Trump administration formally designates marijuana a lower-risk drug

The Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration announced a joint order on Thursday redesignating certain state-regulated medical marijuana products as lower-risk drugs. FDA-approved marijuana products or marijuana products regulated with a state-issued license will now be considered a Schedule III drug, having previously been a Schedule I drug alongside heroin and LSD. The reclassification will keep marijuana as a controlled substance but recognizes legitimate medical uses.

Didn’t Trump already redesignate cannabis products last year? President Donald Trump issued an executive order to redesignate marijuana as a Schedule I drug last December. The Thursday order helped expand and carry out Trump’s decree by kicking off the administrative hearing process for a wider marijuana rescheduling and workshop on other changes to cannabis laws. As with Trump’s initial order, the new order doesn’t legalize marijuana use, but rather labels it as a lower-risk drug, like anabolic steroids or testosterone.

The DEA will hold its first administrative hearing on marijuana rescheduling on June 29, according to the DOJ’s statement. The DOJ also shared procedural updates aimed at expediting the ongoing rulemaking process to fully remove marijuana from the Schedule I list.

Dig deeper: Read my previous report on a recent study showing few benefits from medical marijuana.