in the protection of our border.”

"As President of the United States, my highest duty is the defense of the country and its citizens. Accordingly, I hereby designate illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemicals as Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).

Illicit fentanyl is closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic. Two milligrams, an almost undetectable trace amount equivalent to 10 to 15 grains of table salt, constitutes a lethal dose. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from fentanyl overdoses.

Core precursor chemicals that create illicit fentanyl and its analogues, such as Piperidone or other Piperidone-based substances."

The order casts the manufacturing and distribution of fentanyl as a threat to national security.

Targeting CJNG & Sinaloa Cartels

"The manufacture and distribution of fentanyl, primarily performed by organized criminal networks, threatens our national security and fuels lawlessness in our hemisphere and at our borders. The production and sale of fentanyl by Foreign Terrorist Organizations and cartels fund these entities’ operations which include assassinations, terrorist acts, and insurgencies around the world and allow these entities to erode our domestic security and the well-being of our Nation. 

The two cartels that are predominantly responsible for the distribution of fentanyl in the United States engage in armed conflict over territory and to protect their operations, resulting in large-scale violence and death that go beyond the immediate threat of fentanyl itself. Further, the potential for fentanyl to be weaponized for concentrated, large-scale terror attacks by organized adversaries is a serious threat to the United States."

What it Means for Law Enforcement

The order which claims “illicit fentanyl is closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic” directs Attorney General Pam Bondi to “immediately pursue investigations and prosecutions into fentanyl trafficking.” It also directs Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to “pursue appropriate actions against relevant assets and financial institutions in accordance with applicable law for those involved in or supporting the manufacture, distribution, and sale of illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemicals.”

US law already makes it a crime to use, threaten or attempt to use weapons of mass destruction an offense that carries a possible death sentence, depending on the circumstances. The law also offers a definition for weapons of mass destruction that includes “any weapon involving a biological agent, toxin, or vector.”

But Trump can’t change US law via executive order, and one former federal prosecutor specializing in national security matters questioned whether it would have any impact.

Dennis Fitzpatrick, a former national security attorney with the Eastern District of Virginia, labeled the move as a “political exercise,” arguing it will make it “more difficult” for agents and prosecutors to work under existing drug-trafficking statutes.

“We already have statutes on the books that are tested, that prosecutors and agents are accustomed to working with, and they’re very clear, and they accomplish the same goals,” Fitzpatrick told CNN. “There’s no practical reason to label fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. It’s a political exercise.”

He added that such a measure should be the purview of Congress. “It’s naked lawmaking, and this is an area where Congress has the authority, has the responsibility,” Fitzpatrick said.

Drug overdose deaths in the United States last year made an unprecedented drop to the lowest in five years, according to a federal government estimate released in May. Synthetic opioids – primarily fentanyl – continued to be involved in most overdose deaths, the data showed.

Secretary of War Powers

The Executive Order also detailed instructions to the Secretary of War and the Attorney General to determine whether the threats posed by illicit fentanyl and its impact on the United States warrant providing Department of War resources, including the Armed Forces to respond to the threat of illicit fentanyl, within the United States.

The Department of Homeland Security was also directed to identify threat networks related to fentanyl smuggling using WMD- and nonproliferation-related threat intelligence to support the full spectrum of counter-fentanyl operations.

Sources CNN, CNN, ABC, Whitehouse, Whitehouse

Categories: dea, Donald Trump, fentanyl, marijuana