The Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Administration announced Thursday that FDA-approved marijuana products and medical marijuana products covered by a qualifying state-issued license have been moved to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act, a significant loosening of federal restrictions on the drug for medical use.
The order, issued by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, carries out President Donald Trump’s December 18, 2025 executive order calling for expanded research into medical marijuana and cannabidiol.
Blanche invoked an unusual legal mechanism in issuing the order. The Controlled Substances Act’s standard scheduling process (21 USC § 811(b)) requires a binding scientific and medical evaluation from the Department of Health and Human Services. Blanche relied on 21 USC § 811(d)(1), which lets the Attorney General schedule a drug without those steps when necessary to meet US obligations under the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs (Single Convention).
The treaty framing is central to the order’s design. The Single Convention requires prescriptions, licensed manufacturers and distributors, production quotas, record-keeping, and import-export permits for covered drugs—constraints the order is built to satisfy. Accordingly, the covered products are also added to the list of substances requiring a permit for import or export.
Perhaps most consequential for the state-regulated industry, the order establishes an expedited federal registration process under 21 CFR Part 1301 for entities that already hold state medical marijuana licenses, allowing them to manufacture, distribute, or dispense under federal law without navigating the standard registration track.
“This rescheduling action allows for research on the safety and efficacy of this substance, ultimately providing patients with better care and doctors with more reliable information,” Blanche said.
Separately, the DEA will hold a new administrative hearing beginning June 29 on broader rescheduling of marijuana itself from Schedule I to Schedule III. The agency is withdrawing the August 2024 notice of hearing issued under the Biden administration and terminating those proceedings, with a fresh notice to be published in the Federal Register.
Marijuana has been classified as Schedule I—the most restrictive category, reserved for substances deemed to have no accepted medical use—since the Controlled Substances Act took effect in 1971, despite a rule-making proposal issued under the administration of former President Joe Biden in 2024 that would have rescheduled it. Schedule III substances include ketamine and anabolic steroids.
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