As Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to battle efforts to legalize recreational marijuana, President Donald Trump on Dec. 18 signed an order to ease prohibitions on pot in federal law.
“We have people begging for me to do this, people that are in great pain,” Trump said at a signing event in the Oval Office. “For decades this action has been requested by American patients suffering from extreme pain, incurable diseases, aggressive cancers, seizure disorders, neurological problems and more.”
Trump’s executive order directs U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to speed up the process to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug. Under federal law, Schedule I drugs are completely prohibited and deemed to have no medical use. Marijuana is currently classed with heroin and LSD as a Schedule I drug.
Schedule III drugs, such as ketamine and anabolic steroids, are deemed to have less potential for addiction and dependence. The rescheduling also relaxes federal restrictions on scientific testing of marijuana and can lower taxes on marijuana companies in states that have legalized it.
DeSantis, meanwhile, has vehemently opposed the push to legalize marijuana for recreational use in Florida.
Although the first bill DeSantis signed into law in 2019 was a measure codifying medical marijuana approved by voters, he wants to draw the line there. For instance, that year he said about medical marijuana, “Voters intended for (it) to be dispensed in a way that would best benefit the patient, smoking included.”
But as the push to completely legalize the drug gained steam, DeSantis began to criticize the prospect of unfettered marijuana. In April 2024, he said, “This state will start to smell like marijuana in our cities and towns, it will reduce the quality of life.”
He was warning against Amendment 3, which would have legalized recreational marijuana. Eventually he would lead a campaign against the measure, spending millions of taxpayer dollars on purported public service announcements. About 56% of voters approved of the amendment, but it failed to get the 60% needed to become law.
Trulieve, a north Florida-based marijuana company, helped bankroll the Amendment 3 push and is trying to put a similar measure on the 2026 ballot. The company has put $24.5 million towards the effort.
But DeSantis’ administration is contesting the move, asserting that more than 200,000 of the petitions gathered by Smart and Safe Florida, the group conducting the ballot drive, were ineligible because they didn’t provide the full text of the proposal to petition signers.
A judge upheld the action after Smart and Safe Florida sued, but another lawsuit filed by the group, looking to compel state election officials to forward the proposal to the Attorney General for review.
Secretary of State Cord Byrd did so and the case was dismissed as moot. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier submitted the measure to the Florida Supreme Court to review on Dec. 17.
The group must get 880,000 valid petitions signed by Feb. 1 and the approval of the Florida Supreme Court to appear on the November 2026 ballot. The measure has 675,307 signed petitions, according to state data, although the figure is not official.
As part of his campaign against Amendment 3, DeSantis slammed Trulieve as a “Canadian company” because it has a holding company based in the United State’s northern neighbor.
That allowed it to be traded on the Canadian stock exchange, something that isn’t allowed under federal law in the U.S. It’s unclear if Trump’s executive order will change that.
Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers, a Florida resident, attended Trump’s signing ceremony.
“Trulieve is grateful for the decisive action taken by the Administration that acknowledges the medical benefits of cannabis, supports licensed and regulated operators, and allows law enforcement agencies to prosecute bad actors,” Rivers said in a statement. “We are committed to supporting the Administration throughout this process.”
Gray Rohrer is a reporter with the USA TODAY Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at grohrer@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @GrayRohrer.