In a significant shift in federal drug policy, President Donald J. Trump has signed an executive order directing his administration to accelerate medical marijuana and cannabidiol (CBD) research and to move cannabis from the strictest legal category to a less restrictive one. Announced on December 18, 2025, and outlined in a new White House fact sheet titled “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump is Increasing Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research”, the move promises to loosen decades‑old federal constraints on studying the medical uses of cannabis while stopping short of full legalization.

Image Illustration. Photo by Tomasz Zielonka on Unsplash

The executive order directs the attorney general to expedite the process of rescheduling marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act, a change that would formally acknowledge medical uses for the drug and make clinical research easier to conduct. It also instructs health agencies to build new research models, including the use of real‑world evidence, and signals a federal push to clarify the patchwork rules governing hemp‑derived CBD products.

Rescheduling Marijuana: From “No Medical Use” to Recognized Treatment

For more than half a century, marijuana has been listed as a Schedule I substance—alongside heroin and LSD—defined in federal law as having “no currently accepted medical use,” a high potential for abuse, and a lack of safety under medical supervision. The new executive order instructs the attorney general and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to complete rulemaking that would move cannabis to Schedule III, where it would sit next to drugs such as ketamine and certain codeine combinations.

The White House says the shift is rooted in a 2023 recommendation by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that marijuana be moved to Schedule III, based on evidence of medical use in state‑regulated programs and scientific reviews by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to the fact sheet, HHS determined that more than 30,000 licensed healthcare practitioners are authorized to recommend medical marijuana for over six million registered patients across at least 15 medical conditions, including anorexia associated with illness, nausea and vomiting, and various forms of pain. HHS’s recommendation and FDA’s review are summarized in the White House’s own explanation of the policy shift.

A Patchwork System: State Programs vs. Federal Law

The administration’s move comes against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving state‑level cannabis landscape. Medical marijuana is now legal in 40 states and Washington, D.C., and recreational use is permitted in 24 states, according to a December 2025 overview of U.S. cannabis laws. Yet under current federal law, these state programs still technically operate in violation of the Controlled Substances Act.

The White House fact sheet notes that 40 states plus D.C. have “State or locally‑sanctioned, regulated medical marijuana programs” and that those systems have generated a large pool of patients and providers, but federal prohibition has long constrained rigorous research on product safety, dosing, long‑term effects, and comparative effectiveness. The executive order is explicitly framed as an attempt to close the gap between widespread use and limited federal‑level evidence, directing agencies to build models that leverage “real‑world evidence” from existing medical marijuana and CBD use.

What the Executive Order Actually Does

The order, titled “Increasing Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research,” lays out several concrete directives:

• Rescheduling marijuana to Schedule III: The attorney general must “take all necessary steps” to complete the rulemaking process to reclassify marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act in an “expeditious manner.”

• Coordinating with Congress on CBD rules: The White House deputy chief of staff for legislative and political affairs is directed to work with lawmakers to update statutory definitions for hemp‑derived cannabinoid products, with the goal of allowing access to “appropriate full‑spectrum CBD products” while restricting those that pose serious health risks.

• Developing research models and standards of care: HHS, the FDA, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are ordered to design research frameworks that use real‑world evidence to evaluate hemp‑derived cannabinoid products and inform clinical standards.

According to reporting in the New York Times and summarized by outlets such as Slashdot, the order also includes a pilot program allowing limited Medicare reimbursement for CBD products, further tying the policy to the medical system rather than recreational use.

Why Research Has Been So Hard—and How This Changes It

Researchers have long described cannabis as one of the most difficult substances to study in the United States. Because Schedule I drugs are deemed to have no accepted medical use, scientists face stringent DEA registration requirements, security protocols, and sourcing limitations. Until recently, nearly all federally authorized cannabis for research had to be obtained from a single government‑contracted facility at the University of Mississippi, a bottleneck that advocates and scientists criticized as outdated and unrepresentative of products used in state markets.

Rescheduling to Schedule III would not eliminate regulation, but it should lower some barriers. Under federal rules, Schedule III substances are still controlled but can be prescribed for recognized indications and are significantly easier to study in human trials. Analysts note that this shift could lead to more FDA‑approved cannabis‑derived or cannabis‑inspired medications, building on existing approvals such as Epidiolex, a CBD‑based treatment for rare seizure disorders approved by the FDA in 2018.

The Role of CBD: Promise, Risk and Regulatory Confusion

Beyond whole‑plant marijuana, the order zeroes in on CBD, a non‑intoxicating cannabinoid that has exploded in popularity over the past decade. The 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp—cannabis with very low THC—at the federal level, but left regulators scrambling to address a flood of CBD oils, edibles and supplements marketed with varying quality and unproven health claims. The FDA has repeatedly warned companies against marketing CBD with unsubstantiated therapeutic promises and has raised concerns about liver toxicity, drug interactions and inconsistent dosing in over‑the‑counter products.

The Trump administration’s fact sheet frames CBD regulation as a key motivation for the order, arguing that the “current legal landscape leaves American patients and doctors without adequate guidance or product safeguards for CBD.” The order calls for a new federal definition of “final hemp‑derived cannabinoid products,” along with limits on THC content per serving and per container, and guidance on CBD‑to‑THC ratios—steps that could bring more uniformity to a market currently governed by a mix of state laws and largely self‑policed industry standards.

Public Opinion and Political Calculus

The order lands at a time when a majority of Americans favor some form of legalization, even as support has dipped slightly in recent years. A 2025 survey cited by the Associated Press found that 64% of adults support legalizing marijuana nationwide, down from a peak of 70% in 2023, with the decline driven largely by falling Republican support. That context may help explain why the administration is framing the move as research‑ and patient‑driven rather than an endorsement of broader legalization.

In public remarks reported by outlets including Forbes, Trump cast the decision as an act of “common sense,” saying he had received “more phone calls on this than almost anything” from patients and families dealing with extreme pain, cancer, seizure disorders and neurological conditions. At the same time, he repeatedly stressed that the order “doesn’t legalize marijuana in any way, shape or form,” underscoring a desire to distinguish medical access and research from recreational use.

Limits and Criticisms: Research Gains Without Full Reform

Advocates for broader cannabis reform are describing the executive order as historic but incomplete. Analysts interviewed by the Financial Times and other outlets say that while rescheduling may ease research and remove some tax penalties for cannabis businesses, it does not legalize state markets, address past marijuana convictions, or resolve banking barriers that keep many firms reliant on cash and high‑cost financing.

Drug policy organizations, including the Drug Policy Alliance, have argued that only full descheduling—removing marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act entirely—combined with expungement, community reinvestment and strong public‑health standards, would adequately confront the legacy of criminalization and racial disparities in enforcement. From that perspective, the Trump administration’s move is seen as an important but narrow step, focused largely on the medical and commercial dimensions of cannabis rather than the criminal‑justice implications.

What Happens Next

The executive order does not instantly change marijuana’s legal status; it triggers a regulatory process that will run through the Justice Department and the DEA, including public comment and formal rulemaking. That means federal rescheduling could take months to finalize, and the contours of CBD regulation will depend on negotiations with Congress and detailed guidance from HHS and the FDA.

If fully implemented as outlined in the White House fact sheet, the policy could usher in a new phase of cannabis science in the United States, giving researchers more flexibility to test cannabis‑based therapies, offering doctors better data on risks and benefits, and gradually bringing CBD products under clearer medical and consumer‑safety standards. Whether it also becomes a stepping stone toward broader reforms—or remains a discrete adjustment to federal drug scheduling—will depend on how Congress, regulators, industry and voters respond in the months and years ahead.