Trump's Marijuana Order Vindicates Longstanding Criticism of the Plant's Legal ClassificationIn addition to its symbolic significance, rescheduling the drug will facilitate research and provide tax relief to state-licensed cannabis suppliers.
Jacob Sullum | 12.24.2025
Nearly four decades ago, Francis Young, chief administrative law judge at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), concluded that marijuana did not belong in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the law's most restrictive category. Although Young was ultimately overruled by DEA Administrator John Lawn, he was belatedly vindicated last week, when President Donald Trump ordered the "expeditious" reclassification of marijuana.
Under Trump's executive order, marijuana will be moved from Schedule I, which includes banned substances such as heroin, LSD, and MDMA, to Schedule III, which includes prescription drugs such as ketamine, anabolic steroids, and Tylenol with codeine. While that move falls far short of legalization, it implicitly acknowledges that the federal government has been exaggerating marijuana's hazards and ignoring its potential benefits for more than half a century.
Marijuana has been listed in Schedule I, which supposedly is reserved for especially dangerous drugs with a high abuse potential and no accepted medical applications, since 1970. The DEA has repeatedly rejected petitions asking it to reconsider that classification, including the one that resulted in Young's 1988 decision, which followed 16 years of litigation.
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Source:
https://reason.com/2025/12/24/trumps-marijuana-order-vindicates-longstanding-criticism-of-its-legal-classification/
